# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S157
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

‘Missions. i. 187

sthers could well’ perform? Is it good stewardship not to: make
eof the wide experience. gathered. and the God-given talents of
2ast some of these missionaries? Salaries paid these men will
sring returns an hundredfold.

,- To train a native ministry the. staff of instructors must go to
the respective country to establish the theological school: If no
nucleus of Christians is to be found, it will be the mission of the
eo staft to win the first converts, the first students for the training of

A slow process, you will say, and visionary at that. Seeing the

handwriting on the wall, but believing in the risen Savior, the Son

‘of the Almighty, implicitly trusting in the power of the Word and
His promises, we can hope to build a national Church | if. we

courageously, but in the fear of God face the issue and enter upon

a. change of policy by concentrating at the very outset. on the

aining of a native ministry. We cannot hope to meet the on-

slaught of nationalism and its implications with missionary methods

-and policies of the past.

Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures. It is

: suggested that the training of a native ministry be within the

‘respective country. The training of natives is not to be in the

United States or at Zehlendorf or in Brazil or Argentina, but in

the country in which the future. pastors and missionaries are to

serve. Think of the difficulties and the disadvantages. to’ have the

natives of given countries trained for the ministry in the United —
States, with entirely different customs and entirely different stand-
ards of. living, with entirely different aspects on life, and’ think
of the advantages of a training within their country. with whose _
customs and’ habits, language, and standard of living they are

_ fully acquainted.

Our slogan must be: For every country we enter, a.theological.
. school, a staff of theological instructors which includes one whose
principal duty it shall be to translate theological literature into .
the language of that ‘country. For every country a native ministry.
‘Too costly? Not more so than the present missionary methods.
" We fully. realize that it is the Lord who giveth the increase. But
in approximately 50 years the expenditure’ of millions of dollars,
with a staff of white missionaries comparatively larger than any
other foreign missionary organization, has not trained an adequate
_ number of native pastors and workers to continue the work if the
spirit of nationalism suddenly compelled our foreign missionaries .
’ to leave thé field.. The handwriting on the wall compels us to con~
sider what might F be done to meet the challenge of the hour.