The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 99

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

99:

pearance and has a seating capacity of a bit in
excess of two hundred, with facilities for a Sunday-
school of that same number. This beautiful church
was erected in a locality where people had come to
stay, a place where people had been residents all
their lifetime, a place where people own their own
homes. Furthermore, the church is ideally located
in the community itself. It is near a large high
school, an orphans’ home, a special school for ab-
normal children, two colleges, a playground, and
a prospective city hospital. The church is now
ideally located at a place where, humanly speaking,
results of active and consistent mission-work may
be expected.

Of the $23,000 needed for the erection of the
church, $2,400 came from the building trea-
sury of the mission itself; $10,000 of this
amount was brought together by the Lu-
theran Ladies’ Aid for Colored Missions of
St.Louis. (It might be remarked in pass-
ing that this society, under the blessing of
God, was a great factor in the development
of St. Philip’s.) The rest was an appropria-
tion made by the Synodical Conference
through the Mission Board.

In answer to the question “How did
St. Philip’s become self-supporting?” we
would answer, in the first place, it was,
under the grace of God, due to the erection
of an adequate church-building and the new
and better location of the church.

To some it may seem a bit of extrava-
gance and daring to have invested so much
money in a small mission, but those who
have kept in touch with the work of St. Philip’s in
the past six years will readily agree that this form
of procedure has been the most economical thus far
pursued.

A second cause for the rapid growth of
St. Philip’s and for its attaining self-support in
such a short time is the adverse conditions in sur-
rounding sectarian churches, causing many people
to turn to St. Philip’s.

At the time of the erection and dedication of
St. Philip’s much strife existed in a near-by African
Methodist Episcopal church. There was strife be-
tween the congregation and the pastor and between
the congregation and the bishop. People were
leaving the congregation and wandering about as
sheep having no shepherd. But as God works in
a mysterious way His wonders to perform, He
turned this evil into good, causing many souls to
find peace and rest in the Church of the pure Word

and the unadulterated Sacraments. Possibly fifty
of St. Philip’s two hundred and fifty-one communi-
cants were formerly members of that A. M. E.
church.

But that is not all. Similar conditions obtain
in most sectarian churches in the surrounding com-
munity. Strife, dissension, a secularized pulpit, no.
indoctrination, the feeding of stones in place of
bread, virtually drove many people from these
churches. St. Philip’s became to them a haven of
peace and rest. At this present writing one con-
gregation because of internal strife and dissension:
and disagreement with its mission board is at the-
point of dissolution. A number of its people have-
already become members of St. Philip’s; should the-

St. Philip’s Church, St. Louis.

congregation be dissolved, which seems very likely,
it is wholly probable that a very large number of
the present members of that congregation will turn
to St. Philip’s for spiritual guidance.

In the third place, the blessed influence of
KFUO, our Lutheran broadcasting station at
St. Louis, might be mentioned as a great factor in
bringing about the self-support of St. Philip’s. ~
Through its daily and its Sunday programs KFUO
has entered into the homes of untold thousands,
bringing the message of the Gospel to many who
had never before heard it in its truth and purity.
To many of the present members of St. Philip’s
the Lutheran Church was an unknown quantity
until the Gospel Voice of KFUO sent its messages
of peace and happiness into their homes. In answer
to the question “How did you become interested in
the Lutheran Church?” the answer very often
given is, “My first interest in the Church was

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