Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1958, Page 24

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24 Proceedings of the Forty-fifth Convention

temptation to allow mission work to deteriorate into mere prose-
lytizing, or worse still, into what one critic branded as cannibalizing,
that is, trying to win members from other Lutheran churches.
Finally there is the field of charity, social service and the
performance of the so-called corporate acts of mercy. The church
has often mentioned seven of these as belonging to her especially.
As listed by Bernard Iddings Bell, an Episcopalian, in Understand-
ing Religion, they are:
. To feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty.
. To clothe the naked.
. To harbor the stranger and homeless.
. To visit the sick and nurse them.
. To minister to prisoners and captives.
. To care for orphans and widows.
7. To bury the dead.
To these have been added:
8. To defend innocent victims of oppression.
9. To seek to correct injustice.

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Any of these nine can be extended and actually has been extended.
Homes for the feeble-minded, nursing homes and institutional
homes for the aged, hospices of various kinds, refugee and skidrow
missions, soup kitchens or other systems of help during depressions
or calamities are examples. Some of this charitable work has
been taken over by agencies of the state or by such organizations
as the Red Cross, but it was originally inspired by Christian
example. The work of correcting injustices extends to protests
and passive resistance in wartimes. The ministers who sat in the
concentration camps in Europe during the last 25 years bore mute
testimony to the power of the spirit against the godless encroach-
ment of the state.

Instead of these four areas—the personal, congregational,
missionary, and charitable—the work of the church might be
divided into the two great categories of teaching and witnessing.
Teaching, which includes preaching, is the burden of the great
commission in the last chapters of Matthew and Mark. It means
teaching the being, the nature, and the work of God and how He
is revealed in Christ; teaching how to worship God and pray to
Him, how to imitate Christ and work with Him; teaching good
Christian morals and manners as the fruits of faith; teaching the
Bible, church history, and all secular subjects, too, if necessary,
for they are related to God and to human life in the light of God.

This teaching activity is done in many different forms. There
is the Sunday school, the newer vacation Bible school, the time-
tried and effective Christian day school, the equally effective
Christian high school, and the Lutheran university or college.
There are the confirmation instructions, perhaps the most hallowed
and unforgettable type of teaching for Lutheran Christians, the
nearest modern equivalent of what the disciples experienced sitting
at the feet of Christ for two years. There is the teaching that is
done from the pulpit and the teaching done in Bible classes, young
people’s, men’s, and women’s societies, in rallies, conferences,
conventions, and the newer retreats, in the missionary field, and for