# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S154
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

To. restudy the entire work in every. mission, in every congre-
gation, in the interest of efficiency and economy;

To evaluate the present-day manpower with a view of placing
' men to the best advantage; _ Po
‘To build for a national Church in the respective countries.

Manpower. — Not so long ago we battled with the problem of
having up to 400 candidates not permanently called. The war has
changed this picture. About 240 of our pastors are serving as
chaplains or as service center pastors. Hence we now have a
shortage, and this shortage is acute. There is not a Mission Board
which is not affected. Many of the Mission Boards have important
vacancies. New and important mission developments are in dire
need of pastors and teachers. At Present there is a scramble to
get missionaries at all cost. And at times ‘it seems as if little
thought is given to the question whether the removal of a given
pastor or a missionary to another field means the breaking down
. of work which during many years of consecrated effort gradually
developed. Every District, every Mission Board, every congrega~
tion, is trying its utmost to fortify its front and get the necessary
manpower,

Our Church can well be compared to a country surrounded
by many enemies. Our forces are assembled ‘at’ many fronts.
The -battle:is raging. Is it discreet on our part to remove one of
our pastors from one front (district) to’ another without even con-
‘sulting with the commanding officer in charge (the District Presi-
dent) and without giving it serious thought whether said front
can afford to lose that particular leader, whether said front. must
not be held at all'cost? As good stewards we cannot lend a hand.
to destroy the work in one field to build or Kold it in another.

' The question arises whether present regulations and the in-
formation available enable us to make a judicial distribution of
manpower. One will say: According to the Statistical Yearbook
we have so many small places with a small number of souls that
it ought not to be so difficult to decide which fields are of lesser
and which are of greater importance. If it were a matter of
arithmetic only, there would be no problem. Yet the fact is that
even a small group in a community with a rather small population
is at times located in a strategic center, which must be held and -
considered for the development of an entire area. So often a com-
munity with a small population offers.even greater mission op-
portunities than many of the populous centers. Then, too, the
‘qualification of the pastor or missionary and his leadership in his
district and circuit dare not be overlooked. .