Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 282
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 282

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

to
val
lo

Service to the Synod

A total of 332 teacher education graduates from the
4-year program have been placed by the Board of As-
signments of the Synod during the past 6 years that the
new program has been in existence. Graduates to be
presented for synodical placement in May 1969 include
43 men and 57 women. During the same 6-year period
approximately 212 sophomore graduate men were trans-
ferred to Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, as pre-
ministerial students. More than 20 percent of the en-
rollment at the St. Louis seminary in the 1968—69 school
year was made up of men who had their initial training
in Concordia College, St. Paul. We are indeed grateful
for the high privilege of serving the Synod in the prepa-
ration of future professional church men and women.
For our shortsightedness, mistakes. and failures during
the long 75 years of the existence of this school of the
prophets, we ask humble forgiveness for Jesus’ sake: for
the gains, victories, and achievements we thank God
and the wise counsel of the Board for Higher Education,
the officers of the Synod: and we are grateful for His
continued blessing and the unstinting support and en-
couragement of the Synod.

BoarpD OF CONTROL
Witiiam A. PoEuter, Executive Officer

(6-09)

Concordia Senior College,
Fort Wayne, Ind.

In conveying its biennial report to the Synod. the
Board of Control of Concordia Senior College first of all
gives thanks to God for His blessing upon the board's
efforts to provide, improve, and extend the services for
which The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod_ has
made this college responsible in the training program
for its future clergy.

We gratefully acknowledge that the harmony which
continues to characterize the efforts of the Board of
Control, the faculty, the student body. and the staff
flows from the grace of God and that this continuing
ability to work together is evidence of our common faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is in truth our refuge,
our strength, and our very present help in all that is
undertaken and accomplished in His name and for His
sake on this campus.

The Board of Control

The synodically assigned purpose which established
this college as a vital link in the Synod's system of
ministerial education has been the board’s basic cri-
terion in the selection of faculty members and in con-
ducting the educational activities on this campus, both
in student life areas and in academic areas, for the more
than 2,000 students who have been trained for the
church since 1957 at this relatively new college.

With great sadness we report that two charter mem-
bers of the board, Mr. Carl W. Geist of Cincinnati, Ohio,
and Rev. Clifford E. Aulick of Fort Wayne, secretary of

HIGHER EDUCATION

the board, were called to their heavenly home since the
Synod last convened.

We regret to report also that Mr. Robert Berning of
Fort Wayne, another charter member, has withdrawn
as a candidate for reelection after 15 years of continu-
ous service. Mr, Berning performed all legal services
for the college without charge during his tenure of
15 years on the board and has offered to continue this
service to the church in the future.

The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod owes all
three of these outstanding churchmen an unpayable
debt of gratitude for their invaluable contribution to
the creation of an outstanding ministerial college and
functional campus for the Synod.

Early in the biennium the board, with the concur-
rence of President Harms, appointed Rev. W. Leroy
Biesenthal of Utica, Mich.. as replacement for Rev. Paul
G. Lessmann of Peoria, Ill., who accepted a call to the
St. Louis seminary.

Since five board positions are included in the elec-
tions at Denver, the values inherent in continuity and
experience are obviously threatened, since the deaths
reported above. the interim appointment, and the with-
drawal from candidacy create a potential in which 50
percent of the board may have no experience back-
ground for this task when the board convenes again
in September.

Faculty

Since the New York convention the following men
have joined the teaching faculty:

John C. Gienapp. Instructor in Natural Science

James M. Childs, Instructor in Theology

Lawrence I, Rosenkoetter, Instructor in Psychology

Ted D. Westermann. Assistant Professor of Scciology

Robert F. Andersen, Assistant Professor of Speech

Melvin L. Zilz, Assistant Professor of Natural Science

Curtis H. Peters (Seminary Vicar). Instructor in Philos~
ophy

Grant L. Voth (1 year), Instructor in English

Students

As the only synodical school devoted exclusively to
ministerial education at the college level, this campus
is a sensitive barometer for enrollment and staffing
trends at the college level of synodical education.

The board regrets that it must report a declining en-
rollment during the biennium and a projection of a
further decline in the early future. Full-time enroll-
ment in 1967—68 was 496, and in 1968—69 it was 475.
At this writing the projection for 1969—70, based on
preliminary reports from the affiliated junior colleges,
is 435. Current enrollments of ministerial students in
the junior college freshman classes indicate a further
decline in the number of transfers in 1970.

Since the college was established to provide the
kinds of personal equipment which a minister needs
and must carry away from the school, the potential for
personal contact with students is enhanced rather than
handicapped by the prospective lower teacher-pupil