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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1973, Page 2

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

2 MISSIONS

(1971) recognized seven of these churches as sister churches —
copartners with us in Christ’s mission.

In North America God had also been at work to get our
church body into the mainstream of American life and make it
ready for the post-World War II era. The late 40s and 50s be-
came years of extensive “new churching” (70 to 125 new congre-
gations annually), as servicemen returned from the war and
suburban housing developments sprang up everywhere. During
the 60s, congregations, Districts and the Synod were confronted
with rapid changes in American life and with a renewed aware-
ness of the plural nature of American society. Outreach efforts
were intensified in black, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Mexican, In-
dian, and Oriental communities, as well as in white communi-
ties of various ethnic backgrounds. Mission work, we also began
to see, had to take place in a diversity of contexts (urban, inner
city, rural, leisure-time communities, retirement villages, etc.)
in which distinct cultural, sociological, or vocational groupings
had to be addressed if individuals were to be reached with the
Gospel at all.

God was quite obviously taking our moments and our days,
forcing us out of ourselves. The high point of the past 25 years
came when Synod consciously took stock of these changes and
committed itself even more fully to God’s mission. Dr. M. L.
Kretzmann was called from India by the Synod’s Board of Di-
rectors in 1963 to undertake a churchwide mission survey. Out
of this Mission Self-Study and Survey Report, which was pre-
sented to the Detroit convention in 1965, grew the Mission
Affirmations, the reorganization of several boards into one
Board for Missions, and a renewed commitment to be a church
in mission.

The growth in numbers and in involvement at many fronts
(see Table 1) are a measure of God’s immeasurable grace.
Despite our frailties, God has used us mightily as His agents,
leading us through each period of our history, to new insights
and tasks in His mission.

“Let Them Flow in Ceaseless Praise...”

Like our Saxon forbears 134 years ago, we, too, as a Synod
have now “landed” in New Orleans. As it was for them, so New
Orleans is for us: only a beginning. What is decided and voted
here is important because of the mission challenges before us in
the last 25 years of the 20th century. The following sections of

this report describe the happenings, major problems and future
plans for the mission of our church. We present it all to you with
the prayer and the confidence that our Lord Jesus will come to
us as He did to His disciples that first Easter evening, to breathe
on us His Holy Spirit and send us forth again on His mission—
so that our ‘‘moments and days” may indeed “flow in ceaseless
praise.”

II. MISSIONARY HANDS AND FEET: SPECIAL
MINISTRIES (DEAF. BLIND, CAMPUS, MEDICAL,
SOCIAL) AND MISSIONARY PERSONNEL AT HOME
AND ABROAD

Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love;

Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.

“Take My Hands...”

Jesus’ hands moved “at the impulse” of God’s love —to heal
the sick, to give hearing to the deaf and sight to the blind, to
feed hungry multitudes in the countryside, to summon little
children and the heavy-burdened to Himself and enfold them in
His arms.

1. Take My Hands: Deaf Ministry

Sixty-three full- or part-time missionaries among the deaf
(pastors, lay workers, teachers, vicars) serve 64 deaf congrega-
tions, 220 preaching stations, 49 schools for the deaf, 14 state
hospitals, five homes for aged deaf and two colleges for the deaf.
“Moved by the impulse of God’s love,” they use their hands to
sign the Good News of God’s love in Christ Jesus, so that the
deaf, too, might hear the Gospel and be saved. Moved by His
love, workers in this field also often act as interpreters for
deaf persons in encounters with the “hearing world” —in court,
in dealing with government agencies, etc.

a. A New Development in Deaf Ministry. Moved by this
same love, the deaf themselves have been getting their “hands”
more actively involved in sharing the Good News. Several deaf
have become full-time workers among the deaf, and others are
being trained. A retired deaf layman has taken over as editor of
The Deaf Lutheran. A new deaf organization, the International
Lutheran Deaf Association (ILDA), held its constituting conven-

TABLE 1
Church Growth Patterns LCMS and Certain Related Churches!
Total Membership Communicant Membership
Country Work Began 1947 1972 % Increase? 1947 972 % Increase?
Ghana 1961 388 82
Middle East 1960
Nigeria = 1936 13,295 46,595* 4,682 30,761*
AFRICA AND MLE, __. 1936 13,295 46,983 3.53 4,682 30,843 6.84
China 1913 1,310 ? 545 ?
Hong Kong-Macao ___ 1950 5,742 3,142
Japan-Okinawa 1948 2,987 2,324
Korea 1958 678 354
Philippines 1946 125 10,173 10 3,398
Taiwan 1952 2,076 1,188
EAST ASIA __ 1913 1,435 21,656 15,09 555 10,406 18.75
India 1895 17,488 42,781 6,280 16,591
Papua New Guinea __ 1948 37,077* 19,566*
Sri Lanka (Ceylon) ___ 1927 ? 546 ? 226
SOUTH ASIA __ 1895 17,488 80,204 4.59 6,280 36,383 5.79
Central America® 1947 334 3,778 104 1,513
Cuba 1947 259 ? 117 ?
Mexico —___ 1940 331 1,502 129 705
Venezuela 1951 650* 362*
CARIBBEAN ___ 1940 924 5,930 6.41 350 2,580 7.37
ARGENTINA‘ 1905 14,694 22,816 1.55 7,935 14,808 1.86
BRAZIL 1901 56,052 146,922* 2.62 31,853 86,777* 2.62
U.S.A. 1847 1,523,708 2,797,298* 1.83 1,047,049 1,951,866* 1.86
Canada 1854 43,745 88,909* 2.03 28,049 59,482* 2.12
NORTH AMERICA __ 1847 1,567,453 2,886,207 1.84 1,075,098 2,011,348 1.97

* 1971 figures.

» The European sister churches are omitted only because we do not have sufficient statistical information on them to give a valid picture.
? To interpret the increase, the first section above says that for every 100 members in total membership in Africa and the Middle East in 1947 there were 353 in 1972; for every

100 in communicant membership in 1947 there were 684 in 1972.

* The Central America Council includes Costa Rica, E] Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama.

“ The Argentina District includes Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.