Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1950, Page 62

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

62 Proceedings of the Forty-First Convention,

THE SOUTHEASTERN DISTRICT

By the Rev. William von Spreckelsen, Executive Secretary
Missions and Church Extension

The past biennium has seen progress in the transition whereby
the congregations formerly associated with Immanuel Lutheran
Conference have come under the supervision of the Board for
Missions and Church Extension of the Southeastern District of The
Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod.

Most of the pastors of the Conference living in this area have
applied for and received releases from the Missionary Board and
have been received into the Southeastern District with advisory
status. As yet the congregations have not made application for
membership. That will be considered at a future date when mature
and reasonable judgment deems the time and move to be advan-
tageous and to the glory of God.

The writer is but newly inducted into this office, but a limited
study and survey of the field made with Executive Secretary Karl
Kurth during March, 1950, has indicated the following:

A. There is a woeful lack of manpower, which can only be
supplied through Immanuel Lutheran College or some similar
seminary program. An indigenous Church will be the strongest
Church. This can be achieved with God’s blessing by the staffing
of the parishes with trained workers of vision and consecration.
There are fields that are being served on a part-time basis, which
is detrimental to both congregations in the relationship, for example,
Atlanta, Ga., and Spartanburg, S. C.

B. There must be more adequate appropriations of funds to
bring the workers above mere subsistence levels and to level off
present inequities in compensation. The Board for Missions and
Church Extension of the Southeastern District of The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod is considering a long-range program
whereby the Negro missionaries can be raised in salary scale to
a basic salary comparable to that received by the white workers.
But as long as the aforesaid District is a heavily subsidized District,
the only way in which the present inequities can be removed and
hardship cases alleviated: will be through more generous appro-
priations from the mission budget of the Synodical Conference.

C. Church Extension funds are sorely needed. In metropolitan
centers mission churches are definitely handicapped by inadequate
facilities. There are no means available to develop a community
program which appears to be necessary to interest prospects, nor
are there Sunday school and fellowship facilities at hand. These
are important to Negro congregations because social contacts are
necessarily restricted to church life and the development of these
church-related social contacts should be encouraged. At present
these congregations have a facility the maximum usefulness of
which is the minimum essential to worship.

As we read the accounts of the former Superintendent William
H. Gehrke (cf. Proceedings, 40th Convention, 1948, pp. 88—94),
without any desire to appear critical, one cannot but wonder why
so many years of endeavor have added so little to the Kingdom?
In fact, there seems to be retrogression, noted principally in the
closing of schools, rather than progress. In this field we are toiling
in that portion of the vineyard where the Negro population ranges