Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 2
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 2

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

2 MISSIONS

a. Through Regular Budgeted Offerings for Mission.
Through their regular offerings, God’s people make
things “happen” in mission—on the congregational,
District, and synodical level. Of the money that is sent
on to the Synod, approximately 35 percent is used for
missions. In 1968, for example, the Synod allotted about
$10,000,000 for mission operating costs and about
$5,000,000 for capital expenses. We are grateful for the
regular giving of God’s people in obedience to the Lord
of the mission.

b. Through Designated Gifts for Mission. One indi-
cator of the extent to which many individuals and groups
are personally involved in communicating the Gospel
can be seen in the total amount of special funds and
designated gifts received by the Board for Missions
during the 1968 fiscal year — $801,918.79! The interna-
tional and District LWMLs, congregations, schools,
Sunday schools, and individuals all over North America
were in mission through these gifts.

The office of Special Funds and Designated Gifts
Secretary was created by the Board for Missions shortly
before the New York convention to furnish a personal
communication channel from the board to donors.
Through this secretary, Mrs. Marion Kretzschmar,
information is supplied to potential donors, and gifts
are acknowledged. Board for Missions staff periodically
prepare a list of mission projects and needs arising in
mission fields at home and abroad.

Congregations, groups, and individuals have fur-
nished a portion or all of a missionary’s salary, making
it possible to send out an additional missionary or needed
“specialist.” In several instances budget cutbacks might
otherwise have severely hampered mission work.

Careful accounting of special gifts assures that the
request of the donor is carried out. Disbursements are
made to the field treasurer (in the case of overseas gifts)
with complete information (the donor’s name and ad-
dress and the purpose for which the gift is intended).

¢. Through Whole People in Mission Where They Are.
While we encournge more people to share in world
evangelism by regular contributions and special mission
gifts, we believe that money gifts are but a reflection of
a fuller involvement of God’s people right where they
are, as “‘living letters.” A staff study paper, “Facing
the ’70s,” put it this way:

As long as we continue to believe and act as if the mis-
sion of Christ had been entrusted to a handful of professional
workers in the church and fail to understand in its fullest
sense the apostolate of all of God’s people and liberate them
for their mission, we will also fail to meet the great oppor-
tunities the Lord of the church places before us in our time.
We have not yet grasped the full meaning of the fact that in
every place where we are engaged in Christ's mission we
may no longer think in terms of the few who are sent from
the church in western lands as the “mission staff” but must
realize what it means that there are hundreds and thousands
of co-workers in this mission who have the same call and
responsibility which we have. The greatest and pri
resource for witness is people committed to Christ and His
mission. Money, facilities, and full-time staff are an aid to
people who understand their mission as members of Christ’s

ody ... they are never a substitute for the people of God.

3. Saints in Each Place

Seeing the people of God as God’s “words” or “‘let-
ters” to other men has led us once again to the Scriptural
truth that the fulfillment of Christ’s mission in a given
place rests upon His people in that place —because they
are people filled with the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4-6). Where
the Spirit is, there is freedom and life and creativity.
There too are the gifts necessary to carry out Christ’s
mission. The role of the Board for Missions, then, is to
stimulate and assist the people of God where they are,
as it also reaches out in mission to new areas. The Board
for Missions does not mastermind or direct the mission
activities “from above” (from St. Louis). As a servant
to Christ’s mission, the Board for Missions reflects with
Christians in a local area on the mission as they see it,
then assists the saints in that place to do what needs
to be done.

How does this work itself out in practice?

a. Overseas. In most of the countries where our
church has been in mission, national churches now take
the initiative and bear the responsibility for the mission
work. National churches have been established or are
in process of being established in Mexico, Ghana, Nige-
ria, India, New Guinea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and
Japan. In Central America a Lutheran Council has
been formed so that Lutherans together can be God’s
church there.

b. In North America. In the U.S. and Canada the
responsibility and initiative for mission and ministry
rests with the people of God in each District. The syn-
odical Board for Missions seeks to free the people of
God in each District for their ministry by setting broad
and flexible policies within which each District can best
determine the distinctive shape of its outreach. The
board also sensitizes and equips the Districts for more
effective witness and ministry through consultative
services, cross-fertilization, and occasional special finan-
cial grants. Metro Mission Movement, a 4-year pilot
project initiated in St. Louis in 1968, is based on the
assumption that the people of God in a specific metro-
politan area have all the necessary gifts of the Spirit
and can develop the overall strategy and the specific
forms of witness and ministry needed to fulfill God’s
mission in that place. (MMM is discussed in more detail
in a later section.)

There are many complex problems in the world
today; there are many “unknowns” in regard to the
church’s mission effort. How long will outside missionary
personnel be allowed to enter certain overseas coun-
tries? What should be the shape of the church’s mission
and ministry in new situations (war-torn Nigeria, for
example)? How do the people of God in a particular
place begin to make a dent in the terrifying problems of
a large metropolis? But in spite of staggering problems,
we have “good things” going for us: The living Word,
Jesus Christ Himself, is with us. And through the Spirit
the people of God at each place become God’s personal
letters to be read by men in every place.