# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S156
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

156 | ; Missions

’ gentina,.a fine beginning is made; ‘but looking to the future of our

Church, to the preservation of the Gospel both in Argentina and in
Brazil, we cannot be satisfied to train a native ministry of German
descent only, but our goal must be to train a ministry also of the

‘purely Argentine and Brazilian stock. That some might be saved,

we shall change our methods, if need be. Instead of trying to
Anglo-Saxonize the people, we ought to be willing to be Latinized.
But what of other countries in South America, where we as

yet have not opened missions? What of Europe. and of countries

the world over? It must be our aim. to go whither the Lord
calls us. We must be ready to enter new countries as the Lord
creates the opportunities and provides the means. And now is
the time to prepare and to make ready. Now is the time. We dare
not postpone action. The handwriting on the wall — nationalism —
is clearly visible. The day of final Judgment is at hand.

The time is short. The training of a native ministry, the build-
ing of a national Church, is essential. Humanly speaking, there
is no other means to meet the challenge of the hour and to carry
out the Lord’s command to bring the Gospel to foreign lands and

' to preserve it there for the future generation.

To train a native ministry, we must have a staff of instructors,
at least three men, preferably pastors well qualified, good the-
ologians, pastors with practical missionary experience and’ a God- .
given passion for souls, familiar with the language of the country
in which they are to serve, men with executive ability.

To train instructors for a theological school, we must have a
graduate school, together with a language school, a school in con-
nection with and under the supervision of Concordia Seminary.
A small language school is already in operation at Concordia
Seminary, under the guidance of the faculty and missionaries
home on furlough. As yet this is a private undertaking of stu-
dents. A larger number of students are deeply interested in the
study of Chinese, Malayalam, Spanish, and Russian. A post-
graduate school for preliminary. training of foreign missions is
also in operation. The curriculum of this school includes the fol-
lowing courses: Oriental History, Missionary Methods, History

: Of Missions, and other topics.

The establishment of a language ‘school, the further develop-
ment of the postgraduate course for missionaries gives rise to the
question whether former missionaries who cannot return to their
former mission fields because of present-day. conditions or for
other reasons ought not to be retained as ‘instructors in this in-~
stitution: Is it good. stewardship on our part to release these
missionaries to perform tasks of lesser importance, tasks which