LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1932, Page 94

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114 Proceedings of Thirty-Fifth Regular Convention,

participated in this movement, yet it proved a powerful incentive to
a united and consecrated effort in mission activity within many of
our congregations. Both pastors and parishioners were thereby in-
spired with new zeal for gaining the lost for the Kingdom. In rural
as well as in urban communities, especially in the large industrial cen-
ters of our country, 2 considerable number of new fields were explored,
jn many of which promising missions were begun, which were supplied
with the necessary men. In addition to the spiritual benefits accruing
from the Call of the Hour the sum of $200,000 was collected for
special missionary purposes. Also during the past Lenten season the
Qall of the Hour was again taken up and properly emphasized by
Synod’s officials and given due publicity in our synodical periodicals.
At the time of this writing it is not yet known what has been achieved
this year. Since the Call of the Hour has proved a strong factor for
creating and stimulating interest in missionary endeavors, we hold
that Synod would render the kingdom of God a distinct service if it
would recommend its adoption to all our congregations.

During the past triennium we have dispensed to the following
Districts and missions the subjoined sums: —

Alberta and British Columbia District ........-. $120,850.00

Atlantic District .......--2- 0. sete etre t ee 30,000.00
California and Nevada District .......--+--++-- 60,000.00
Colorado District. ......---+- eset eter rrr 57,700.00
Manitoba and Saskatchewan District ........-- 92,221.60
North Dakota and Montana District ........--- 54,000.00
Oklahoma District .....------++esreeterrrcte 29,000.00
Ontario District .....-...--.--ee eerste 11,625.00
Oregon and Washington District .........----- 73,000.00
Southern District .....----+-+eeee eect 56,000.00
Southern California District .....-------+-++++- 28,000.00
Texas District ......---.-ee reer cert 77,000.00
Alaska Mission ......------ cece teen eee eeeee 8,800.00
Cuba Mission ......--..eeee errr er eetrr 5,199.31
Mexico City Mission ......---+++seereererttrs 3,000.00
Expense of Board .....--.+-+-+-eerrrrsterctt 429.75

Total .. ccc cece eee ee tee tteeecererstt $706,825.66

This sum is $166,956.43 in excess of what our Board used for the
same purpose during the previous triennium. This shows that Synod
has realized the importance of Home Mission work. Conscious of the
fact that Home Missions are, and must remain, our first and foremost
concern and that only by a strong and well-established mother Chureh
at home we can fulfil our mission obligation to the teeming millions
of the lost in foreign lands, Synod’s Board of Directors raised our
Budget for the fiscal year 1932, granting us $40,000 more than in the
previous year, in all, the sum of $280,000. With this increased allow-

Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States. 1932. 115

ance we had hoped to enlarge the place of our tents during the
current year.

However, in view of the adverse economic conditions throughout
our country and the tremendous deficit in our synodical treasury,
Synod’s Board of Directors resolved to cut the appropriations for
missions ten per cent., to take effect immediately. This, of course,
yitally affected our Board. Accordingly we informed all the chair-
men of mission boards dependent upon our Board for support that
beginning with the first day of April they would be obliged to accept
the proposed reduction from their annual allowance. To what extent
this will influence the progress of Home Missions, the opening of new
stations, and the calling of candidates we cannot compute at the
present time. It is the task of Synod to find ways and means to keep
this blessed work of the Lord in a flourishing condition.

We believe that Synod should do its utmost to prevent a curtail-
ing of Home Mission work. Though it must be conceded that Home
Mission work has no longer the bright prospects it had when Lu-
theran immigrants came to our country in great numbers from
abroad, yet even to-day we have abundance of mission material at
our very doors. Among the millions of unchurched in our country
there are still “many acres of diamonds,” if only we will go out in
search of them with prayerful hearts and devoted lives. Another
factor not to be ignored or underestimated is that, while in former
years there was in our Synod a great dearth of men to be sent into
the fields white unto harvest, the Lord, in His grace, has to-day
granted us a large force of well-trained and consecrated young men
ready to gather in the sheaves, if only they are sent and assigned
places in the Lord’s vineyard. What we pastors, teachers, and also
the lay members of our congregations need is the spirit of “Home
Mission-mindedness” in a larger measure. If we are what we profess
to be, living members of the body of our Lord, then we must prove
the genuineness of our faith by zealously and persistently seeking
the lost souls lying at our very doors, as our Master did in the days of
His flesh. As soon as this spirit has thoroughly permeated all the
members of our Synod, from the lowest to the highest, we shall be
able to use all the men whom our seminaries can furnish us.

For the future administration of our Board we kindly petition
Synod to sanction the following: —

1. That the annual budget for subsidized Districts shall no
longer, as in the past, be fixed by the Mission Conference, but by
Synod’s Board of Directors upon the basis of detailed reports fur-
nished it by the Board of Home Missions;

2. That the mission boards of subsidized Districts be required to
report on a submitted questionnaire to the Board of Home Missions