Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1954, Page 124

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124 Proceedings of the Forty-Third Convention,

areas are being consolidated and combined wherever conditions
will permit, in order that more man power be released for Mace-
donian calls in new areas. Mission work in the South is not easy.
Segregation barriers make work by white pastors difficult, although
the power of the Gospel in breaking down these unholy discrim-
inatory do’s and don'ts is being marvelously demonstrated. The
most difficult barriers to overcome are the Old Adam desires for
ease, worldly pleasures, and the gratification of fleshly lusts. The
steps in the founding of a new station are as follows: (1) survey;
(2) Bible studies in homes; (3) the opening of a Sunday school
and vacation Bible school; (4) preaching services; (5) choosing
the location for the permanent site; (6) building church when
prospective growth warrants; (7) establishing Christian day school.
The percentage of growth in Alabama’s largest cities in the past
decade is reported by the U. S. Census Bureau as follows: Birming-
ham, 21.8%; Mobile, 63.9%, Montgomery, 36.4%; Gadsden, 50.7%;
Tuscaloosa, 68.8%; Bessemer, 24.6%; Florence, 58.7%; Phenix City,
51.8%; Prichard, 212.5%; Auburn, 178.1%; Tuskegee, 70.5%; Selma,
15.2%. (The Colored population of Alabama is 32% of the total.)
Surely the above is an urgent calling for mission expansion. It
should also be reported that intensive mission work in areas and
localities where we are already established is not being neglected.
A new church at Maplesville was dedicated April 25, 1954. Here
the communicant membership had gone down to four. The dedi-
cation service was attended by 350. Now we have strong hopes
that Maplesville will become one of Alabama’s first self-support-
ing congregations. A beautiful new church and school building
has been dedicated in East Selma, where we have been laboring
since 1920.
Alabama’s Christian Day Schools

The Synodical Conference is supporting thirty Christian day
schools in Alabama. The total enrollment is 1,280, an increase of
77 over the previous year. These schools are fruitful as the means
of thorough indoctrination in an otherwise dry and barren land
of untutored secularism. They are also a fruitful means of counter-
acting the present-day treacherous and subtle influence of the
teaching of moral and civic righteousness on the part of tax-
supported schools as the way of salvation. The pastors plus the
forty-four teachers in our Christian day schools and Academy
constitute a formidable bulwark in the might of God’s infallible
Word against the rulers and principalities of spiritual darkness in

is present world. Thus these schools are not a wasted expendi-
ture. It is the policy in good stewardship to close schools which
are not productive on account of a non-co-operating congregation;
but more schools are opened elsewhere. Furthermore, the Chris-
tian day schools of Alabama are providing nearly all our students
enrolled in Alabama Lutheran Academy, from which number our
pre-ministerial students are produced. We are expecting a steady
increase in the number of ministerial students for Immanuel,
Greensboro. At present eight of the ministerial students enrolled
at Immanuel are from Alabama. Five more from Alabama have
declared their intention to enter Immanuel in September for the
new school year. Half of the 15,042,692 Negroes of the United States
live in ten Southern States: Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi,
Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, and