The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1916, Page 58

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

58

The Lutheran Pioneer.

ee

Our Colored Mission Field.

Some months ago we called the attention of our
readers to the immense mission field open to us and
our workers in the so-called Black Belt of the
South with its Colored population of more than
seven millions. ‘The educational facilities provided
for the Colored children of this section of our
country are positively deplorable. ‘The schools are
few in number, and often are open only three or
four months of the year. The religious need of
the Colored people of this section is even greater.
While perhaps one-half of the Colored population
of the Black Belt nominally belongs to some chureh,

The ‘Black Belt.’

the morality of many of these is very low. The
religious knowledge of most church-members and
many preachers is very meager; and what is even
worse, many of the preachers and church-members
despise all religious knowledge as a dead “book
religion,” and refuse to be instructed. Religion is
to most Colored people of the Black Belt a mere
matter of emotion, which has no connection with
creed or with life. The most fundamental doctrines
of the Christian religion are unknown to thousands
of church-members, and preachers and members in
not a few cases live in open and flagrant sin. ~
Unto no Church is the door of opportunity
opened so widely as to us Lutherans, since the con-

ditions which obtain among the Colored people of

the Black Belt, the low stage of morality, and the
deplorable lack of Christian knowledge call for

a Church that emphasizes the thorough instruction
of its members, and earnestly insists upon the truth
that Christianity means a radical change of the heart,
which will show itself by the subjection of the will
to the awakened Christian conscience and in holiness
of living. Have we taken advantage of the great
opportunity offered us in the Southland?

It is now almost forty years ago—upon the
oceasion of its sixth convention, in 1877 — that
the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of
North America decided to begin work among the
Colored population of our country. ‘The proposal
to take up the preaching of the pure Gospel among
the Negroes was hailed with delight, and ventured
upon ‘with enthusiasm. A Mission Board was
elected, and the direction of the new work put into
its hands. This Board at once took steps to in-
augurate the good work. A missionary, Rev. J. I.
Doescher, was called, and soon entered upon his
labors. THis first work was to make a tour of ob-
servation through the States of ‘Tennessee, Arkansas,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Flo-
rida. He was instructed to preach where opportunity
offered itself,. to observe the spiritual condition of
the people, and to mark those places which seemed
most promising as prospective mission-centers. ‘The
direct result of this tour was the establishment of
stations at Little Rock, Ark., New Orleans, La., and
Mobile, Ala. Other equally promising fields were
discovered.

Gradually, very gradually, the work was en-
larged, and new fields were opened. In the year
1891, attention was called to North Carolina as
being a very promising field for our work. A thor-
ough exploration of certain portions of the State
resulted in the work being taken up at once. Rev.
N. J. Bakke, a missionary of experience, was trans-
ferred from New Orleans to Concord, N. C. As
a fruit of his labors and the labors of the other
workers who entered this field from year to year, we
have to-day no less than twenty-five stations in the
“Qld North State.” Of course, most of these con-
gregations are small, and none of them has reached
the goal of all missionary work, that of being self-
supporting and self-propagating. Yet the mission-
aries and the people are earnestly striving to reach
this goal. Every one of our stations is a true mis-
sion-center, and a mighty agency to redeem the
people from ignorance and sin, and lead them to
God and the Savior.

While our work has progressed from year +0
year, we are sorry to state that many a golden op-