Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 477
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 477

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

464 STEWARDSHIP AND FINANCES; RETIREMENT AND BENEFITS

The mission education function of the department
aims for a year-round program of mission education
throughout the congregation. Inspiration and informa-
tion is needed if we are to be with Christ on His mission.

The mission education function of the department is
setting up a new cycle of long- and short-range studies
for the next 6 years. Interpreting both the mission and
the missions of the church through personalities and
events, the mission studies will use a full range of
printed and audiovisual materials and will aim to satisfy
particular needs and requests of our congregations. All
of these services are aimed at three basic levels: chil-
dren, youth, and adults.

The mission education function of the department
has been hampered by staff vacancies. Our staff has
had to stretch itself to cover the most essential responsi-
bilities of the department. The result has been less at-
tention specifically given to mission education. Our
hope and prayer is that God will lead competent people
into this area of the church’s need for a new and
stronger thrust in mission education.

Facts for Which to Be Thankful

After Twenty Years

In 1949 Dr. John E. Herrmann was called by the
Board of Directors of the Synod to function as the first
stewardship counselor and to build a stewardship de-
partment on the old Department of Missionary Educa-
tion and Publicity. The program was developed in close
touch with the people of the Synod and prospered in
response to their current and growing stewardship
needs. It has endeavored to remain a grass-roots move-
ment through the years, seeking to reevaluate and im-
prove its program through pilot projects, stewardship
schools on the District and synodical level, and keeping
well informed about stewardship advances made in other
church bodies. The stewardship program of our Synod
focuses on the total stewardship life. It endeavors to
equip our members for a lifelong ministry of service that
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished
unto all good works.

God has richly blessed the stewardship efforts of the
past 20 years in some very evident ways. A growing
number of dedicated stewardship leaders and followers
in every congregation and every District of the Synod
live for Jesus Christ, both in their daily vocations and
in the institutional church. Our people show a marked
missionary consciousness and a growing number of Mis-
sion Eds and Ednas encourage a greater mission con-
sciousness through congregation mission projects. Many
lay people volunteer for services in mission fields at
home and abroad. The mission materials produced by
the department enjoy wide usage.

The regular giving of our people for their work
through the Synod has increased from $3,564,788 in 1949
to $24,651,211 in 1968, and from $3.08 per communicant
in 1949 to $12.80 per communicant in 1967. From a place
well down the scale compared to other larger Protestant
groups, giving for synodical missions is now among the

forefront of larger American Protestant churches. All-
purpose giving has also markedly increased. In 1949 per
communicant giving in this category was $49.57. In 1967
it had climbed to $119.56. Many other statistics evidence
growth in Christian stewardship. Such evidences of
“success” cannot help but stimulate us to thanksgiving
for past blessings and confidence in God’s power to face
the stewardstip challenges in our present day with hon-
esty and optimism.

The Times in Which We Live

These are not easy days in which the church is to
be the church. Yet this is the very time when the
church should be at her best. This is the time when
she has her great opportunity. The great battle on Cal-
vary has been won. She is promised victory over the
very forces of hell as Christ leads, nurtures, and
strengthens her to fulfill her glorious destiny. What is
needed if the church is to move forward with enthusi-
asm in such times as these? Without Christ through His
Word and Spirit no church body or synod can accom-
plish anything that pleases Him or hastens the greater
fulfillment of the petition, “Thy kingdom come.” But
He can use that church whose members continue to
grow as His disciples.

Communication

Congregations came together to form the Synod for
the singular purpose of helping each other more mea-
surably to fulfill their God-given mission. To see this
accomplished with the highest degree of effectiveness.
attention must be given to meaningful and frequent
exchanges among all involved. Today with both “big-
ness” and complex issues facing the church, we must
remain open to new means of communication and strive
to find new ways which will encourage congregations
and the Synod to grow together in oneness of purpose
and program. We must be wide awake to the use of
modern techniques in graphic and visual aids to inter-
pret our corporate program to our congregations. Effec-
tive methods of communication are not luxuries but
necessities critical to the success of Christ's mission.

Fiscal Problems

Legitimate fiscal demands made by each part of the
church’s program, coupled with the lack of dollars to
go around, understandably create tensions within
synodical structures. Some facts help bring the problem
into focus.

1. The average member is giving a decreasing per-
centage of his increased income through his congrega-
tion for the work of his congregation, his District, and
his Synod.

2. From 1964 through 1967 the average congregation
gave less and less of its local income to its work through
the Synod.

3. The percentage of total income which the Synod
has received from the Districts in recent years has been
shrinking.