Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 23
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 23

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

MISSIONS 23

6) Future Activity. The evangelism staff sees these
continuing goals for the future: encouraging the culti-
vation of a climate of evangelism for the promotion of
organized and spontaneous witnessing throughout the
Synod; assisting Districts, circuits, and congregations in
evangelism; carrying on the work of evangelism that
extends beyond the scope of individuals, congregations,
circuits, and Districts.

To achieve these goals, efforts will be made to fulfill
the following functions:

a) Consult and work with all terminal schools in order
that future pastors and teachers are trained and
equipped—by continuing campus workshops on evan-
gelism, for example; by consulting with responsible offi-
cials at terminal schools toward the inclusion of evange-
lism as part of the regular curriculum and toward
practical field training in evangelism.

b) Confer with synodical and District officials in order
that evangelism permeate the total life of the church.

c) Cooperate with synodical departments in securing
maximum implementation of these objectives on all
levels of synodical planning, programing, and promotion.

d) Provide direct assistance to Districts, congrega-
tions, and individuals so that they will be able to integrate
these efforts into the total evangelism objectives. There
will probably be a continuation and, it is hoped, an in-
crease in certain programs that are made available to
congregations, circuits, and Districts. Another series of
workshops is available for pastors on request, and work-
shops for teachers are also offered. Experimentation is
also taking place toward the possibility of reinitiating the
“Preaching-Teaching-Reaching” missions. Ambassadors
for Christ continues to be the chief program of evange-
lism for youth. Some additional experimentation is occur-
ring in an attempt to develop evangelism activities de-
signed to meet the particular and unique needs of certain
geographical areas. For example, ‘(Operation Aqueduct”
is the theme of a program designed specifically for
Tucson, Ariz. It is engineered to bring the “Water of
Life” to the community in a new and exciting way.
“Operation Aqueduct” has special meaning for Tucson
residents since work has begun there on a new surface
aqueduct that will bring life-giving water from the
Colorado River many miles away. Operation Aqueduct
is pan-Lutheran, with four Missouri, four ALC, and two
LCA congregations participating.

e) Arrange institutes and/or conferences to aid mem-
bers of the church in attaining their full stature as wit-
nessing children of God wherever they may be and in
whatever vocation they may labor.

f) Supervise such things as the Membership Referral
Service, Sunday School by Mail, Telemission, and such
other agencies as may from time to time fall within the
purview of the board. Under consideration is a com-
puterization of congregational membership records by
which membership referral would occur through pro-
gramed processing.

g) Keep in close contact with District evangelism
board and/or contact men and their planning to help
them keep abreast of new developments, approaches,
and materials.

h) Promote evangelism excellence by instituting and,
if necessary, staffing workshops, conferences, clinics, and
regional schools. New and exciting approaches to evan-
gelism are constantly coming to the attention of evange-
lism personnel. It is hoped that meetings and institutes
involving key people can be conducted to share these
approaches with the field. The evangelism staff meets
semiannually with its counterparts in the ALC and LCA
for the purpose of sharing ideas and new materials. In
addition the staff meets at frequent intervals with evan-
gelism leaders of other denominations to gather ideas
and resources and to offer such influence as may be
helpful from the Lutheran perspective. If the current
planning toward a nationwide evangelism emphasis
among the Christian churches of the United States in
1973 reaches fruition, much interchange with other de-
nominations will occur.

7) 1973 Evangelism Thrust. With the firm belief that
evangelism should be more and more at the forefront
of the church’s life, the evangelism contact men are
recommending that the entire Synod involve all its de-
partments and operations in a thoroughgoing evangelism
thrust in 1973. Resources and personnel will be provided
in an effort to lead the Synod to a more aggressive evan-
gelism stance.

8) United States Congress on Evangelism. Perhaps
the 1973 thrust can build on the interest and enthusiasm
generated by the U.S. Congress on Evangelism, sched-
uled for September 1969 in Minneapolis. The congress
will focus on parish and personal evangelism with dem-
onstrations of effective methods and media, based on
a viable theology of evangelism. Of the 8,000 invitations
to be extended to the congress, the Missouri Synod has
been allotted a quota of 225.

g. Planning for Mission in the '70s. Late in spring 1968
an ad hoe committee set up mission goals for North
America in the ’70s. The report of this committee states
in part: To avoid having the planning process for our
participation in God’s mission in the ’70s confined to
a short-range, problem-solving approach, the church
needs to set before itself a broad goal toward which to
aim its efforts. The nature of the frontiers it will be called
upon to cross, the uncertainty of what structures the
crossing might require, and declining financial resources
all make it advisable to state this goal in broad terms:

A growing number of people in all structures of The Lu-
theran Church — Missouri Synod “turned on and turned out”
with a new awareness of their role as God’s people called
to declare and to demonstrate His reign and having a new
willingness to risk their little kingdoms so that God’s kingdom
might break through in all the structures of society.

The pursuit of this goal in the changing world of the ’70s
requires more than providing additional congregations,
initiating new ministries, or planning new programs.
If the stated goal is to become a reality, it will be neces-