LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1962, Page 160

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160 RESOLUTIONS — COMMITTEE 3

Resolved, That a proportionate commitment of each
annual budget be assured to supply an annual increase
to the capital account portion of the Church Extension
Fund.

Action: This resolution was adopted.

To Intensify Work on Campuses of Colleges
and Universities
RESOLUTION 2-27

Report 212, pp. 134—136, Reports and Memorials

Wuereas, The vast majority of the Synod’s young
people must seek a higher education in colleges and
universities not sponsored by our Synod; and

Wuereas, The church’s mission to these colleges and
universities has been fruitful and resourceful, aided by
the efforts of the Synod’s Commission on College and
University Work; and

Wuereas, The number of the nation’s and the world’s
youth in colleges (also junior colleges) and universities
is rapidly increasing; therefore be it

Resolved, That this convention direct the Synod to
implement the resolution of the delegate convention
of 1959 to grant funds to finance handicapped Districts
for work in colleges and universities; and be it further

Resolved, That synodical Districts who have not yet
created a District Commission on College and University
Work be encouraged to do so; and be it further

Resolved, That the synodical Commission on College
and University Work continue its efforts to establish
Lutheran chairs of religion in universities and that
a maximum of five new chairs be financed and estab-
lished, if possible, during the next triennium; and be
it finally

Resolved, That the Synod’s Board for World Missions
be encouraged to explore and develop a college and
university program including the support of student
hostels in the overseas mission fields.

Action: This resolution was adopted.

To Thank the Lutheran Women’s
Missionary League
RESOLUTION 2-28
Unprinted Memorial 221, pp.56,57, Today’s Business

Wueregas, The Lutheran Women’s Missionary League
this year observes the 20th anniversary of its found-
ing; and

Wuereas, In those years the league has gathered
millions of dollars for missionary work throughout the
world, pledging $240,000 in specific grants during the
current biennium; and

Wuereas, The benefits to the church through its
Christian Growth program institutes, contact with mis-
sionaries and missionary education, and thoughtful
planning for the future, add significant dimensions to
the substantial financial operations of the league; there-
fore be it

Resolved, That this convention express its heartfelt
thanks to God for the fruits of faith and Christian
labors of the church’s women in this organization
throughout these years, commend its activities to all
of its congregations, and encourage its leadership to
continued zeal in guiding many to practice its motto:
“Serve the Lord with gladness.”

Action: This resolution was adopted.

COMMITTEE 3 — Doctrinal and
Intersynodical Matters

Preamble to the Report of Committee 3

The task committed to your Floor Committee 3 is
an exacting one, and we are laboring with a deep sense
of our responsibility to the church and to the Lord
of the church, before whose judgment seat we shall
have to give an account of our work.

We have endeavored to avoid two dangers. The one
is that we evade the issues that confront us at this
convention. The other is that we oversimplify our
problems and give pat solutions that resolve nothing.
We have attempted, therefore, within the time allotted
us, to hear all our brethren, to learn their concerns,
and to assess their presentations.

We have worked in a spirit of profound concern for
all members of our Synod, for all those in our larger
fellowship, for our separated brethren, and for the cause
of confessional Lutheranism generally. We have
labored, with prayer, to maintain a charitable objec-
tivity toward all the persons and problems involved
in our work.

We have at times found our work disheartening;
but we have not been, in the last analysis, disheartened
by it. We do have grave problems; but it would be
ingratitude to a bountiful God to say that the church
in which we are privileged to work has only problems.
God has blessed the work of our hands wondrously,
and it is marvelous in our eyes. And it would be little-
ness of faith to let these problems themselves dismay us.
The lively and passionate zeal for purity of doctrine is a
gift of God to our church, even if this zeal may seem
to us at times to be an overimpetuous one. We consider
the unusual measures taken for the fair solution of doc-
trinal problems, and the unusual amount of time allotted
to them, to be a mark of our church’s strength. And
if we let these problems drive us again and again to
the Gospel proclaimed in the Scriptures and witnessed
by our Confessions, we shall find that the clouds we
so much dread are big with mercy and will break in
blessing on our head.

We therefore plead with the convention to work in
the same spirit, with a charitable objectivity, and in
the high and joyous confidence that even while the Lord
is trying us, He is at work tempering and strengthening
us. Deus vult suos fortes facere — “God would make
heroes of His own” (Luther). Let us submit to His
fatherly hand and quit ourselves like men.