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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 27

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

MISSIONS 27

b. Campus Ministry Secretary and Office. On April 30,
1968, Dr. Reuben W. Hahn, Secretary for Campus Min-
istries, entered retirement, and his editorial assistant,
Dr. Rudolph Norden, accepted a position at Concordia
Publishing House. Since May 1, 1968, campus ministry
has been headquartered in St.Louis as part of the
unified Board for Missions.

Calls have been issued for a new Secretary for
Campus Ministries. In the interim the duties of the office
have fallen to the Associate Secretary for Special Min-
istries, Rev. Reuben Schmidt.

c. Continuation of Campus Ministry Through Dis-
tricts and Coordination Through LCUSA. Resolution 3-20
at the New York convention resolved “that the work
of the campus ministry continue to be the direct admin-
istrative responsibility of the synodical Districts” and
“that the Synod in consultation with the National Lu-
theran Campus Ministry request the Lutheran Council
in the U.S.A. to develop procedures toward assuming
the coordinative and consultative functions of the syn-
odical campus work as soon as practicable.” This reso-
lution has set the direction for the following activities in
the area of campus ministry during the past 2 years:

1) On April 23—25, 1968, NLCM staff and LCMS
District coordinators held a conference on Lutheran
Relations on American Campuses. A consensus state-
ment, “Proposals Toward a Unified Lutheran Campus
Ministry,” was accepted as the expression of the as-
sembled group.

2) In June 1968 the Board for Missions requested
a number of services from LCUSA, including publica-
tions treating matters of common interest in campus
ministry; national surveys and assessments of campus
conditions and needs; preparation and distribution of
annual comprehensive rosters and reports of Lutheran
campus ministries carried out by the cooperating bodies
at non-Lutheran institutions of higher learning; and
joint consultation and planning meetings for staff of
cooperating bodies. The NLCM requested the identical
services from LCUSA in the fall of 1968.

3) Some of the special services requested from
LCUSA by NLCM and the Board for Missions have
already been implemented. A joint “Directory of Lu-

_theran Campus Ministries and Student Referral System”
came off the press in August 1968. Joint campus agency
staff consultations have been held on a monthly basis
since July 1968. The all-Lutheran campus publication
project began Jan. 1, 1969. Plans are also being made
for a joint staff orientation conference late in 1969.

4) Coordinative and cooperative planning for Lu-
theran campus ministries with NLCM representatives
is taking place in a growing number of Districts, thus
avoiding duplication of effort and resources. A spirit
of concerned cooperation with a genuine respect for
differences in administration and polity is evident at
all levels of inter-Lutheran consultation and planning
for campus ministry.

5) On Oct. 23—26, 1968, a Campus Ministry Consul-
tation was held for all full-time LCMS campus pastors.
Eleven issues were “workshopped” at the consultation
by the pastors, with resulting statements and resolutions
suggesting directions for campus ministry in the ’70s.

d. A Position Statement for Campus Ministry. Based
on the statements and resolutions coming out of the
Campus Ministry Consultation, a position statement
on Missouri Synod campus ministry was developed by
the Board for Missions and adopted at the January 1969
board meeting. The position statement, which lists goals,
campus ministry commitments, and responsibilities on
the local, District, and synodical level, seeks to enable
the faithful fulfillment of Christ’s mission in campus com-
munities in the immediate years ahead. In the statement
the Board for Missions affirms its commitment to a Word-
and sacrament-centered campus ministry; to continued
District involvement in campus ministry; to the involve-
ment of people as close as possible to the place of action
and ministry in the planning and decision-making
process; to coordinative and consultative campus min-
istry planning with all Lutherans at all levels. Main
goal listed for campus ministry is:

Growing, worshiping, witnessing and ministering com-

munities of Christ’s body in the Lutheran Church which

recognize and manifest Christ’s mission in the uniqueness
of each specific campus ministry in accordance with the

Word of God, the Lutheran Confessions, and the Mission

Affirmations.

The full position statement will be made available to
members of the committee on missions.

4. Medical Missions: A Word of Healing

a. The Church as a Healing Community: Coonoor
Follow-Up. Wherever the church works, it must be
busy with the Gospel of Jesus Christ; wherever the
Gospel of Jesus Christ is at work, there a healing min-
istry occurs. Jesus, the incarnate Word, was called the
Great Physician. If the contemporary church is to re-
flect, even in a measure, her Lord’s ministry, we must
be engaged in a ministry of healing.

The church’s healing ministry is much broader than
overseas medical missions or church-supported health-
care agencies. The whole ministry of every congrega-
tion must be seen as a ministry of healing—healed
people bringing Christ’s healing to others.

It has been 2 years since the Coonoor Conference
on “The Healing Ministry of the Church,” held in India
in March 1967. As many of the participants at Coonoor
have said, it was not just a conference “but a beginning”
—a beginning on the part of individual Christians and
the whole church in moving away from the concept of
isolated “medical missions,” to seeing the need for the
church to be a healing community in all aspects of
its work.

The Coonoor insights are being shared in numerous
ways. For example, Dr. Thomas A. Droege of Valpa-
raiso University (who served as study director of the
conference) had a major article in the spring 1968 issue
of Lutheran Social Welfare (Vol.8, No.1). That Thy