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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 5

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

MISSIONS 5

Each of the following sections offers further examples
of edification —of sharing, of mutual giving and receiving
_so that all are built up for Christ's mission.

B. Edification:
World Conference on Lutheran Education

The task of all formal Christian education is the task
of edification, of building up the saints for mission. Be-
cause of the important relationship between education
and mission, the Board for Missions called together
Christian educators from various countries for a World
Conference on Lutheran Education in Hong Kong in
February 1968. The conference, in its composition and
in its conclusions, gave evidence of the unity and diver-
sity inherent in all communication and edification. The
official report of the conference began:

When 39 delegates from 15 countries assembled in Hong

Kong for the first World Conference on Lutheran Education

they expressed their diversity and felt their unity. The ses-

sions were filled with the constant buzz of whispered trans-
lation as English was simultaneously interpreted into Chi-
nese, Japanese, German, or Portuguese. .. . For the first

World Conference on Lutheran Education sponsored by

the Board for Missions of The Lutheran Church — Missouri

Synod brought together Lutheran representatives from

Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Japan,

Korea, Lebanon, New Guinea, Nigeria, Philippines, Switzer-

land, Taiwan, and the United States of America.

In spite of the diversity of their cultures, delegates
found unity in their approach to man “as God's fallen
creature, under the grace of God.” The delegates had
something else in common also: they all agreed, the re-
port said, that in every country congregations have
“failed to really be the channels of the Gospel, but
instead become clogged perhaps even broken pipes
that no longer function.” Delegates recognized that
Christian education ‘“‘assumes many shapes and under
pressure emerges in a variety of patterns,’”’ but they
affirmed the unity of the Christian education or edifica-
tion task, to equip the saints for mission. Participants
declared:

Christian education is an integral part of the mission of the
church. The terms in which Christ speaks of His church and
sends it on God’s mission to the world imply communication
and education processes: His sent ones are to be a light,
a leaven, a witness, proclaimers, and teachers of the good
news of help and hope in Christ.

The daily worship and Eucharist in the Chapel of
All Nations also gave evidence of the unity among diver-
sity. The report stated:

As they gathered around the circular altar railing they re-
ceived new strength for the one task from the one Lord
whom they serve and who served them. Special music rang-
ing from Bach chorals to original hymns in Cantonese and
in Chinese musical settings enriched each worship. Reli-
gious banners, wood-cuts, crucifixes, ancient Korean Bibles,
etc., were displayed in the chapel together with the flags
of all nations. Each day a representative from a different
country assisted in the distribution of the sacrament. Another
effective testimony to the one Lord is the one Redeemer
who was brought when sections of the Pentecost lesson
were read in many different languages and dialects.

At the final session of the conference, participants
adopted an omnibus resolution calling for ‘“‘a thorough

evaluation of what our respective churches are doing
in the whole field of Christian education . . . to improve
and extend the mission of the church to the church and
to the world through Christian nurture.”’ The resolution
also declared:

We face a common need and a common task with resources
inadequate for the task. We must therefore learn to coop-
erate, pooling the resources that the Lord has already made
available to His church for its task of Christian nurture. We
are particularly grateful for the help of the Lutheran World
Federation and encourage it to continue to send out teams
to work with the Lutheran churches and help them to
better recognize and meet the challenges before them.
The full text of the omnibus resolution as well as the
complete summary report of the Hong Kong Conference
will be given to the floor committee on missions. As an
outgrowth of the Hong Kong education conference,
a number of joint efforts in curriculum development
have begun in overseas countries.

C. Edification: Interaction Among God's People

Here are some ways in which individual Christians
have been sharing their particular gifts with others in
the body of Christ.

1. From West to East

a. Project Timothy. Seven North American pastors
served in congregations overseas last summer (four in
the Philippines, three in Japan) in an experiment in
short-term missionary activity — Project Timothy. An
overseas unit does the inviting, a home congregation
the sending and funding, and the Board for Missions
the initiating and facilitating. Each pastor works with
a national pastor—in evangelism, stewardship, educa-
tion, medical missions, or campus ministry. Short-term
missionaries may be able to carry out special or particu-
lar tasks, may be able to open opportunities for the local
pastors. They afford the national and expatriate workers
a chance to talk heart to heart about the mission. And
they themselves catch a new spirit of urgency and in-
volvement, becoming aware of the need for the church
to be in mission ever and always. Planning is under way
for another such effort during 1969.

b. Youth. Eight Walther Leaguers from southern
California engaged in a work-visit to the Far East in
1967. They lived with national Christians and mission-
aries, spent time in youth camps, rallies, and retreats,
and even witnessed door to door in the Philippines. In
1968 eight young people from the Florida-Georgia Dis-
trict were involved in a similar work-visit to Central
America. In their ‘Christian witness crusade”’ the young
people helped with a vacation Bible school; visited,
lived, and worshiped in the homes of Lutheran Chris-
tians in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, and
Caracas; and then returned to the U.S., “enriched by
the love their hosts had showered on them.” A pastor
in Costa Rica, Rev. Tapani Ojasti, wrote to the Florida-
Georgia District afterwards: “Your group was not
Yankee tourists but people with the same hope and
tasks as my members.”