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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 6

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

6 MISSIONS

c. And the Ladies. A small group of LWMLers, to-
gether with leaders of the ALC and LCA women’s
groups, are making plans for a visit with Lutheran
Christian women in Japan. For several years LWML
members have participated in mission tours following
their annual convention, putting what they learn to use
in their threefold program of missionary information,
missionary education, and missionary inspiration.

2. And from East to West

The STAPOC (Special Training Assistance Program
for Overseas Churchmen) is the other side of the coin.
It provides an opportunity for national churchmen to
study in the United States or to serve in specific congre-
gations here for a year. Rev. James Selvaraj of Bombay
served in the Chicago area; Rev. P. Charles Paul of the
Kolar Gold Fields in India served in Mission, Kans.;
and Rev. Chizuo Shibata of Tokyo has been serving
in Washington, D.C.

Mission is not a one-way street. Christians around
the world ought to speak to us in our own land, to help
us to understand more fully Christ’s total mission. Edifi-
cation goes both ways—so that we can communicate
better to all corners of the world. As these projects ex-
pand, they could include a variety of persons from a
variety of backgrounds. Funding, however, will be
a difficult problem — especially funding to enable addi-
tional nationals to come to our land.

D. Edification: Interdependent Churches
Ministering to One Another

A new day has dawned in the overseas mission.
Much has changed—the way we operate, our relation-
ship with the people in each country, and the types of
projects we undertake. We don’t talk much in terms of
“sending” churches and “mission” churches anymore.
Instead we look upon ourselves as partners in mission.

The past biennium in India provides many illustra-
tions of what has changed and of what the overseas
mission will increasingly be like in the seventies. India
can be an example of the sharing and ministry that goes
on between interdependent churches in mission.

A handful of missionaries were once the primary
bearers of the Gospel in South India. Now our Lord has
provided 130 ordained Indian missionaries, 400 servants
of the Gospel in schools, more than a hundred medical
and paramedical workers, and nearly 40,000 baptized
witnesses to His name. As the government of India
tightens a policy (begun in 1954) of not granting visas
to foreigners for religious work, local Christians are
made more keenly aware of their mission obligation.

The 32 missionaries remaining in India find that their
role has changed also. They are no longer the developers
of ‘‘Missouri’s Mission Operation.” They are fellow
laborers with Indian colleagues, bringing another point
of view as one among several inputs to the total church
situation. Although we have sent them, they are not
“our” missionaries so much as they are the India Evan-
gelical Lutheran Church’s missionaries. They have

been loaned by us to the IELC, and they work under
the national church.

The changing circumstances in India compel us to
find other ways of providing enrichment or the resource
of specific skills and competencies for the Indian church.
Dr. Walter Wangerin of River Forest spent several weeks
in India (and in other countries) following up an effort
of 2 years ago in which the LWF assisted national
churches in developing curricula and materials for Chris-
tian nurture. Dr. Theodore Raedeke and Rev. Walter
Meyer spent several weeks in India in a series of evan-
gelism workshops. Several Indian brethren have come
to America for study, experience, or simply for con-
sultation. All of this implies a new kind of sharing.

E. Edification: Lutherans Preparing for Mission

There are other examples of our ability to be ‘at one,
with one purpose,” while sharing diversities of gifts and
experiences in the service of God’s mission. For ex-
ample, for more than 40 years mission executives of some
of the American Lutheran bodies responsible for over-
seas mission efforts had been meeting together in an
organization known as the Lutheran Foreign Missions
Conference of North America. Prefield training of mis-
sionaries frequently came up for discussion, and the
executives became convinced that missionary training
could be improved. When the Lutheran Council in the
U.S.A. was formed, the Division of Mission Services
convened a meeting of mission executives to discuss the
possibilities of joint inter-Lutheran prefield training.
A plan was developed to provide the very best prefield
training possible within the few weeks available in the
summer. The Board for Missions, in accordance with
New York Resolution 1-02, resolved to participate in the
program, which also includes coordination of overseas
on-the-field orientation programs.

The new prefield training program will not have
a set faculty nor its own campus. The 1969 session will
be held in Chicago, the 1970 session in St. Louis, and the
1971 session in St.Paul. The Program also aims at
strengthening the mission departments of the various
seminaries in the United States.

F. Edification: Churches Working Together

In many parts of the world the churches and missions
in partnership with us have found it Scripturally correct
and imperative to cooperate with other churches and
missions in faithfulness to Christ and His mission.

After many years of discussion and much prayerful
study, pulpit and altar fellowship has been established
with fellow Lutherans in India, New Guinea, and Japan.
Joint theological training and Joint teacher training pro-
grams have been established or are being considered in
Mexico, Ghana, New Guinea, India, Taiwan, and Japan.
The production of literature, as well as radio and tele-
vision programing, is carried on jointly in many areas.

In some areas churches and missions have taken
membership in federations (such as the Federation of
Lutheran Churches in India) or in national councils.