The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 53

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

53

probably not make a permanent impression on
the mind.

But if the pastor of a congregation can organize
a number of men and women into a society that will
make missions its special object of thought and
study, much can be done to spread missionary in-
formation and awaken missionary zeal.

In the first place, a missionary society gives
opportunity for imparting missionary information
as it could not be given in a public discourse and
opens the door for an intelligent discussion of mis-
sionary subjects. The clear knowledge acquired
will inerease missionary interest and give deep con-
victions. For its members the missionary society
with its study sessions will become a dynamo of
missionary enthusiasm and a most efficient instru-
ment to spread missionary information and enthu-
siasm among the members of the whole congre-
gation.

In the second place, since a missionary society
will especially attract the younger people, it will
afford a wonderful opportunity for the training of
the younger generation. ‘The ages of youth and

young manhood and womanhood are the great for- ”

mative periods of life. It is then that ideals are
formed and the intellectual powers are at their
keenest for learning. In the missionary society
young men and women would be taught to see the
world as Christ sees it and feel for it as He feels
for it. It would train them to be active and thought-
ful workers. : 5

If the sessions of a missionary society are taken
seriously, they cannot but serve to develop the
Christian character of the members. This develop-
ment will partly result from the study of the great
characters presented in missionary history, partly
from the service and activity of the members which
will follow the sincere and earnest study of the
great heroes of missions.

Things to Think About.

It will probably be best for the missionary so-
ciety to meet once a month for an hour or an hour
and a half on a day and hour determined by local
conditions.

In most cases the church will probably be the
place of meeting, especially if a well-lighted room
can be had; though it is the writer’s opinion that
there is something intirnate about a meeting in
a private house, an atmosphere of sociability that
can never be had when meeting in a church or hall,
be its appointments ever so good.

The membership should be made up of persons
that are really interested in missions sufficiently to
give promise that they will attend the meetings
regularly. A large membership of uninterested
persons is a handicap. It is well to apply here
the old saying that quality is better than quantity.
I deem it a fatal mistake to urge people to join
against their will.

The natural leader of the missionary society is
the pastor. But in taking over the leadership, the
pastor should bear in mind that there are two im-
portant qualities needed. He should, first of all, be
deeply interested in missions himself if he expects
to interest others, and, then he should be willing to
devote the necessary time to prepare for the meeting.

The society should use some text as a guide for
its mission study. In another article reference is
made to the PionEER’s regular monthly feature,
“Reclaiming Christ’s Heritage,” which has covered
the foreign mission-field in its earlier instalments
and is now taking up the American mission-field.
Concordia Publishing House has also begun to put
on the market a very serviceable series of missionary
booklets under the name of Jen and Missions. So
far three numbers have appeared, bearing the titles:
I. John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians; II. Dis-
pelling the Spiritual Gloom in South ‘American
Forests and Pampas; III. Friedrich Konrad Diet-
rich Wyneken, Pioneer Lutheran Missionary of the
Nineteenth Century. For those who have never at-
tempted systematic mission study before, the two
biographies mentioned above would be best. Biog-
raphy is the most fruitful of all missionary literature
and is calculated to develop interest and arouse en-
thusiasm more quickly than any other form of study:
besides it is less difficult and takes less time than
the study of a mission-field or a period of missionary
history and requires no previous knowledge of the
subject.

What Now?

“So far we have been discussing preliminaries.
The next step is to organize. Having invited the
people to meet at some appointed place, let the pas-
tor tell those gathered the value of a missionary
society; how it brings the members into touch with
unknown lands and people, helps them by compari-
son to be thankful for the blessings they are enjoy-

‘ing, increases their appreciation of the Gospel, and
raises them generally to a higher spiritual plane.

Then it might be well to tell those gathered some-
thing about the book it is proposed to study. Give
them some morsels to whet their appetites and ex-