LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 22

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22 MISSIONS, EVANGELISM, AND SOCIAL MINISTRY

Sump, Dr. Robert Mugge, Chaplain Delbert Thies, and Mr.
Patrick Hu) are gratefully acknowledged. Current members of
the board are: Rev. Walter W. Snyder, chairman; Dr. Milton
Carpenter, secretary; Rev. Simon Bodley, vice-chairman; Mr.
Lavern C. Cattau; Rev. Richard Krenzke: Mr. Norman Tice;
and Mr. Robert Schlesselman.

Through Changes in Leadership

This new board, especially during the year 1982, faced the
task of filling the position of executive secretary. Dr. Leslie F.
Weber concluded a distinguished 41-year career in social
ministry, 23 as prison and hospital chaplain in Maryland, 3 as
synodical staff member responsible for chaplaincy programs,
and 15 as executive secretary for Social Ministry. During Dr.
Weber’s career in social ministry a number of major changes
occurred: the merger of chaplaincy and world relief with the
Board for Social Ministry Services, new programs for the
aging, programs to improve housing, to combat racism, and to
rehabilitate alcohol and drug abusers.

The church needs to recognize Dr. Weber’s contributions
and leadership in social ministry particularly in this, the 115th
year of the beginning of social ministry in The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod. In midsummer of 1982 Dr. Eugene
Linse, of the faculty of Concordia College, St. Paul, Minn.,
accepted the call to succeed Dr. Weber, to carry forward—in our
Lord’s name—the ministry of Kingdom service to all those in
need.
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2 upporting Chaplaincies

Chaplaincy, particularly in institutional settings, offers
unique opportunities for social ministry service to our Lord.
More than ever before, chaplains come into contact daily and
regularly with people whose physical and spiritual needs are
very great. They minister in Word and deed. Chaplaincy today
is much more professional than in the past. Evidence for this is
the rapid growth of the Association for Clinical Pastoral
Education and special CPE training required for chaplaincy
placement in almost all agencies and institutions. At present
this professional requisite has not been incorporated into the
curricula of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod institutions
which provide for the education of LCMS clergy. The church
will benefit from early identification of those who might pursue
this special area of ministry, as well as clergy training for and
service in chaplaincy.

Through Programs Meeting Special Needs

If all of life is viewed as a continuum, then the Board for
Social Ministry Services becomes the agency uniquely able to
respond to every moment of life. During the past two years the
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod affirmed the rights of the
unborn, implementing its 1981 Res. 3-02 on prolife issues. With
encouragement from Dr. Bohlmann, the program “Caring—
Especially Now” began to gather innovative models in which
congregations met community social needs. The response of
the church to those in life's golden years has been more
extensive also. Yet, there are many people who are lonely, some
abandoned in prisons or ware-housed in nursing homes,
waiting for the church and its members to search them out, to
express concern for them.

Life in these last two decades of the 20th century seems
destined to be marked more by difficulties and complexities
than by solutions to life’s problems. That is especialy true in
the area of alcohol and drug abuse. The Social Ministry Task
Force dealing with this problem would like to see more
emphasis placed on congregational community service. We
Christians have a major responsibility to respond to the
number one health problem in the U.S.A.—alcohol and drug
addiction.

The growing need for organs and for tissue transplants is
one to which the Board for Social Ministry Services gave
special emphasis in response to the Synod's 1981 convention
Res. 8-05. In cooperation with the department of communica-
tions this need was featured in the September 1982 Lutheran
Witness and on the “Organ Transplants: Gift of Life” broad-
cast by CBS-TV. Very favorable public response continues
long past the date of the original effort.

Sensitive to the Changing Scene

In the future the Board for Social Ministry Services needs to
be aware of new problems emerging in the social order as well
as new resources to deal with them. To alert the church and to
suggest what our response might be, a new emphasis on the
acquisition of information and its transmittal at every level is
a high priority for social ministry for the future. This will
enhance both short-term and long-term program development.
Rapid technological change requires continuing research and
discussion ofits implications for the church and for all areas of
ministry.

Moreover, we need to be sensitive to new ways to deliver
services, particularly in the light of the newly emerging
Lutheran Church resulting from the pending mergers of The
American Lutheran Church, The Lutheran Church in America,
and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches. Past
and present structures need careful examination and evalua-
tion as we determine how best to respond to human needs
during the next decade or two. It is important that the board
accept responsibility for defining its role in this respect, not
merely reacting to change. We need to give more attention to
maximizing the utilization of scarce resources, to partnership
relationships with other Lutherans. to experimental programs,
to agency functions that serve the larger society, to make clear
Christian values and goals in response to pending and future
legislation while respecting Synod’s time-honored commitment
to the separation of church and state.

We Serve Him Faithfully

The Board for Social Ministry Services is particularly
grateful to the Commission on Theology and Church Relations
for accepting its request to draft a clear position statement,
“The Theology of Social Ministry,” to serve as the baseline for
program activities. We await this challenging document. Only
social ministry, soundly grounded in Lutheran theology. can
carry out that unique relationship of Word and deed of which
the apostle James speaks so clearly. Social ministry will not be
misunderstood when clear relations between Word and deed
are readily apparent. Our loving action as sanctified Chris-
tians flows from our justification by faith. Rhetoric without
action, however, is only sounding brass, says the apostle Paul.

Clarification of our theology of social ministry may well
move The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod to creative new
dimensions of service to people in need.

We Serve Him Through Districts and Parishes
One by One—and All Together Too

Each of us as baptized children of God serves Him in many
ways as we reach out in love toward others. We can’t help it.
That's the way Christians are. St. Paul wrote to the Christians
in Corinth, “the love of Christ constraineth us... (2 Cor. 5:41).

But some needs are too much for individuals to handle.
Therefore we need to find ways to meet them together, in small
groups, in congregations, in groups of congregations, in
Districts. as a Synod, and even as a nation.

Committees

Each of the Districts of the Synod has identified an
executive to supervise social ministry activities, and most
Districts have active committees guiding the work. About 4.000
congregations (two out of three churches) have committees on
social ministry or human care. It is a goal of Synod’s Board for
Social Ministry Services that every parish have an active
group to plan and supervise a congregational ministry suited
to the special needs of its members. people in the local
community and in the world.

Caring—Especially Now

Synod has fostered an increased awareness of the primary
role of the congregation as a caring community, demonstrating
faith in action. In the spring of 1982 a special effort was made
to identify what parishes were doing through “Caring—
Especially Now. Models of innovative outreach to the
community have been described in Reporter essays.

The mood of our times has helped put congregational