LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 44

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2. PARISH, YOUTH, AND COMMUNICATION SERVICES

2-01
Report of Board for Parish Services

As the parishes of the Synod embark upon their ministries
in the coming months they will intensify their efforts to
proclaim Jesus Christ, warning everyone and teaching every-
one in all wisdom, that every person may be presented mature
in Christ. For this toil in His mission, God's people will need all
the energy which God mightily inspires in them (see Col. 1:28).

The Synod has created a Board for Parish Services to assist
parishes to achieve their mission. Through its staff and in
cooperation with District boards, the Synod's board is to
support and serve the congregations of the Synod in their
ministries of nurture, service, worship, discipleship, and
fellowship.

The Synod’s Bylaw 2.223 prescribes the functions of the
Board for Parish Services. These functions include assisting
congregations to arrange and carry out a comprehensive and
effective program of Christian education: to assist members,
individually and corporately, to serve others in community
and world; to develop a meaningful life of worship; to help
members grow in discipleship: to become communities where
fellow believers care for one another and share with one
another those gifts which God has placed in their midst forthe
common good; to serve developmentally disabled persons and
develop materials for their Christian education; and to main-
tain liaison and cooperation with the appropniate units of the
Lutheran Council in the U.S.A. and with assigned auxiliary
and listed service organizations.

The Board for Parish Services with its staff is enthusiastic
about its partnership with parish and District leaders as
together we publish the Good News of Jesus Christ and our new
life in Him.

I. Organization of the Board

Pastor Wayne Schumpe. teachers Dennis Hintz and
Charles Wildauer, and layman John McCants. elected in 1979,
conclude their first terms on the Board for Parish Services in
September 1983. Elected in 1981 to terms that extend through
September 1986 are pastors Maynard Brandt and Raymond
Mueller, teacher H. Allen Herbst, and layman Roy Guess.
Layman James Price was also elected to a term expiring in
1986, but he found it necessary for personal reasons to resign
his membership. The Rev. Raymond Mueller was elected
chairman of the board, Mr. Roy Guess, vice-chairman, and Mr.
Charles Wildauer, secretary.

II. Organization of Standing Committees

In its 1981 convention the Synod initiated eight standing
committees for the Board for Parish Services. Membership, as
indicated by the following appointments, extends through
December 1983.

Bible Study and Family Life Education: Rev. Oliver Schulz,
chairman; Rev. Rudolph Harm, secretary: Rev. Martin
Haendschke.

Church Literature: Rev. George Robbert. chairman; Rev.
Dean Wenthe, secretary; Rev. Erich Kiehl: Rev. James Nickel:
Mrs. Barbara Steege.

Congregational Administration: Rev. Waldo Werning,
chairman; Mr. Lee Warneke, secretary: Rev. Kent Hunter.

Elementary and Secondary Schools: Mr. Warren Ford,
chairman; Mr. David Krause, vice-chairman: Mrs. Pearline
Jones, secretary; Mr. Perry Bresemann: Mrs. Shirley
Morganthaler.

Human Care: Rev. Thomas McBride, chairman; Mr. Charles
Dull, secretary; Miss EstherJurchen; Rev. Paul Volz, advisory,
Board for Social Ministry Services.

Ministry to the Developmentally Disabled: Rev. Frederick
Stiemke, chairman; Rev. Ronald Reisdorf, secretary; Mr.
Donald Ahlersmeyer.

Sunday, Weekday. Summer Schools and Confirmation

Instruction: Rev. Robert Hill. chairman: Mr. Dennis Dressler.
secretary; Mrs. Carolyn Shaver.

Worship: Rev. Roger Pittelko, chairman; Rev. Charles
Evanson, secretary; Mr. Paul Bunjes: Rev. Alfred Fremder:
Rev. Norman Nagel.

III. Organization of the Staff

Marlin Schulz served as associate secretary of elementary
and secondary schools from September 1974 through July
1981, at which time he accepted the position of professor of
education and chairman of the Education Division at Chnist
College, Irvine. Calif.

On March 31, 1982, Jan Curtis Case and Sue C. Madden
completed the Special Education Research Project. which
began on Aug. 1, 1979, and was to a large extent funded by
members of the Aid Association for Lutherans.

H. James Boldt, former superintendent of schools for the
South Wisconsin District, accepted the position of secretary of
elementary and secondary schools for the Synod’s Board for
Parish Services. He began work on Dec. 1, 1981.

Carl Moser assumes the position of associate secretary of
elementary and secondary schools onJuly 1, 1983. He comes to
the Board for Parish Services from Concordia College, River
Forest, Ill., where he served as director of graduate studies.

Other members of the Program Services Unit, supervised by
Victor Constien, executive secretary, are Joanne Eisenberg.
associate secretary of early childhood education; Fred Precht,
secretary of worship; Marshall Nelson. secretary of services to
developmentally disabled persons; Ronald Brusius, secretary
of family life education: and Dale Griffin. secretary of Sunday.
weekday and summer schools.

Earl Gaulke is director of the Editorial Services Unit, which
consists of Theodore Schroeder, editor of Sunday school mate-
rials; Arnold Schmidt, editor of day and weekday school
materials; Jane Fryar, associate editor of day and weekday
schoo] materials; Arlon Rueter, editor of vacation Bible school
materials; Donald Hoeferkamp, editor of My Devotions:
Mervin Marquardt, editor of Interaction; and Frederick Radtke,
writer of special education materials.

IV. ‘‘Him We Proclaim” in Bible Study
and Family Life Education

Research indicates that the family of 1983 is becoming more
secularized—less concerned about its religious roots than
previous families. Social observers are saying that the tradi-
tional family of the future may be a family in which both
husband and wife are employed and children are cared for
outside the home during the day.

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has always been
concerned about families and their relationship to Jesus Christ
and His sacred Word. The Board of Parish Education's report
to the 1944 convention stated that “Christian parents need
help and training for establishing and maintaining Christian
homes, solving family problems—young married adults need
special guidance in matters pertaining to marriage and Chris-
tian home life” (1944 Proceedings, p. 116). That convention
authorized the Board of Parish Education to carry out plans for
adult education and to form committees as they became
necessary.

This same concern is evident in the 1947 convention, which
passed a resolution calling for a Synodwide Bible study
program. That resolution in part said ‘‘that we encourage our
congregations to provide Bible classes in sufficient numbers
for adolescents, young people, and adults, and thus encourage
all communicant members to participate actively in a well-
planned Bible study program ... That we encourage all
teachers of Bible classes to use methods which lead the learner
more directly into his own Bible and help him relate the Bible
more closely to the Christian’s mission in life’ (1947
Proceedings, p.313). That convention directed the President of
the Synod to appoint a committee to study the matter of
marriage, divorce, remarriage, and related subjects. Another