Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 265
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 265

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

HIGHER EDUCATION 265

to launch a 3-year program of regional seminars. Ac-
cording to the plan, weeklong theological seminars are
to be conducted in a number of centers in different
sections of the country. Two seminary professors are
released for one quarter in order to serve as a traveling
team for five seminars. A third team member. different
at each seminar, is chosen from a nontheological disci-
pline. In 1968 sociologists were invited to participate in
the experiment. The theme for the initial attempt was
“The Theology of Hope.” One faculty member treated
the theme exegetically, the other systematically. while
the sociologist spoke on the attempts of society to find
hopeful structures. Fifty pastors participated in the
three regional seminars.

The two institutes conducted on the St. Louis campus
in 1967 drew 317. The enrollment for 1968 was 178,
a decline caused in part by the fact that the Springfield
seminary was host to the vicar supervisors’ institute.

The enrollment of the correspondence school aver-
ages about 160. Forty-seven different courses are
offered.

Our tape recording library offers approximately 200
tape recordings of various lectures, panel discussions,
sermons, convocations, worship services, etc. These
tapes are mailed out on request at a charge of $1.00
a tape ($2.00 minimum order). A catalog is available
from the tape recording library.

Concordia Theological Monthly

The seminary faculty, under the managing editorship
of Prof. Herbert T. Mayer, discharged also its responsi-
bility for editing the Concordia Theological Monthly.
After the termination of the blanket subscription plan
for all Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod clergy, the
number of paid subscribers was 30 percent higher than
it had been prior to the inception of the plan. The sub-
scription list numbers between 5,700 and €,000. This
makes it one of the largest theological journals. Sub-
scribers are divided almost equally between synodical
and nonsynodical readers.

A recent professional survey reveals that approxi-
mately 45 percent of the synod’s clergy list the journal
as their favorite religious magazine and that 67 percent
of the clergy read it regularly. The same survey indi-
cates that readers value CTM both because it is the
theological journal of the Synod and because it is a
scholarly publication with a sound confessional orien-
tation.

The Library

Through the support of the Synod and many friends
of the library, Concordia Seminary Library continues to
grow and to play its important role in meeting the needs
of the curriculum at the B.D. and advanced levels.
The collection now numbers over 120,000 volumes —
we are nearing the halfway mark of our book capacity.
However, during the past 2 years, no large collections
were purchased. Because of the purchases of previous
years in certain subjects, the library is committed to
continue to supplement these collections as well as to

continue its active acquisitions program of current mate-
rials, rare research items, etc. The library must also
plan to have at the disposal of its student body and
faculty many of the new media now appearing in the
field of education, especially in their application to
theological education in the 1970s. This will not only
require materials but also trained technicians as mem-
bers of the library staff.

Because of staff limitations we are still faced with
a problem in the sorting and cataloging of unaccessioned
materials that have accumulated over the past 40 years.
A high percentage of this material represents imprints
of the 1500—1700s and will require much more of the
time of the cataloging staff than do the current pur-
chases. Thus emphasis should be placed on increasing
the processing staff, for a “collection is not enriched
until the books are on the open shelves and are rep-
resented in the public catalog. The most generous book
budget and the most judicious acquisition policy are
useless if the materials secured thereby go into locked
rooms of cataloging backlog.”

In previous reports to the Synod, emphasis was
placed on the growth and use of the collection. We feel
that as much emphasis should be placed on its pres-
ervation and repair. We have not had ample resources
to draw on to have an ongoing program in this area.
Work of this nature requires the services of highly
skilled people. If large sums of money are expended
to acquire valuable and rare items, then moneys should
be available to preserve them.

We continue to have cooperative endeavors with lo-
cal libraries, the Springfield seminary library, and mem-
ber libraries of the American Theological Library Asso-
ciation which have made it possible for us to continue
to operate effectively and economically in many areas
of library service.

Salaries

A major problem that continues to vex the Board of
Control is the salary situation pertaining to faculty
and staff. Although salary increases were authorized
by the Board for Higher Education with the consent
of the Board of Directors, the gap between faculty sal-
aries and those offered by the Synod, the Districts, and
the congregations for positions of similar importance
and demands is continuing to widen. The major part
of the salary increase which the Board of Control was
able to grant came out of local funds rather than from
the synodical treasury. Though Concordia Seminary is
the third-largest seminary in the country, the salary of
its professors and administrators continues to be well
below the median of accredited seminaries of the Amer-
ican Association of Theological Schools. Qualified men
are often unavailable because they cannot afford to
accept calls to the seminary due to the salary differen-
tial. without depriving their families of essentials to
which they become accustomed. Conversely, we have
lost some valuable staff men to other areas of the
church's ministry because of present salary conditions.
We again urge the convention to take aggressive action