Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 223
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 223

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

SYNODICAL ADMINISTRATION 223

sponsibilities attendant to a contemporary publishing
operation.

As for its history, CPH made the transition from
synodical printery (Synodaldruckerei) to synodical pub-
lisher when by resolution of the Synod, in 1878, it was
named Concordia-Verlag. Its close ties with Der Luthe-
raner as publisher were evident from the beginning.
The publishing of this periodical was in fact a principal
reason why Trinity Church in St. Louis and later the
Synod set up a specific institution as its publishing arm.

The Lutheran Witness, at first the project (and fi-
nancial problem child) of a pastoral conference in Ohio,
then of the English Synod, was, in the words of Dr.
Edmund P. Seuel (in the book Ebenezer, p. 303), “ab-
sorbed by Concordia Publishing House” when that
Synod became a District in the Missouri Synod in 1911.

The competent services Concordia has rendered com-
mend its continuance as the Synod’s publisher. It is
equipped and staffed to perform continued service in
the publishing ministry with which the Synod charged
it. It is entirely capable of shouldering the responsi-
bilities of producing, distributing, and managing the
Synod’s official periodicals.

Not an Either-Or

The argument of those who advocate such drastic
change rests on a dictionary definition of a publisher
as “owner” of the periodicals it publishes. This ap-
proach not only ignores the historical development and
special needs of the religious ministry for the Synod but
flies in the face of the current situation in a major
segment of the secular press. With reference to the issue
at hand, their line of reasoning is this: Since CPH
neither owns the Synod’s official periodicals nor can
use them to promulgate its own views, it follows that
it cannot be the publisher. It is added, by way of stating
a false alternative: The Lutheran Church — Missouri
Synod is owner and operator of these periodicals, there-
fore their publisher.

Such reasoning is persuasive only if the Publishing
House were a corporate entity entirely separate from
the Synod. Then one would have to choose between
CPH and the Synod. The fact is, however, that Concordia
is not an independent, private firm. It is not a body
foreign to the Synod. Concordia Publishing House is
controlled by the Synod. Its Board of Directors is
elected by the Synod. Its function is what the Synod
said it should be: to be its publishing arm. Because
CPH is controlled by the Synod, it has no theological
views other than those to which the Synod itself is offi-
cially committed.

Stating the Case

The signers of this report respectfully request that
serious attention be given to the following observations
and recommendations:

1. Concordia is the Synod’s publisher. To authorize
other synodical groups to become publishers of their
own materials is not only to lay the ground for the
duplication of efforts and for crippling confusion but

also to undercut the very institution the Synod has
established for its overall publications program.

2. To take the alternative course is to exchange Con-
cordia’s demonstrated performance in the periodicals
field for an untried, unknown, and unpredictable ad-
venture, and this at a time when publishing enterprises
in Christendom and the nation are encountering grow-
ing risks and failures. This fact is witnessed to by the
sudden deaths of many new journals and magazines and
the slow, lingering deaths of once well-established ones.
This is not the time for the periodicals board and staff,
challenged as they are by their editorial responsibilities,
to be burdened with the duties and decisions attendant
on the overall publishing operation, burdens that de-
mand their own experience and competence.

3. The cost factors involved in transferring the
Synod’s periodicals from one publisher to another need
far more exploration before such a step can be pru-
dently taken.

4. Present working relationships call for the editorial
commission and staff to be responsible for editorial
content, and CPH for promotion. advertising, and other
publishing tasks. Admittedly, editorial content is never
totally divorced from the business and management
aspects of a publications program. The signers of this
minority report believe that the satisfactory working
formula can be continued whereby Concordia Publishing
House and the Editorial Commission for Official Peri-
odicals can function together within the framework of
the present relationship.

5. The signers of this minority report further be-
lieve that the Synod would be well advised to reaffirm
its positions in viewing Concordia Publishing House as
its only publishing arm by adopting the following Hand-
book revision.

ART. XI. PUBLICATIONS

C. LUTHERAN WITNESS, LUTHERAN WITNESS
REPORTER, and DER LUTHERANER

11.81 Official Periodicals

The official periodicals of The Lutheran Church — Mis-
souri Synod, owned and published by the Synod, shall be the
Lutheran Witness, the Lutheran Witness Reporter, and Der
Lutheraner. All official notices and reports shall be published
in the Lutheran Witness Reporter.

11.82 Editorial Supervision, Management, and Production

a. An Editorial Commission consisting of nine members
appointed by the President of the Synod after consultation
with the Vice-Presidents shall be charged with editorial su-
pervision of the official periodicals. The members of the
Editorial Commission shall serve for terms of 4 years in
such manner that the terms of four members shall alternate
with the terms of the other five members. A Vice-President
of the Synod, appointed by the President to represent his
office, and a representative of the Board of Directors of Con-
cordia Publishing House shall attend the meetings of the
Editorial Commission. The Editorial Commission shall meet
at least four times a year.

b. Concordia Publishing House shall be charged with the
production, subscription promotion, distribution, and man-
agement of the Synod’s official periodicals.

11.83 Responsibilities of Editorial Commission
a. The Editorial Commission shall determine the editorial