Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 353
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 353

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

PARISH EDUCATION AND SERVICES 353

through one of the finest annual program packets issued
by any denomination and through its learn-by-doing
workshop type of annual conventions. District depart-
ments and agencies of social ministry, such as Family and
Children’s Service agencies, in many parts of Synod are
providing an educational service with various kinds of
institutes for parents, families, and couples; for instance,
short courses in communities, congregations, or a cluster
of churches. We are asking all District family life com-
mittees to work closely with Lutheran social ministry
boards and agencies to emphasize the preventive
program of family education.

d. Divine Imperative

Education is big business in the state and in the
church. It has become highly organized and institution-
alized in a rapidly growing, ever more complex society.
We have much more to pass on to the next generation
than the ancients had to transmit. Life is no longer the
simple existence it was when Israel was a nomadic, agri-
cultural people. After confirmation the youth is bom-
barded with numerous concepts from varied philosoph-
ical viewpoints. Yet the basic truth set forth in Deut.
6:4-6 remains: If the Christian faith is to be a way of life,
not merc!, religious content in memory, it must first be
in the hearts of the adults to whom God gives the child.
They, above any others, out of the fullness of their own
faith must teach the faith in their own style of life in the
home. Such was also the direction of the apostles to the
first Christians who lived in an alien society in such
places as Ephesus and Colossae (Eph. 6:4; Col. 3:16-21).
Despite the highly organized education of our day a
youngster from birth through high school spends only
13 percent of his waking hours in school. Both the Biblical
directive and the modern situation call for intensification
of Christian family life education.

D. Special Assignments and Activities
1. Parish Renewal Through Education

The New York convention adopted a resolution to
strive for Parish Renewal Through Education. This
resolution encouraged each congregation to make a
searching examination of the nature, scope, and effec-
tiveness of its educational program; instructed the syn-
odical Board of Parish Education to develop self-study
documents to assist congregations in this self-examina-
tion; asked District boards to assist congregations in
the process; and encouraged each congregation to act
on its findings so that it could maintain its strengths,
correct its weaknesses, and provide the maximum pos-
sible program of Christian education for the sake of the
church in mission.

The Board of Parish Education prepared a study
guide on the theological basis of the work of the church
in Christian education under the title The Church at
Work—Teaching. A_ self-evaluation manual entitled
Inventory, Planning, and Action in Christian Education
was also prepared. District Boards of Parish Education
were asked to identify field-test congregations, and 32

congregations from 31 Districts participated in the field-
testing of these materials.

On the basis of the evaluations and suggestions from
the field-test congregations, the materials were revised.
A Leader’s Guide for The Church at Work—Teaching
was produced. A Project Director's Manual was de-
veloped with detailed suggestions for guiding the pro-
gram. A pamphlet entitled The Congregational Census
for Parish Renewal Through Education was produced.

The materials for Parish Renewal Through Education
were made available to congregations through District
Boards of Parish Education. Most Districts conducted
workshops to train circuit or regional leaders to brief
congregational leaders on the materials and program
in circuit workshops. It is hoped that congregations will
make use of the materials in 1969—70. Congregations
have been asked to appoint a project director and a self-
evaluation committee to make the self-study.

Parish Renewal will also be the theme of Parish
Education Month, 1969. This will encourage congrega-
tions to participate in this important effort to expand
and improve the educational program in all congrega-
tions of the Synod.

2. Confirmation Study Project

The Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod has been
a participant with The American Lutheran Church and
the Lutheran Church in America in a study of confirma-
tion. The Joint Commission on the Theology and Practice
of Confirmation made its report to the Presidents of the
three church bodies in December 1967. Included in the
recommendations was the suggestion that a study pro-
gram be authorized in the three church bodies under
the leadership of the respective Boards of Parish Edu-
cation.

Dr. Harms assigned the implementation of this proj-
ect to the Board of Parish Education. Arrangements
were made with District Presidents to present the report
of the commission to the Synod through pastoral con-
ferences. Ninety-nine such workshops on the Report of
the Joint Commission were arranged, and a staff of 48
persons was recruited to conduct the workshops.

Copies of the Study Book and the Leaders Guide were
sent to all pastors of Synod under date of Dec. 30, 1968.

Following the workshops on the Report of the Com-
mission, all pastors were encouraged to conduct study
sessions in the congregation, with their church council
and with church-school teachers. Congregations were
provided with a questionnaire which the pastor was
asked to summarize and to return to the Joint Commis-
sion by Aug. 1, 1969. The purpose of this feedback from
the congregations was to assist the commission in eval-
uating the recommendations that were made. On the
basis of the return the final report of the commission will
be prepared and presented to the church for considera-
tion at the 1970—71 conventions of these three church
bodies. Our Synod will receive the report at its 1971
convention.