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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 21

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

MISSIONS 21

Sio Paulo, with 7,000,000 inhabitants, is expected to
become the world’s largest city within 10 years. In some
of the huge cities springing up in the interior along the
Amazon or on the Brasilia-Belem highway, our church
is not represented at all. The Brazil mission board is
determined to reach these new areas.

On Aug. 2, 1968, Dr. Rodolfo Hasse died. Since 1929
his Brazil Lutheran Hour was broadcast over 37 stations
in his country and overseas. A number of congregations
owe their existence to this program, now directed by
Rev. Rodolfo Warth. A number of parishes also sponsor
local radio programs. For example, Rev. Paulo Hasse,
son of the former international speaker, has a daily 5-
minute program that has proved successful.

ec. The Future

1) Additional Resources. In some Latin-American
countries we have only one or two missionaries. This is
intolerable where we have the world’s fastest-growing
population—a population that in our lifetime will have
increased by 600 percent. Additional resources of man-
power and money must be devoted to Christ’s mission in
Latin America.

2) Mass Media. Dr. Martin J. Neeb Jr., Executive
Secretary of Lutheran Television Productions, has dem-
onstrated an active interest in developing our TV min-
istry on “the continent of the future.” He has prepared
additional programs of “This Is the Life” with Spanish
sound tracks and is investigating the use of TV in Brazil.

3) Lutheran Council in Latin America. The fifth
Latin American Lutheran Congress expects to meet at
Concordia Institute in SAo Paulo, Brazil, toward the end
of 1969. The 44 Lutheran groups in Latin America have
been invited to send delegates. Rev. Robert F. Gussick,
a Missouri Synod pastor, has served since 1965 as coor-
dinator of the Latin American Lutheran Council (in
formation). The council seeks to unite Lutherans in the
four basic regions of Latin America: (1) Argentina, Chile,
Uruguay, and Paraguay; (2) Brazil; (3) Bolivia, Peru,
Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela; (4) Central America
and Panama, Mexico, and the Caribbean Islands. Rev.
Gussick points to various areas of common interest to
Lutherans, such as literature, mass communications, and
theological dialog. Rev. Arnaldo J. Schmidt, president of
our Concordia Seminary in Porto Alegre, Brazil, is the
other Missouri Synod pastor on the seven-man inter-
Lutheran coordinating committee.

13. North America: Each in His Own Tongue

a. The Shape of North American Missions. The Lu-
theran Church — Missouri Synod resolved early to decen-
tralize its home missions program —to place the primary
responsibility for Christ’s mission on the people of God
in each District. Key “sensitizers” in each District are
the mission executives. In its role of coordinator the
Board for Missions calls District executives together for
national and regional planning meetings. In addition the
secretary for North America carries on a regular sched-
ule of consultations with District mission boards. District

mission leaders frequently form the nucleus of ad hoc
groups that help shape the philosophy and the policies
for “home missions.”

District mission programing and administration is
indigenous, but it is not autonomous or independent.
Each District in only one leg of “home missions.” It must
be considered corporately with other Districts. The
whole picture is important. For this reason a District
plans in consultation with other Districts; it determines
the extent and priorities of its mission in the light of the
potential and resources of all Districts. For example, an
older Midwest District will ordinarily begin fewer new
ministries than a coastal District. Consequently a larger
portion of the receipts of such a District are made available
to the Synod for worldwide mission work.

b. Self-financing and Subsidy. The aggregate cost
of the North American mission program in 1969 will be
very near $12,000,000. Of this total the Board for Missions
furnishes only $3,204,219 as direct subsidy (to 10 Districts).
In addition to this amount, the Board for Missions also
gives some help to Districts for special ministry projects.
Districts with sufficient funds of their own are encouraged
to practice ‘“‘self-financing.”” This practice fosters home-
grown mission styles and encourages initiative.

Subsidies to congregations continue to go up, UP, UP,
and almost away. One District averages almost $1,000 a
month subsidy per congregation. Inflation, larger debts,
and other factors play into this. In 1970 the Board for
Missions will lead the Districts in a study of subsidy
practices. An ad hoc committee is busy now determining
criteria for the study.

ce. Concern About All Congregations. Even as the
Board for Missions serves all Districts, so District mission
boards have a responsibility to all District congregations
in such areas as planning, outreaeh (evangelism), com-
munity coverage, plant development, etc. At the 1959
San Francisco convention the Synod resolved that Dis-
trict mission boards should “regard the mission perfor-
mance of all congregations in the District as a respon-
sibility toward which help, encouragement, and guidance
are to be directed.” The District mission board must keep
before all congregations the urgency of the times and
help them to be God’s voice in their communities.

d. New Congregations and Old. After World War II
the American church saw the need for establishing many
new congregations. In some years more than 100 new
Missouri Synod congregations were begun. We dis-
covered, however, that the number of new stations can-
not always be equated with good outreach. Too often
new congregations become carbon copies of already
existing congregations. The membership is frequently
built up largely through transfers. There is too little
effort to become God’s mission to and in the community.
Many congregations in changing communities fled to
the suburbs, so that a new congregation “overchurched”’
the suburbs while removing a Gospel witness and min-
istry from people in need in the ghetto.

In the future, new ministries should be carefully