Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 26
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 26

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

26 MISSIONS

talking books are also being added annually to the
Library for the Blind at Concordia Publishing House.

b. Coordination of Work Among the Blind. Two
resolutions concerning ministry to the blind were passed
at the New York convention. The first (Res. 1-20) com-
mended the Lutheran Braille Workers, Inc., for their
production and distribution of specialized materials for
the visually handicapped. The second resolution (1-21)
recognized the need for correlation of effort between
the Synod’s ministry to the blind and Lutheran Braille
Workers, Inc., and directed “the Board for Missions
through its staff to seek coordination of the work through
joint planning, sharing materials, utilization of volun-
teer efforts, and mutual support for an expanding
ministry.”

In accordance with Resolution 1-21 a meeting was
held in Phoenix, Ariz., in February 1968, involving rep-
resentatives of the board of directors of Lutheran Braille
Workers, Inc., and representatives of the staff of the
Board for Missions and its Transcription Committee.
The problems of duplication and overlapping were
thoroughly discussed. The following areas of agree-
ment were reached:

1) Center and Clearinghouse. It was agreed that
the Lutheran Library for the Blind at Concordia Pub-
lishing House would serve as the established center
and clearinghouse for information on both Braille and
Sight-Saving material.

2) Print. Working distinctions between enlarged
print and Sight-Saving print were established. It was
determined that all Sight-Saving material should be
registered with the Lutheran Library.

3) Books. The Transcription Committee has tran-
scribed two copies of various religious books (novels,
doctrinal works, ete.) and placed them into the Lutheran
Library to be used on a lending basis; they also tran-
scribe books for special requests. The Lutheran Braille
Workers mass-produce books using zinc plates as master
copies; they also produce a number of hand-transcribed
books to fill special requests. The LBW will send the
Lutheran Library two copies of all their mass-produced
books to be used on a lending basis. Both groups will
keep each other informed on books planned for tran-
scription into Braille, either by hand or on zine plates,
and so avoid any wasted effort. Talking books will
continue to be the responsibility of the Lutheran Library
for the Blind. Lutheran Braille Workers, Inc., does not
plan to enter this field.

4) Periodicals and Monthly Mailings. Periodicals
put out by the Lutheran Library and monthly materials
put out by the Lutheran Braille Workers do not overlap.
Lutheran Braille Workers will continue producing
Lutheran Hour materials.

5) Sunday School Lessons. Because the Transcription
Committee and the Lutheran Braille Workers send
material to different individuals, it was decided that
both should continue producing CPH Sunday school
lessons on the present basis. But the two groups agreed

to explore the possibility of coordinating this phase of
the work in the future.

6) Responsibilities of the Staff. The role of the staff
of the Board for Missions is to encourage Districts (or
neighboring congregations) to contact institutions for
the blind in an effort to increase distribution of the
available materials and to establish personal contact
with the blind wherever possible.

c. The One Inter-Lutheran Library for the Blind.
The growth of the Missouri Synod Library for the Blind
has been so phenomenal that the Lutheran Church in
America and the American Lutheran Church have
officially designated it as the agency which is to serve
their churches also. An intersynodical committee has
been formed. At the last joint meeting two representa-
tives of the Wisconsin Synod attended as observers,
and from their reaction it appears that we will also be
privileged to serve the blind in the Wisconsin Synod.
Financial support has been given to our library by both
the ALC and the LCA. The Lutheran Braille Evangelism
Association of St. Paul, Minn., has turned over its entire
library to us. This rapid growth necessitated added
space for the library, which Concordia Publishing House
graciously provided.

The Missouri Synod Library for the Blind has now
become the one library for the blind to serve the entire
Lutheran Church in the U.S. and Canada. To acquaint
pastors with the services of the library, more than
15,000 brochures have been sent out to clergy of the
three Lutheran bodies.

3. Campus Ministry: Each in His Own Tongue

a. Across the Generation Gap. In its report to the 1967
convention the Board for Missions listed the church’s
mission to young adults as one of its major concerns.
The report highlighted three reasons for increased
attention to college-age youth: young people 25 years
or younger will soon or already do constitute a majority
of the population in most of the major countries in the
world; young people are a “new kind of generation”
—much more assertive and independent; the alienation
between young people and adults is more pronounced
today than ever before.

The events of the past 2 years have dramatically
underscored the validity of this concern: student riots
in the streets of Paris, in Mexico City, and on Michigan
Avenue, Chicago; campus sit-ins and protests that occur
not only at Berkeley or Columbia but at small quiet
Midwestern colleges! There is more than a communica-
tions or generation gap; for the most radical student
leaders there is a complete communications breakdown.
They seem to have lost faith in all institutions — govern-
ment, university, and church.

The church, above all, must seek to keep the lines
of communication open with the youth subculture
throughout the world: to listen to them, to learn from
them when they so passionately point out our failure to
be what we are meant to be, and, it is hoped, to truly
demonstrate to them “the more excellent way” of love.