LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1973, Page 5

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MISSIONS 5

1. Who Is “Sent” Overseas?

Table 2 shows the wide variety of Word and deed “preach-
ers’’ sent overseas to proclaim the Good News of Christ Jesus:
evangelistic, educational, medical, agricultural missionaries,
Scripture translators, business managers. secretaries, and
tradesmen. Unpaid, but also “missionaries” in their own right,
are the wives and children of overseas missionary personnel.

TABLE 2

Missionaries Under Call or Appointment
to the LCMS Board for Missions by Type of Service

(Dec. 31, 1972)

Total Wives
Number Not
Educa- Medi- of Mission- Otherwise
Clergy! tional cal Other? aries Counted

Argentina 1 1 1
Brazil. —st—“<tséi«C 6 6
Cent.Am.and Panama — 5 1 6 6
Ghana 4 4 4
Hong Kong SS. 3 1 9 6
H. K. Int. School 1 26 1 28 19
India 14 3 4 23 16
Japan 20 1 21 20
Korea 5 5 3
Mexico 2 2 2
Middle East 2 2 2
Nigeria. ssi 4 8 3 26 19
Papua New Guinea 15 20 8 15 58 48
Philippines 27 27 26
Sri Lanka (Ceylon) 1 1 1
Taiwan 5 2 7 7
Venezuela 6 6 6
Special services? 5 12 2 19 12
Terminating 7 3 1 2 13 11
Prince of Peace Vol. 26 26 0
142 74 21 53 290 215

1 Of the 142 clergymen, 17 are engaged in theological training: 12 in translation.
literacy or literature work: 11 largely in administrative work: six in radio and tele-
vision: five related to general education: and one each to work among the deaf, an
English-speaking congregation and the Islam-in-Africa project. Ninety-eight have
various forms of direct evangelism as their major concern.

2 The “other” category includes one deaconess, 26 short-term youth Prince of
Peace Volunteers, field business managers, and other ‘support’ personnel icarpen-
ters, printers, houseparents, agriculturalists, etc.)

3° The "special services” category includes missionaries serving on loan to
churches or inter-church agencies in other countries: LCMS teachers serving in
American schools for missionary children; LCMS teachers, sent out as missionaries,
but assigned to and salaried by a national government agency: etc.

Table 3 gives comparative statistics on the growth of Missouri
expatriate missionary staff and national clergy from 1947 through
1972. An overall increase in the number of missionaries in the 25
years since 1947 is tempered by the reduction of missionaries in
the last 4 years (from 338 to 290). A major factor in this reduction,
of course, was drastic mission budget cutbacks.

But there is a good side to the picture, too. The reduced
missionary figures for 1972 have to be compared with the other
set of figures in Table 3—the growing number of national clergy

TABLE 3
Growth of Expatriate Missionary Staff and National Clergy
1947 — 1972
f cay Mss.cnar es
Cergy Miss onanies “at Natera Cergy
No o! Workers Ne

500
475

450
425
400
375
350
326
30C
275
250
225
20C
+76
750
125
100

75

2

1947 1982 “957 1962 ‘S67 *37e

overseas. In many instances, missionaries have succeeded in
what they went out to do: turn over their responsibilities to
a national pastor, teacher or doctor.

2. More “Beautiful Feet Overseas

a. Training Programs. With money scarce and doors closing
to U.S. expatriate missionaries in several countries, the training
and equipping of nationals to “preach” the Good News, in Word
and deed, is a major priority. In almost every overseas land.
the Missouri Synod helps its sister churches to operate their own
theological education program, or to be involved in some type
of joint seminary program with other local Lutheran churches.
There are also teacher training colleges (in India. New Guinea.
Nigeria, Brazil): in-service education programs for national
teachers (in India and Hong Kong): a new deaconess training
program (in Hong Kong): and evangelist and lay training pro-
grams (in almost every area). In parts of Latin America.
churches are experimenting with theological education by
extension —enabling laymen interested in becoming pastors or
evangelists to stay in their home communities and keep their
regular jobs while taking theological education courses.

b. Exchange Programs. The Board for Missions itself spon-
sors two exchange programs through which Christians overseas
and in the U.S. can “stretch their feet’ (and hearts and minds)
and grow in Christ's mission. STAPOC (Special Training Assis-
tance Program for Overseas Churchmen) brings selected
national churchmen to the U.S. or to other countries for ad-
vanced training. Through ‘Project Timothy.” U.S. pastors.
selected by their Districts and funded on their own, spend
6 weeks in an overseas country — assisting a national pastor in
his ministry and gaining new insights to take home. The 1972
Project Timothy Team pastors worked in Hong Kong.

In the fall of 1971 an inter-Lutheran team of U.S. women —
including two from the LWML - visited Japan as “Bridge Build-
ers,’ and then shared their insights upon their return in inter-
Lutheran women’s gatherings across the country.

c. New Sending Churches. Some overseas churches are
asking the Lord to “take their feet’ and sending their own
countrymen beyond their national boundaries. In 1959, a mis-
sionary from the Brazil District was sent to Portugal. Doctors
and nurses and a teacher from our Lutheran churches in India,
Japan, and the Philippines are serving in Nigeria and New
Guinea. Two Ghanaian youth served as Prince of Peace Volun-
teers in Japan.

3. New "Shoes" for "Beautiful Feet" Overseas

To a large extent because of the tight financial situation, the
church has been pushed to find some ‘new shoes” for ‘“beau-
tiful feet’? overseas—that is, to find new bases from which
national and expatriate missionaries can preach God's Good
News, making the widest possible impact with the lowest pos-
sible expenditure of funds. In Hong Kong, for example, a work-
er-priest ministry is the kind of ‘new shoes” the church is
trying out. The seminary program has been reorganized so
that all students either already have a trade or profession or
prepare themselves to acquire one before their seminary
graduation.

New ‘‘shoes” being tried for “beautiful feet’ in New Guinea:
missionaries serving in (and salaried by) government schools.
Funds from the Board for Missions’ Patrons Fund and other
special gifts paid initial transportation costs for the two teacher-
couples who began this new education-evangelism project in
January 1973.

New “shoes” being tried for ‘beautiful feet’ in several areas
of the world: loaning of LCMS missionaries to another church
body or mission agency. In 1972, a Slovak pastor was called and
loaned by Synod's Board for Missions to the Lutheran Church
of Australia—to reach out to Slovak immigrants in metropolitan
Melbourne. A missionary will be loaned to the Evangelical
Church of Eritrea, Ethiopia, to assist in the establishment of
a theological and leadership education program. Missionary
Herbert Zorn of India has been loaned for a 2-year period to the
Theological Education Fund to conduct an extensive research
project on the future direction of theological training in over-
seas churches. Missionary William Dingler serves the LWF as
mass media consultant in Hong Kong, while missionary Paul
Volz recently completed a comprehensive study and report
on television possibilities in Africa—also while on loan to the
Lutheran World Federation.