# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1975_S387 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) PARISH SERVICES 387 International Television The board cooperates closely with overseas field men in the development and utilization of programming for interna- tional mission outreach through television. Perhaps most notably, “Christmas Is” is being telecast in Beirut, Lebanon, and in Caracas, Venezuela. Missionary Steve Hughey comments: Using a coordinated “media mix" during this Christmas season we reached more than 25 million people in Venezuela, the Caribbean. Colombia, Ecuador. and Bolivia with the Good News of Jesus’ birth. Highlighting the outreach was “Christmas Is.’ seen in prime time throughout Venezuela and Ecuador on the top stations. The response was excellent. In Caracas many young people and parents called requesting the Spanish comic book, to speak to Benji. and to thank us for the program. Venezuelan TV was so happy that they asked for new material for the future and offered to air Spanish “This Is the Life.” After TV. the film was also shown eight times to poor children, Christian schools, and the Venezuelan children’s orthopedic hospital. Over 5,000 children who hardly could have seen the program on television saw Benji and Waldo and received a gift—for many, one of very few Christmas gifts. “This Is the Life’ runs at 7:00 p. m. all over Holland on one of two television channels available to the Dutch population. The staff is very active in working on local programming with field missionaries and in integrating “This Is the Life’ coverage for 34 countries with our local missionary presence. New Spanish “Life” From a grant of the 125th Anniversary fund, 26 new ‘This Is the Life” “lip-syne” episodes in Spanish are being produced and will be augmented by additional episodes from 1975 grants from the LWML. The Spanish-American population is growing very rapidly, and very little religious TV programming is cur- rently available. We already have “This Is the Life” films which are perfect in concept (the most popular form of Spanish TV is the “‘Tele-Novella” or dramatic soap opera), and lip-sync into Spanish is an inexpensive process which makes the original “Life” episodes go another extra mile! After English, Spanish is the most-spoken language in the U.S.A.. and there is already an audience of over 15 million Spanish-Americans. located primarily in the Southwest and in coastal cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Antonio, Miami, and New Orleans. There are currently 30 TV cities which have Spanish TV stations, and the Spanish popu- lation is concentrated where our clergy and laity can readily follow up correspondence. In addition, there is the whole of Latin and South America as secondary placement for our Spanish product. The board is also interested in producing programs in Ca- racas, Venezuela, in cooperation with our mission there. These films would be produced by Spanish people in Spanish and would find a ready commercial market throughout Mexico and South America. We would use them in U.S. Spanish markets as secondary placement. Network Television Synod’s Public Relations Department has been developing and coordinating the free time made available by the television networks on the morning religion series “Look Up and Live.” ‘Lamp unto My Feet,” and “Directions.” Financial Priority Needed for a Vital Television Ministry The Synod at the 1969 Denver convention, the 1971 Mil- waukee convention, and again at the 1973 New Orleans con- vention, in recognition of this significant means of reaching the unchurched outside our boundaries, called for higher priority and more budget for the television ministry. Resolved. To reevaluate priorities for the expanded use of the media of mass communication in the proclamation of the Gospel. (Denver, 1969) Resolved. That the Synod allocate necessary funds to carry out its previous action at Denver “to expand the use of the media of mass communication at home and abroad.” (Milwaukee, 1971) Resolved. That the Synod express its strong interest in television as a key ministry in the mission of the church and ask its Board of Directors to give high priority and increasing budget allocation to this ministry. (New Orleans. 1973) With due respect for the fiscal dilemmas which have faced the Synod over some recent years. it is nonetheless true that your television ministry has not had the priority and budget to keep pace with its current work on “This Is the Life,” to say nothing of specials. We have been kept alive by the very gen- erous support of our cosponsor, the International Lutheran Laymen’s League. Key aspects of the television ministry such as the Benji-Waldo specials would have floundered altogether without additional heavy support from outside agencies. Vir- tually all of our work to take advantage of the growing future potential of the ministry was also funded from outside grants. AAL, LWML. CPH. ABS Grants The board deeply appreciates the understanding and the generosity of the members of AAL ($250.000 for eight episodes of “This Is the Life” on videotape, $12,000 toward a television evaluation conference, $12,000 for the development of the ‘‘Ten- sion-Point” series), the International Lutheran Women’s Mis- sionary League ($30,000 for the development of children’s tele- vision spots, $50,000 toward the production and distribution of “Easter Is,” and $18,000 toward new Spanish “This Is the Life” episodes), Concordia Publishing House ($40,000 toward the production of “Christmas Is’), The American Bible Society ($50,000 toward the Twentieth Anniversary ‘“‘“Hope for Modern Man” Bible. $10,000 toward production and distribution of the 1975 “This Is the Life’ booklets “Jesus” and “The Psalms”). Thankoffering Grant The board also calls attention to the fact that the 125th Anniversary Thankoffering provided funding in 1974 for the complete production and distribution of “The City That Forgot About Christmas” and for 26 new episodes of ‘This Is the Life” synchronized into Spanish. We thank our church: Growing LLL Support All of this support is over and above the continuing and growing contributions of our loyal cosponsor, the International Lutheran Laymen’s League. which will provide $625,000 or 62% of a reduced 1975 television budget of $1,050,000. The Synod owes its gratitude to the conviction and enthusiasm of the LLL, which has increased its support for the ministry each year. Since 1968, when the League began cosponsorship, synodical support for television has fallen from $707,216 to $425,000 in 1975, or a drop of 40°. Your television ministry began in 1951, 24 years ago, with $750.000 of synodical support. 1968 — 75 Television Ministry Support Outside Total $1,050,000 1,335,000 1,149,000 1,139,000 1,025,000 940,000 1,040,000 957,216 1234567 12 3 12345 6 ($100,000) The television ministry is in serious danger of dilution and weakness at a crucial time which requires added strength if we are to take any advantage of the growing opportunities which the medium presents for evangelism and witness. The Synod has an invaluable, irreplaceable, and very sig- nificant investment in a corporate television ministry which can function only through the people of our church banding themselves together. Parishes and individuals alone cannot produce this outreach ministry. On the basis of long mutual association and a quality product, we now have the immeasurable asset of an enviable entree to the communications media, which hold our church and its 23 years of experience in very high esteem.