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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 24

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

24 MISSIONS

sary to achieve several objectives: the shaping and stim-
ulation of new attitudes, new or improved activities,
renewed relationships.

1) The Process. Planning is a process involving many
people. It is not a process to be conducted by the “ex-
perts.” It is not a “program” launched on the synodical
level “prepackaged to sell” to the synodical constit-
uency. Planning is rather concerned with discovering
together what needs to be changed and how to effect
this change in order that the mission may be accom-
plished effectively and efficiently in the ’70s.

The planning process to be undertaken by mission
boards on the syncdical and District levels ought to be
but a first step in a process ultimately involving all
congregations.

2) Requisites for Planning:

a) Mission boards committed to the Mission Affir-
mations and increasingly understanding their
implications.

b) Mission boards sensitive to the needs (and the
contributions) of people in all kinds of situations.
Mission boards giving bold witness and strong
leadership to all with whom they come into con-
tact in the structures of the church.

d) Mission boards leading congregations, groups,
and individual Christians to minister faithfully
to the ‘‘frontiers” that confront the church as
she seeks to serve Jesus Christ in the world.

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3) Mission Frontiers. The ad hoc committee on North
American mission goals for the ’70s recognized the ex-
istence of separate worlds or special ‘‘mission frontiers”
on our continent, each of which has people waiting to
hear God’s good Word “in their own tongue.” The com-
mittee report concluded:

Planning, however, also recognizes the vertical dimen-
sions of human society. It requires understanding of the
classifications that pose specific frontiers for mission. It re-
sponds in concentrations on special emphases, approaches,
forms of communication, and techniques in ministry as God’s
people seek to prove themselves “all things to all men.”
A catalog of these frontiers of mission suggests specific
application in specific communities and begs to be expanded
to include other dimensions that are unique to mission at
any place.

The mission frontiers are those —

created by community structure.
created by ethnic classification.
created by vocational differences.
created by special situation.
created by age division.

created by issues in community.

D. And Each Heard in His Own Tongue:
Special Ministries Across Special Frontiers

The administrative setup of the Board for Missions
recognizes that the Word must cross other frontiers
besides geographical ones. A Special Ministries section
is concerned with reaching special targets (deaf and
blind, for example) and with providing specialist input
(medical, for example) to God's people in their total
mission effort.

The report on directed evangelism programs appears

under North America. Reference has already been made
to the evangelism workshops in India led by Dr. Raedeke
and Rev. Meyer in March of this year.

Each special ministry is concerned about people
hearing the Gospel ‘in their own tongue.” The admin-
istrative concerns in some of the sections evidence a
desire to find better ways to help people hear the Word
in their own tongue.

1. Ministry to the Deaf: Each in His Own Tongue

a. 75th Anniversary. On Sunday, March 9, 1969,
the congregations of the Synod observed the 75th anni-
versary of the Synod’s work among the deaf. Sign
language has been the special “tongue” in which most
of the deaf have heard God's good Word, and so “Our
Hands Have Held the Word of Life” was the anniver-
sary theme.

With gratitude to God we look back on the years
of divine grace in this phase of Christ’s mission. Rev.
Augustus Reinke began the work in Chicago in 1894,
preaching on the text: ‘“‘God is love.” Faithful servants
in the early years were Rev. Arthur Boll on the east
coast, Rev. O. C. Schroeder in the Great Lakes Region
(who also specialized in serving the deaf-blind), Dr. John
L. Salvner in the central states, Rev. Ernest Mappes in
the midwest, and Dr. George Gaertner on the west
coast. These too should be mentioned: Rev. Theodore
Frederking, formerly of Cleveland, Ohio, who, though
retired, still serves in Phoenix, Ariz.; Rev. W. Ferber
of Fargo, N. Dak., who pioneered in Canada together
with Rev. R. F. Cordes; Rev. E. Scheibert and Rev. Nor-
bert Borchardt of the Great Lakes Region: Rev. John
Beyer of Seattle; Rev. Erich Eichmann of Portland,
Oreg.; and Rev. W. A. Westermann of Greensboro, N. C.,
whom we honor at this convention with the John of
Beverley award. The aggregate total of their years of
service is five times the 75 years we celebrate in 1969.

We recognize also those faithful pastors and laymen
who served on the Board for Missions to the Deaf—and
in particular three men who served as chairmen of that
board during critical times: Rev. Hugo A. Gamber, who
served through the turbulent depression and postde-
pression era; Dr. William A. Buege, during whose chair-
manship the deaf mission marked its greatest period
of expansion; and Rev. Ernest R. Drews, who served
during the last years, when the Board for Missions to
the Deaf dissolved in order to become part of the Synod’s
new single Board for Missions.

b. Ephphatha Conference. The annual Ephphatha
Conference provides in-service training for mission-
aries to the deaf. The highlight of this year’s conference,
at Concordia College, Ann Arbor, was an anniversary
rally service on Sunday, June 29, attended by deaf mem-
bers and friends from more than 10 states.

c. Campus Ministry Among the Deaf—Serving the
Youth. Ministering to the deaf child and youth brings
deaf missionaries to the campuses of a large number
of state schools for the deaf.

A full-time campus pastor, Rev. Daniel Pokorny,