LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1995, Page 88

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88 CONVENTION ESSAYS

people enabled him to exert a strong initiative for imple-
menting his deep commitment to God’s mission. This he did
in his preaching, teaching, publishing, and personally pur-
suing the placement of pastors in strategic locations. He
had'a high regard for the local congregation and the Priest-
hood of believers.

In a sermon Dr. Walther once commented on a new era
for mission outreach following a period of’ Rationalism i in
Germany. —

in part he said,

Now what was it, beloved, by which the change for
the better made itself known?—Among other things es-

pecially by a newly awakened zeal for missions to the
heathen..... |

But, beloved, the mission societies that had arisen
apa sign of the newly awakened Christian life were
also a sign that the whole church was not what it
should be. For where things are as they should be,
there is no need for small mission societies to be orga-
nized within the church, for the whole church must it-
self be a great mission society. .

The Christian Church itself is the proper mission so-
ciety founded by God Himself.'

“The Christian Church itself is the proper mission society
founded by God Himself.” Now, when we think about grow-
ing in outreach, there is something to discuss. How is it
with our congregations? We thank God for today’s mission
societies and partnerships. May God bless each of them to
stimulate the whole church into greater outreach. .

F.C. D. Wyneken (1810-1876). Wyneken became known
as “The Father of Home -Missions” in The Lutheran
Church—-Missouri Synod. During the course of his ministry
in America he accepted a call as pastor of the congregations
at Friedheim and Fort Wayne, Indiana..In addition he also
did itinerant mission work, traveling on foot, on horseback,
by wagon, and by any other available means.

In his travels he was deeply pained by not being able to

meet the crying spiritual needs of the many early settlers.

in that area. Wyneken therefore made many personal ap-
peals for help. He produced a famous tract, published in
1844, titled “The Distress of the German Lutherans in
North America.” His appeal came to the attention of Wil-

helm Loehe (1808-1872).

Loehe was pastor in Neuendettelsau, Bavaria, 1832-
1872. He became well known because of his interest in mis-
sions and charities. Between 1842 and 1854, when the con-
nection between him and the Missouri Synod ended, he un-
dertook the task of finding, training, and supporting men
for the work in America. The majority of the men who be-
came charter voting and advisory members of the Synod in
1847 were Loehe missionaries.

Wilhelm Loehe must also be remembered for his initia-
tive in starting work among American Indians. He found
August Friedrich Craemer, who had heard about Loehe’s
appeal. Craemer together with one couple, six men, and
four women, who were fiancées of four of the men, came
from Germany into the primitive area of Michigan in 1845
and established a colony at Frankenmuth.

The success of that colony gave Loehe the determination
to establish other colonies in Michigan: Frankentrost,
Frankenlust, and Frankenhilf. He also founded the semi-

nary in Fort Wayne (later located in Springfield, Illinois,

and since 1976 again in Fort Wayne, Indiana).

-To summarize, within the space of 10 years Loehe sent
more than 80 workers: pastors, candidates of theology, -
“emergency men” (Nothelfer), students of theology, and
teachers to America.

We thank and praise God for the influence of Wilhelm
Loehe and the Sendlinge who were sent by him to Amer-
ica. They contributed much to the mission zeal of the Mis-
souri Synod.

Ferdinand Sievers. Sievers, born in 1816 in Hanover,
heard about Wyneken’s appeal and offered himself to Wil-
helm Loehe. Sievers was sent by Loche to the United States
in 1847 at age 31. He headed the Lutherans who founded
Frankenlust, Michigan, and served as their pastor till his
death in 1893. This unusual man was more than a pastor.
He was also a restless, energetic missionary. He traveled
in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and in Minnesota in 1856,
two years before it became a state.

After only three years in the U.S. Sievers was named
chairman of the Synod’s Mission Board, which had at the
time only three members. As its chairman he frequently
visited the stations of the (American) Indian Mission.

But Sievers had another outreach burden on his heart—
foreign missions. During the first 47 years of the Synod’s
existence when the major attention had to be given to the
overwhelming numbers of German immigrants, it was the
incessant appeals of Sievers, like “the voice of one crying in
the wilderness,” that helped the early Missouri Synod to
become outreach minded not only to their own kind but also
to peoples in other lands. For example, of 53 articles in Der
Lutheraner (the German-language Lutheran Witness) be-
tween 1849 and 1868 pertaining to missions, most were au-
thored by Sievers. Finally in 1893, the Synod reorganized
and expanded the original board of three to a new board of
10 members, the Board for Foreign Missions, of which Siev-
ers was to be a member, but the Lord in His mercy called
Sievers home to Himself on September 9, 1893. From his
deathbed in the circle of his family he breathed his last au-

_ dible prayer: “Lord have mercy also upon the dear heathen,

and help them that they may come to know Thee their Sav-
ior and be saved. ...”

Sievers is remembered as the chief architect of the
Synod’s first board for foreign work. This is the board that
called and commissioned Theodore Naether and Franz
Mohn to begin LCMS work in India. This year marks the
100th anniversary of that beginning, which God has so
richly blessed by bringing into being the India Evangelical
Lutheran Church and over the decades, the worldwide mis-
sion endeavors of the Synod and a Lutheran family of part-
ner churches. .

In remembering the early as well as all our modern-day
pioneers of our church these fine attributes stand out: (1)
deep commitment to Christ; (2) faithfulness to the Scrip-
tures and the Lutheran Confessions; (3) devotion to prayer;
and (4) active pursuit of mission opportunities.

In a very real sense they were movers and shakers who
practiced patience, persistence, promotion for outreach and
were progressive, though limited by the primitive circum-
stances in which they lived. In the early years they had to