LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1981, Page 279

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PARISH SERVICES 279

days and includes actual participation in an experience along
with the training.

A Marriage Enrichment Experience gives couples with
healthy marriages the tools to live in growing Christian mar-
riages on a day-to-day basis. It also enables them to react to
crises in a positive way. Couples from all over the country
report that their marriages and their faith lives have been
strengthened after participation in a Marriage Enrichment
Experience.

Many couples express an interest in sharing the same kind
of experience with their children. The Family Enrichment
Experience provides such an opportunity. It brings together
whole families to move through a series of experiences to help
them learn to talk to each other, get along with each other, pray
together, worship together. This program also focuses on the
centrality of Christ and the Scriptures in Christian family
living.

Family Enrichment Experience training events have been
sponsored by several Districts since the first experience in
Flint, Mich., in October 1978. A goal is to have trained leaders
in every District of the Synod during the 1980s. Families that
have participated report that the program has been beneficial
to them and that they are eager to be involved in home
devotions and Bible study.

Another program that has been of benefit to many pro-
fessional church workers and their spouses is the Marriage
Education and Counseling Seminar. It was terminated in
December 1980 after being directed by Rev. E. J. Fritze for 11
years. The seminars strengthened church workers’ own mar-
riages and provided them with effective counseling tools.
Many people have reported positive results in their marriages
and ministries from having attended a seminar. A number of
pastors have done additional work in marriage and family
education and counseling after having their appetites whetted
by the seminars.

All of the family-life programs are intended not only to
improve marriage and family life but also to involve people in
congregational life and Bible study so that they may grow in
their faith. Families and couples are encouraged to reach out to
other families and couples in the church community.

Many congregations find that they cannot sponsor Ef-
fectiveness Training for Lutherans, a Marriage Enrichment
Experience, or a Family Enrichment Experience. The Family
Life Department prepares information bulletins to help par-
ishes develop their own programs. Materials published by
Concordia Publishing House are excellent resources for use in
such groups. Keeping a Good Thing Going is anexample. Itisa
marriage-enrichment manual to be used by Christian couples
over an extended period of time. It includes both Scripture
study and enrichment exercises. For those who want a Bible
study on marriage, Questions About Marriage is a six-week
course (90-minute sessions) prepared by the Board of Parish
Education and produced by Concordia Publishing House.

The Christian Parent Series is for congregations that want
family-life materials on specific topics for group discussion or
individual reflection. Eight booklets of the twelve in the series
are now available as aids to parents, professional church
workers, and counselors. Some of them are written for such
specific concerns or life stages as the birth of the first child or
being a parent of a high school youth. Others are intended for
all parents and cover such topics as discipline and worship.
Pastors, teachers, mothers’ clubs, or parent-teacher leagues
will find them to be valuable resources.

Other publications recognize the changes that are taking
place in our society and are valuable resources for ministry
with single people, young adults, older persons, divorced and
widowed people.

Contact with the congregations of Synod helps the Board of
Parish Education produce relevant programs and materials.
Close working relationships are being developed with the
education executives and the Effectiveness Training for
Lutherans, family-life-education, and adult-education consul-
tants in each District. All of these people provide a link to the
local congregation and are sources of information regarding
these needs.

The Board of Parish Education also works closely with
other boards and commissions of the Synod and the National
Lutheran Parent-Teacher League to carry out as complete a

family-life ministry as possible. For example, a family-life
event has been scheduled in the Northern Illinois District
during June 1981. This is the first time such an event has been
attempted. It is modeled after the National Parent Teacher
League conventions of past years and the successful adult
gatherings that have been held in several Districts.

The Lord has blessed the family life education efforts of The
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod through the cooperation of
boards, staffs, auxiliaries, agencies, Districts, and congre-
gations. He will continue to do so in the future.

V. Forward in Remembrance Through the Church’s
Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Schools

A. Forward... for God’s Purposes

The School Department of the Board of Parish Education
strives to be of service to parish and community agencies of
Christian education. The overall goal of the School Department
is to provide leadership for the support, communication,
upgrading, and extension of Lutheran education programs in
early childhood, elementary, and secondary schools. Thus the
department’s role is to help teachers, administrators, parish
leaders, and District leaders to go forward in education through
the church's schools.

The Synod has long been aware that the purposes of the
schools are God’s purposes. The responsibility to educate was
given by God to parents and the church. The Lutheran school
and the church go forward in remembrance, carrying out their
educational responsibilities together. The Synod’s Handbook
(7.05) states, “The most effective educational agencies avail-
able to the church for equipping God’s people for ministry are
the full-time Lutheran elementary and secondary schools.”
Congregations that have elementary schools have received a
special gift of God’s grace. The outpouring of His love is evident
among Christians who support Lutheran elementary and
secondary schools.

Additional evidence that the schools do serve God’s pur-
poses is presented by Milo Brekke’s research, Hou: Different
Are People Who Attend Lutheran Schools? (Concordia Pub-
lishing House, 1974). These data present conclusive evidence
that Lutheran schools are effective agencies that do achieve
God’s purposes. For example, the study presents evidence that
persons who have attended Lutheran schools, on the average,
have more Biblical knowledge and as adults participate more
fully in the congregation’s work. They live more under the
Gospel than under the Law and are much more sensitive to
both. They experience more personal relationships with God
and are more certain about being saved through faith in Christ
Jesus and not through works. The more years of full-time
Lutheran schooling a person has had, the more significant are
the differences. One cannot doubt that through the work ofthe
Holy Spirit Lutheran schools bring about the achievement of
God’s purposes through Christian education.

Three ‘Forward in Remembrance” points are continually
emphasized in outreach and relationship building: (1) Lutheran
schools are a mission of the church. They teach and apply
Lutheran doctrine to the lives of their pupils, provide oppor-
tunities to worship and witness, and develop Christian com-
munities of faith, concern, fellowship, and service. (2) Lutheran
teachers are engaged in a ministry of the church. They teach
the Word of God; they defend and promote the Christian faith
in the classrooms of the church and through numerous other
parish-related activities. (3) Lutheran schools provide parents
with opportunities for the free exercise of religion. By support-
ing and choosing a Lutheran school, a school that is a mission
of the church staffed by ministers of the church, many
Lutherans are exercising their religious freedom. In Lutheran
schools parents, children, and faculty cooperate to create good,
alternative forms of education for their communities.

B. Forward... for Young Children

Early childhood education programs are growing in the
congregations of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. The
1979—80 statistics revealed that 1,195 parishes operated early
childhood programs with 44,116 pupils. This is an increase of
more than 4,000 pupils since the 1978—79 statistics were
recorded.

The 1980—81 statistics, which are not yet completed, indi-