LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 24

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24 PLANNING FOR THE CHURCH’S MISSION

capital funds for the domestic and overseas opportuni-
ties that the Lord of the church provides?

On the basis of the record in the past quarter cen-
tury the answer is an unqualified yes. (10) For in-
stance, in 1940, when disposable personal income avail-
able to the entire population of the U.S. was 76 bil-
lion dollars, the synodical Districts in the U. S. remitted
to the synodical treasury for the mission of the church,
as reflected in the synodical budget, $1,300,000. Twenty-
five years later the disposable personal income had
risen to $460 billion, and the Districts acting as collec-
tors and transmitters for the Synod forwarded to the
synodical treasury $2314 million.

But the dollar in 1964 was not the same as the
dollar in 1940. If the previous chart is adjusted in terms
of the 1957—1959 consumer price index (11), the fig-
ures change, and over against $156 billion national
disposable personal income available, the contributions
to the Synod remitted by the Districts is $2.7 million.
Last year, of a total adjusted national disposable per-
sonal income of $390 billion in deflated dollars, the
synodical treasury receipts from Districts in the U.S.
was $21,800,000.

These sums are often confusing and sometimes
frightening. What does this mean in terms of the in-
dividual communicant considered to be an average
contributor? (12) While disposable personal income in
the U.S. in 1940 amounted to $576 per person, Mr.
Average Contributor in that year, of his entire con-
tributions through the District treasurer, sent $1.48 to
Synod’s treasury. A quarter century later, of an annual
disposable personal income of $2,200, $13.64 reached the
synodical treasury for worldwide disbursement through
the year’s budget. The $13.64 in constant dollars (13)
was able to purchase in 1964 $12.64 of goods and ser-
vices compared with $3.03 in constant dollars in 1940
for the church’s mission and ministry. Per person we
are enabled to do more than 25 years ago of national
and international significance in the Lord’s work!

But all of us need to remember that synodical re-
ceipts are only a fraction of the total contributions to
the congregation by their contributing members. While
the synodical totals by comparison with a single con-
gregation’s total budget appear to be enormous, it is
always important to remember the relative proportion
of what a congregation provides for mission and min-
istry in its own community as compared with what it

remits to the synodical District and through it also to
the general synodical treasury. In the following charts
the inserts repeat the U.S. national data, while the
larger bar charts compare for 1940 and for 1964 the
contributions from the synodical membership in the
U.S. (14) In actual dollars in 1940, total contributions
were $15,300,000, and in 1964 they had increased to
$181,200,000.

For the average contributor in the congregations in
the U.S. (15) this meant a total contribution in actual
dollars of $17.24 in all of 1940 compared with the total
of $105.05 in all of 1964. Has there been improvement
in individual stewardship in the past quarter century?
Assuming that all congregations held at least weekly
services to which these contributors could go, this
means that in 1964 Mr. or Mrs. Average Contributor
gave a few pennies more than $2 per week for all
recorded and all reported contributions.

On a per-capita basis in comparable dollars, (16) in
a quarter century Mr. Average Missouri Synod Con-
tributor in the U.S. has had disposable income that
has not quite doubled while his reported contributions
nearly trebled! Can he be moved by God the Holy
Spirit to abound yet more and more in this grace of
giving in the years ahead?

A final slide (not shown) is necessary to remind us
that we should not be tempted to oversimplify the na-
ture and extent of worldwide synodical commitments, or
to pretend to the world, to the rest of the Christian
church, or to ourselves that we are well on the road to
easy success in different parts of the globe. This slide
presents a map of the land areas of the world which
indicates that when we speak of church in India or in
Central America or in Africa or elsewhere, most of our
overseas mission and ministry, precious and costly as it
is and dear to the hearts of us all, is made up of pin-
points to indicate bases for strategy and tactics of a
church with a sense of world mission and increasing
ministry.

Planning for the church’s mission is recognizing and
accepting the objectives which the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Head of the church, sets for His church in all places
and for all times and mustering and deploying sanctified
human resources as best this can be done in each suc-
cessive age. This synodical convention provides one
more priceless opportunity for us and for ours to be
engaged responsibly in this planning.