LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1981, Page 18

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18 MISSIONS

separate “Mission Agency” operating its program apart from
the rest of the Synod.

The potential benefits and blessings of this plan are many,
both to the congregation and to the missionary. For the
congregation the word “mission” will no longer be some vague,
impersonal item in the budget. The congregation will pray ona
Sunday morning not only for all missionaries in general, but
their prayers will encircle and support a personal, identifiable
family. By being able to support a missionary family directly,
the congregation extends its ministry and outreach from the
surrounding neighborhood to the whole world. No longer will
Christ’s mandate to carry the Gospel into the whole world be
some vague, impersonal part of its responsibility, but a live.
integrated, meaningful, and exciting part of the congregation’s
program. Every member is involved in a deeply personal way
with Christ's mission to the whole world.

Then, too, the annual budget figure set by congregations for
Synod and District work will take on new meaning and life.
The urgent need to reach the 40 percent unchurched in our
country, and the administrative and support structures needed
to make that happen, will be understood. On the synodical
level, administrative and support structures, colleges and
seminaries, board and staff will be accepted as close partners
with the congregation in sending missionaries and supplying
those sent with whatever they need to do their work. A genuine
willingness to share an ever-increasing amount of congrega-
tional resources to enable all this to happen cannot help but
follow!

And the matter of the furloughing missionary visiting the
sponsoring congregations is taken care of automatically.
Scheduling would be easier to arrange, for when the missionary
family returns on furlough, they simply visit with and report to
their supporting congregations. With the present missionary
staff of 146, 1,022 congregations could be receiving regular
firsthand and up-to-date reports from mission fields all over
the world. As the number of missionaries increases, this ratio
will improve even more. The missionary family, too, will be
richly blessed in this arrangement. What comfort, encourage-
ment, and strength will be theirs, knowing that hundreds of
faithful Christians are praying for them and their work in
daily private prayers and in the worship services on Sunday.
What a faith-strengthening experience to go out into the world
not supported by a national budget but dependent entirely
upon the interest, concern, love, and support of individuals and
congregations. What a close bond of fellowship will develop
through a steady stream of person-to-person correspondence
from the missionary family to the congregation and from the
congregation to the missionary family.

We believe this is God’s plan for our church, enabling us to
move forward in His name, claiming victory after victory for
our Lord and King. We will be enabled to work aggressively
while it is day. If the resources presently budgeted for mission-
ary support are left in the mission budget of the Synod, thena
more responsible response can be given to program needs of
present and future mission fields and partner churches. With-
out hesitation we could send out new missionaries and confi-
dently walk through new doors that the Lord is opening for us
both at home and abroad. And do it now, not tomorrow or next
year! We believe this will create an excitement throughout our
membership. With one heart and mind our members will
become united in their determination to do their part in
fulfilling the Lord’s intense desire that all men everywhere
come to know and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior!

Wilbert J. Sohns, Chairman
Edward A. Westcott, Jr., Executive Secretary

Appendix I

American Indian Advisory Council Final Report
Concerning
Relationships Between Synod’s Board for Missions,
Board of Social Ministry and World Relief,
LCUSA’S Indian Desk,
and National Indian Lutheran Board

The American Indian Advisory Council (AIAS) is a com-
mittee appointed by the Board for Missions (BFM) as author-
ized by the 1979 St. Louis convention. The council serves

voluntarily in behalf of the American Indian mission programs
in the Synod. The AIAC will meet two or three times in 1981 to
consider Indian mission programs and to bring recommenda-
tions tothe BFM for implementation. The council works almost
exclusively with the BFM of the Synod and mission committee
in various synodical Districts presently engaged in Word and
Sacrament ministries. The staff person serving as coordinator
for the AIAC is Rev. Ed Schmidt, secretary for campus and
special ministries of the BFM.

In 1971 the Board of Social Ministry and World Relief
(BSM&WR), together with the BFM, entered into a cooperative
program through LCUSA to establish an Indian Services
Desk. The individual appointed to this position as executive
director (Mr. Eugene Crawford) serves all member bodies of
Lutheran Council as a consultant in Indian social ministry
and social advocacy programs. The executive director also
serves as the national staff person for the National Indian
Lutheran Board, organized in 1970.

Each of the three Lutheran bodies contributes one-third of
the annual budget ($100,000 in 1980) for the LCUSA Indian
Desk: NILB program. In addition over $200,000 is made avail-
able each year by the Lutheran bodies for selected social
ministry projects in “Indian country.” Project proposals are
submitted to the executive director of the Indian Desk of
Lutheran Council, where they are screened and, when
approved, suggested on a “funds available” basis to each of the
three Lutheran bodies for funding.

In the case of the LCMS these suggested projects are
forwarded to the synodical offices of the BBM&WR, where they
are further screened. With the assistance of the respective
District chairman of social ministry or his equivalent, projects
are further screened, evaluated, and either approved or dis-
approved by the District. Approved projects are then funded
through money contributed by the members of the Synod to
programs of LCMS World Relief. During the past several years
approximately $70,000 has been expended annually for such
projects.

In 1978 the BFM budget included $12,000 for this LCUSA
program, but because of its nature as exclusively a social
ministry program, the board eliminated the item in its 1979
budget, thereby withdrawing from further fiscal participation.
The total cost of participation in the LCUSA program is now
the fiscal responsibility of the BBM&WR. (Contributions to the
BSM&WR “Indian Concerns Sunday” offering, usually con-
ducted in March, has averaged about $20,000 over the past five
years.

Thus two Indian ministry programs now exist in the Synod,
a ‘Word and Sacrament” program initiated by the BFM as an
“outreach” ministry, and a “social services” program support-
ed by the BSM&WR. The programs work independently on
each other. Both are needed. Both are valid ministries of the
church. Both have adopted separate organizational procedures
to facilitate their programs.

However, though the American Indian Advisory Council
(AIAC) is accountable to the BFM, the 1979 St. Louis conven-
tion authorized the AJAC to work with all boards and com-
missions of the Synod, specifically also the BBM&WR:

Resolved, That this American Indian Advisory Council while being
responsible to the Board for Missions also be advisory to all other
boards and commissions which may be involved in work among the
Indians, including the Board of Social Ministry and World, Relief.
the Board for Higher Education, and the Board of Parish Education.
and that all boards and commissions before approving Indian
projects first obtain recommendations from the American Indian
Advisory Council (Res. 1-14A).

Because of the dual responsibility, therefore, for both the BFM
program and the BSM&WR program, placed upon the AIAC by
synodical Res. 1-14A (St. Louis 1979), and because of the desire
and commitment of the AIAC to effect a unified ‘Word and
Deed” Indian ministry program in the Synod, and since this is
the mandate of the Synod as stated in the American Indian
Ministry goal:

Resolved, That on the basis of the American Indian Task Force
Report, the Synod adopt as its American Indian ministry goal “more
American Indian people believing in Jesus Christ as Lord and
Savior” through a meaningful proclamation of Jesus Christ comple-
mented by a concern for and a ministry to the whole person (Res.
1-14A);