Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1958, Page 54

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54 Proceedings of the Forty-fifth Convention

At Tuskegee, Rev. David Friedrich of Auburn has been giving
faithful service. An attractive store-front mission adjoining the
campus has been prepared. Here services are held regularly for
students and for the few communicants of the city. Here we need
to invest a large sum for a student chapel and a Christian day
school.

Our people are thankful to the Synodical Conference for their
Christian day schools. These have proven to be the means under
God’s blessings for indoctrination and for winning families for
firmly planting the Lutheran Church in Alabama. Without the
Christian day school our Church would have had threatening dif-
ficulties in this land where Lutheranism was little known. A marked
increase in the support of Christian schools has been shown the
past biennium. It is our policy to apply good stewardship in ad-
ministering mission funds for our schools. Where schools do not
produce, they are closed. For every school that is closed it is our
purpose to open two in its place in promising mission territory.
Four additional teachers have been used in the past year at Trin-
ity, Prichard, at Mt. Calvary, Maysville, and at Ebenezer, Atmore,
where we had increased enrollments. We thank God for our Chris-
tian schools.

Salaries have been increased for pastors and for teachers. This
revision has been made, first, on basis of salaries being paid by
the Church to other missionaries in our geographic area and, sec-
ondly, the adoption of a scale that is within reach of attainment
toward self-support.

Frequently we are asked: “Why is there no greater progress
in Negro mission work?” In answer I give the following character-
istics of our mission field. (1) Our people are migratory. Fifty
per cent of our communicants have moved to other areas the past
ten years. These have been carefully followed up and have in-
creased statistical reports of other districts, but it takes time to
gain new members to replace these losses. Since more industries
are now moving to the South, the beginning of a migration south-
ward is the expectancy. (2) The opposition to the Lutheran Church
in the South has been harassing, like that of the Old Testament
idolatrous tribes against the comparatively small nation of God’s
people. The communicant ratio in Alabama is 1.4 per thousand.
False doctrine and superstition bombard hard against us. It is
a prevalent belief among the sectarians that the payment of dues
is a ticket to heaven. It takes a highly emotionalized revival to
gain an audience for the preacher. Then the going all the way
under in baptism is taken as an ex opere outward righteousness
that guarantees heaven. Thus we have “principalities, powers,
rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness in high places” strong
against us, so that even an existence at times should be considered
a gain, Let us not forget the severe trials and persecutions of our
early missionaries, Bakke and Schmidt, as they remained steadfast
in sowing the good “seed” in Alabama. There is great gain in much
strength in Alabama. (3) Upon the percentage basis, there have
been gains in Alabama. Negro missions of the Synodical Confer-
ence had a gain of 5.7% in 1956, which is the highest percentage
gain of all the Lutheran bodies in America (Lutheran Witness,
Nov. 5, 1957, p.551). (4) There has been a woeful lack of laborers.