Collection › LCMS Convention Proceedings (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1935 · 36th Convention, Cleveland › Page 117
LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1935, Page 117

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

Ey. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States. 1935. 117

grew, when one District after .the other was organized, Synod in-
structed the Districts. to carry on mission-work within the confines
of their territory and later, when the work developed, and in some
.Districts in such a manner that they could no longer conduct the
work because the necessary funds were lacking, Synod granted sub-
sidies. In the course of years the work has taken on such proportions,
and the problems and the difficulties confronting our work have so
multiplied, that Synod according to present arrangements cannot be
sufficiently informed to make judicious disposition of its resources.

17,. Synod is vitally concerned with the training of the ministry
for the mission-fields, with the conduct of the South American, the
Deaf-mute-blind, the Foreign and the European Missions; but in that
mission which is still the most important of them all, Home Missions,
for which it spends up to a million dollars annually or approximately
three times as much as for all other missions combined, it has but
a passing interest, granting an annual subsidy to such as are unable
to carry on alone.

18. On the other hand, Districts are contributing toward the
mission expansion in other Districts and toward missions abroad.
But as matters are now constituted, the Districts cannot judiciously
distribute the available funds. According to our present arrangement
the Districts, as conscientious stewards, cannot know whether they
are contributing too large a portion of the available District funds to
the expansion of mission outside of their own territory or too small
a portion. Proper coordination will mean a better application of our
resources.

19. Coordination will be helpful to shape definite unified mission
policies and help remove inequalities. Under the present arrange-
ment each department carries on in its own way. Coordination will
mean greater efficiency. One department can profit by the experience
of the other.

20. A proper coordination of all our mission activities cannot
but create, stimulate, and increase the interest of all members of all
Districts in all our mission activities both at home and abroad. Our
present arrangement, as is quite apparent, tends to train our members
to be self-centered, to look first, last, and all the time to the expansion
of the work in their respective territories and, at least in a large
measure, to forget that the promulgation of the Gospel in the neigh-
boring Districts, yes, in all fields at home and abroad, is their obliga-
tion also. .

21. True, the coordination of our missionary activities dare not
be effected along such lines and in such a manner as to stifle the
initiative of the mission boards both of the Districts and the General
Body, of pastors and ‘members, and to dampen the local interest in