Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 414
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 414

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

tid CHURCH LITERATURE AND PUBLICATIONS; PUBLIC RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS

Overwhelming Population Growth

For the first time in 2,000 years we are technically
equipped to fulfill the mandate of the Great Commis-
sion: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to
every creature.”

Only our Lord could have foreseen the magnitude
of the task of reaching all men in a civilization growing
by 1,080 human beings per minute, 259,200 a day. Popu-
lation is exploding.

In 1492, when Columbus sailed to America,
world population stood at 250,000.000 (250
million) people.

Today. less than 500 years later. it is
3,000.000,000 (3 billion) and, continuing at
the present growth rate, will snowball to
6,000,000,000 (6 billion) by the year 2000
just 31 years from now.

Latin America alone is growing from 104
million in 1930 to 624 million by 1995, a
600°; growth.

In the last third of the 20th century. world
population will again double.

And 100 years from now it is estimated that
an incomprehensible 24.000,000,000 (24 bil-
lion) people will populate the globe.

It is almost impossible to overstate the sense of
urgency attached to the “Great Commission” to preach
the Gospel to every creature when the population ex-
plosion and electronic mass communication are simul-
taneous phenomena of our generation.

Six billion people 30 years from now. 24 billion by
2100, and they all must hear of the Savior!

With ghettos turning people out, high rises fencing
people in: with an increasingly impersonal and with-
drawing population in the suburbs; with the incompre-
hensible growth of population, there can be no doubt
that electronic mass communication must continue to
be a prime carrier of the Good News in Jesus Christ.

The Television Future

With this challenge before it the television board,
mindful of the leadership forged by the Synod through
the innovating “This Is the Life” and of its commitment
to communication, developed a position statement in
December 1968 which calls new attention to the chal-
lenges of the second threshold, speaks to a unified TV
ministry. and outlines a course of action for near- and
far-term television operation here and overseas.

The Synod's Board of Directors approved the basic
assumptions and objectives of that position statement:

BASIC ASSUMPTIONS
LUTHERAN TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS

1. Definition and implementation of a synodical tele-
vision ministry which seeks “to make Jesus Christ, Chris-
tian truth, and the Christian way of life known through-
out the world” is the assigned responsibility of the Board
for Lutheran Television Productions.

2. The “television ministry” consists of providing ma-
terials for domestic and international telecasts and of pro-

viding materials and consultative services for Districts.
congregations, and educational agencies.

3. Television activities at home and abroad are coor-
dinated through the television board and its staff work-
ing in consultation and cooperation with related agencies.

4. The future potential and the challenge of television
necessitate a substantial continuing basic level of synodi-
cal support and will require broader and deeper financial
commitment to expand this ministry.

5. In carrying out the television ministry, the Synod
has the benefits of a joint sponsorship association with,
and the valuable cooperation of, the Lutheran Laymen’s

League.
OBJECTIVES
LUTHERAN TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS

1. To confront the unconcerned or uninformed non-
Christian, wherever he may be found, with the Word,
through which the Holy Spirit calls men to faith in Jesus
Christ and gives them eternal life.

2. To dispose viewers toward a favorable reception of
additional approaches by the church via media and
through local follow-up.

3. To edify the Christian viewer and stimulate func-
tional Christian life.

4. To convey to the public mind an image of The Lu-
theran Church — Missouri Synod as a relevant church
body with a vital interest in people and their problems,
thus enhancing the potential of fruitful contact between
itself and the unchurched and creating a growing res-
ervoir of goodwill and respect.

5. To assist congregations, District media people, edu-
cational agencies or projects within the church by pro-
viding creative ideas, information, programs, and personal
staff contacts.

6. To provide leadership in the research and develop-
ment aspects of the television ministry of The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod.

7. To provide the necessary professional and ecclesias-
tical contact with national and international television
developments and activities.

In order to implement the assumptions and objectives
more fully and to give additional focus and direction to
its task, the board is reflecting the thrust of these con-
cerns in memorials submitted in conjunction with this
report to the Synod.

Future TV Activity

Recognizing the challenge of presenting the good
news of salvation in Jesus Christ in such a manner that
the Holy Spirit can nourish the heart, generate faith.
and sanctify life. the TV board continues to address
itself to additional and new ways in which the Word can
be presented meaningfully on television in ever more
complex and competitive circumstances.

In its program development section the TV board,
with a view toward entrance into more prime-time peri-
ods than those presently available to “This Is the Life”
as a public service, looks to the immediate future as
a time for experimentation, while at the same time
maintaining its present position of leadership with the
“This Is the Life’ series.

Serious consideration is being given to three ap-
proaches aimed at significantly larger national audiences
whose complexion is much different from the Sunday
morning audience.

Research is proceeding on a TV Special for the
Christmas season, when the Gospel message is most ap-
propriate on TV, a U.S. and overseas children’s program