LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1977, Page 71

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PRESIDENT’S REPORT 71

The American Bible Society also receives attention in
this same section. I would hope that the Synod would
take a responsible action in this matter, so that we could
acquaint the people at all levels with the possibilities for
ministry and evangelism which are available to us in
the fine work which both the American Bible Society
and other Bible societies are rendering. Here is an area
where we really ought to make use of the very wonderful
facilities available to us.

Concerning the matters under Social Ministry, I hope
that the convention will pass strong and positive
resolutions on the ongoing support for world relief and
world hunger. In a year when our own nation in many
areas has suffered severe drought, we need to remember
how blessed and fortunate we are to have full stomachs
and full cupboards. We ought to be willing to share our
material benefits with those much, much less fortunate
than we are throughout the world.

In connection with some of the overtures mentioned
under Social Ministry, it perhaps would be very good for
our church also to speak on such subjects as alcoholism,
drug abuse, pornography, and some of the other social
ills which are eroding our moral stamina and corrupting
our youth. While we do not, by passing such resolutions,
stop these practices, we do at least let the world and
government agencies, and maybe even our own people,
know where we as a church stand on such issues.

Under the report on Special and Sundry Matters, I
would call the attention of this committee and of the
convention to the promotion and support of the Growth
in Ministry program which has been recommended by
the Board of Directors of the Synod. This is a valuable
and helpful program for assisting our pastors to growin
their perception of themselves and their ministries, and
it is something which needs the ongoing support of the
Synod. Moreover, it is not expensive, but it is very useful
and helpful.

A special floor committee has been created for this
convention to deal with the subject of Ethnic Concerns.
We have always had these concerns, but this time
largely because of the Black Centennial and because of
the report of the Black Mission Model Task Force, we
have created a special committee to deal with and to
highlight these concerns. I would urge the delegates to
study these matteres carefully and to give serious
consideration to supporting the recommendations of the
Black Mission Model Task Force. We need to involve our
ethnic brothers at the place where they live and where
their ministry occurs and give them a real feeling of
ownership and participation in the work of the church.
Many of them, I think, believe that they have been
deprived of this sense of ownership and participation.
Let us not fail in this, and let us also in the same
connection give a mighty impetus to the offering for the
Black Centennial, so that some meaningful work can be
done among Black people and the other minorities of our
country. We need to speak on Hispanic and Indian
concerns, on racism, and very definitively on support for
our wonderful college at Selma and its fine faculty and
administration.

Finally, we come to the Committee on Program
Implementation. While this comes at the very end, it is

not something insignificant. In fact, some regard this to
be the most important committee of this convention,
because we can talk until we are out of breath and worn
out, but if we do not have the money to support the
programs, nothing gets done. I am not going to go into
great detail on this, because ample opportunity will be
given to all of you to hear the very serious concerns
which we have. But I do want to say that if we want The
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod to remain a viable,
spiritual, and confessional force in the world, some
action must be taken in connection with the Synod’s
finances. According to the Charron Report, we are
basically a home-congregation-oriented church body.
And yet we have given to our Synod the task of running
sixteen colleges and seminaries, of promoting world
missions in twenty-three different countries in the
world, of developing parish programs for all of the
congregations of the Synod, and of carrying out all
kinds of ministries in all kinds of areas. And they are all
important.

We want the local congregation, the parochial school,
the local high school, and the community service
agencies to succeed. But we also want the Gospel to get
out into all the world. We want to educate our
professional church workers as adequately and as
effectively as possible. We must not lose our vision in our
concern only for that which immediately surrounds us.
Our Lord has said, “The fields are white unto harvest,”
not just the field around us or the fields in our own state
or our own District. Jesus tells us, “Preach the Gospel to
every creature,” not just to our children and to our next-
door neighbors. We are to “make disciples of all
nations,” not just a small segment of the United States.
We need to lift up our eyes to the opportunities and the
challenges which the church faces today in ministry to
people, in serving them, in bringing the Gospel to them.

At the local level we are an extremely well financed
church. Last year our people laid $375,000,000 on the
Lord’s altar, but when all was said and done, the money
which was available to the people of The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod to carry out mission work in
twenty-three different countries amounted to about
$7,000,000. In know that we believe more strongly in
missions than that. I would like to see us at least double
the synodical contribution to foreign missions. I would
like to see us guarantee to our professors at our colleges
and seminaries an adequate salary. I would like to see us
do the many things which could be done if we could raise
our annual synodical budget even by $5,000,000 or
$6,000,000 and keep ahead of inflation. I believe that our
people do not realize the need and the opportunities, and
I pray God that this convention and that you as floor
committees leading it can cause our people to lift up their
eyes and see the fields white unto harvest and really
hear the marvelous call of our heavenly Father, “Whom
shall I send, and who will go for Us?”

Let us be about our Lord’s work with excitement and
enthusiasm and proceed to carry out the assignments
given us by the church, so that His name be glorified,
that His Word may be proclaimed in its truth and purity,
its beauty, its wisdom, and its power to all men
throughout the world.