LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 49

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SYNOD REPORTS
Lutheran Memorial at Frohna and the “Hill of Peace” historic church
at Friedenberg, near Perryville.
The Institute provides several significant benefits to the Synod:
1. CHI is dedicated to the long-term preservation of the official
records of the Synod and its work through its boards, commissions, officers, and other entities.
2. It provides access to these records and assistance with finding
information to assist the Synod’s staff in carrying out their work.
3. It provides guidance and counsel to the districts, congregations,
educational institutions, and other entities of the Synod in the management and preservation of their important historical records.
4. It publishes articles on the history of Lutheranism in America so
that people may better understand and appreciate their Lutheran
heritage.
5. It seeks to educate the members of the Synod in their own history through museum exhibits, educational materials, and online
resources.
6. It conducts conferences for the general public on Lutheran history
and to train archivists of the Synod’s districts, congregations, auxiliaries, and other entities in their work.
Goals and Assignments
1. The primary goal toward which the Institute’s efforts and resources
have been directed in the past triennium was the development and
construction of the new Concordia Historical Institute Museum
located in the LCMS International Center.
2. The 2007 LCMS convention (Res. 2-08) called on CHI, in cooperation with the President of the Synod, to engage in several
activities to celebrate “significant anniversaries for The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod,” specifically the 200th anniversaries
of the births of Wilhelm Loehe (2008), F. C. D. Wyneken (2010)
and C. F. W. Walther (2011).
3. It is the ongoing goal of CHI to improve its services to the Synod
and it members, as enumerated above, by continuing to gather and
preserve historical records and artifacts, making them available
for research, educating the church and the general public about
Lutheran history and heritage, and helping others to care for the
records of their work.
Performance Assessment
1. The CHI museum project at the LCMS International Center was
designed to present an overview of the Synod’s history, including
its roots in the Lutheran Reformation of the sixteenth century, its
origins out of the German Lutheran immigration movements of
the nineteenth century, its development as a national church body,
its worldwide mission outreach, and its expanding use of modern
resources to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the world. A
very significant portion of staff time and resources during the past
three years was directed toward the completion of this project. CHI
collections were thoroughly searched for suitable documents and
artifacts to display. Much time was spent researching the history
of the Synod’s work in missions, education, theology, and service
in order to tell the story in an engaging way.
The new museum was dedicated and opened to the public on July
26, 2009. It is open during the regular hours of the International
Center and is staffed by volunteer greeters throughout the day.
It is designed to provide a self-guided walk through the Synod’s
history. Groups may arrange in advance for a docent to accompany the group through the museum, highlight special features
of the stories that are depicted, and answer questions. The museum’s presence in the International Center offers opportunities for

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visitors to the Synod’s headquarters to learn about the background
of the LCMS and witness examples of the mission dedication
of predecessors in the faith. Participants in meetings and conferences at the International Center from around the world also have
an opportunity to understand more about the Synod’s history and
heritage.
Special efforts have been made to reach out to area schools with
this new resource. Study guides have been produced for students
as their classes visit the museum. School ministry and communications staff members at the International Center have been working
with CHI staff to develop this area, and local educators have also
been involved.
Besides this new museum, CHI has continued to use other exhibits and displays to enhance understanding of Lutheran history. The
museum exhibit gallery at the main CHI facility on the Concordia
Seminary campus presented a major exhibit on the history of the
military chaplaincy in the LCMS (special thanks to the very significant and excellent cooperation of the Ministry to the Armed
Forces staff of the Board for Mission Services). Many former
chaplains cooperated by providing artifacts and mementoes of
their service for the exhibit. The display was well received by visitors from many denominations.
In cooperation with Concordia Seminary, CHI also hosted a special traveling Chinese Christian art exhibit in its main gallery from
October 2009 through February 2010. The exhibit was titled Look
toward the Heavens: The Art of He Qi (pronounced huh-chee). In
addition to viewing over thirty pieces of He Qi’s art, guests also
saw various artifacts from the CHI collection, including some
pieces that were examples of Chinese folk art that strongly influenced the artist. Artifacts on display included ancestral tablets,
silks, idols, musical instruments, dolls, and everyday items such
as shoes, combs, and chopsticks. The exhibit also included a video
of interviews with He Qi conducted by the seminary.
CHI museum staff also prepared special exhibits on the seminary
campus for Black History Month during the past several years.
They assisted several district archivists with displays and exhibit
materials for their district conventions in 2009, and prepared a special Reformation traveling exhibit for use in Lutheran schools in
the fall of 2009.
2. Limited time and resources, particularly due to the work on the
new museum, resulted in only a partial accomplishment of the
anniversary celebration activities called for in 2007 Res. 2-08.
Several events took place in 2008 in observance of the 200th
anniversary of the birth of Wilhelm Loehe, including an international conference in Neuendettelsau, Germany, and a conference
at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, but CHI was
not involved directly in these events.
CHI did arrange for the presentation of a series of papers on Loehe,
Wyneken, and Walther in connection with its biennial Conference
on Archives and History held in October 2009. It plans to publish
those papers in the Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly and
make them available on its Web site. And it still hopes to carry
out the preparation of educational resources on these three significant figures in LCMS history and to work with others toward the
wider dissemination of the works of C. F. W. Walther during the
anniversary years of 2010 and 2011.
3. The work of gathering and preserving historical records has continued, though financial limitations have made it difficult to provide
for the full processing, arrangement, and cataloging that the
records require for their effective and efficient use. New resources
continue to come from around the Synod and from interested individuals. CHI regularly provides guidance to congregations that are
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