LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1973, Page 311

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EVANGELISM 309

soring evangelism workshops. Ambassador programs
for youth, promoting synodical programs.

—The weakest area seems to be in establishing District
goals, and in the contact with the circuit and local
congregation.

As a result of the study, the Board for Evangelism recom-
mends:

Recommendation 3— Organization for Evangelism

We recommend:

a) that the Districts be encouraged to evaluate their
Evangelism Board or Committee as to the involvement of
youth, teachers, and representatives of the auxiliary organi-
zations, especially the LLL and LWML

b) that the Districts be encouraged to hire call full-time
executives for evangelism, or assign the area of evangelism
to one of its other full-time executives.

c) that the Districts be encouraged to use a circuit or
regional organization. with both a pastor and a lay person
in each circuit or region as their evangelism representatives,
and to provide specific programs and materials for the
circuit or region.

d) that the congregations assign evangelism to a specific
committee, or Evangelism Director where they cannot have
a committee, and that the District and circuit representative
be in close contact with the Committee Chairman or Evan-
gelism Director, providing him materials and personal train-
ing and motivation.

4. Defections

For over 20 years the number of communicant members
which Missouri Synod lost each year in the Statistical Year-
book category of “Defections” has continued to rise. These
“back-door” losses are communicant members who are re-
moved from the membership lists. not because they died. or
transferred, but because they stopped going to church.
Many of them moved but did not transfer. Some join other
churches: some just stop coming. In 1950. the figure was
18,729; 1960, 29.554: 1970, 50.282. That year. 1970, was the
peak, 2.5% of the communicant membership. In 1971. the
defections dropped to 48,455. We pray for a continued drop:

The drop in defections may reflect the attention given
to this problem by Synod’s Evangelism Department in recent
years. In addition to general encouragement to congrega~-
tions the Board for Evangelism conducts a Membership Re-
ferral Service through two avenues. One is connected with
The Lutheran Witness subscription list. whereby a notice is
sent on every change of address received: (1) to the con-
gregation to which the person belonged before he moved:
(2) to the nearest congregation to his new home: (3) to the
member who moved. providing him the name and address
of the nearest congregation. Since The Lutheran Witness
subscription list includes only 60% of the membership of
the Synod, a back-up system was developed. In this system
the local pastor sends in the name and new address of
a member who has moved. The Board for Evangelism then
mails notices to the member and the nearest parish.

The Board for Evangelism is planning a research study to
determine the effectiveness of the present membership re-
ferral service and to seek other avenues of attacking the
problem either by Synod. the District, or the local parish.
Meanwhile. we recommend the following:

Recommendation 4— Defections

We recommend:

a) that the pastor be encouraged to use all means to keep
in contact with a member who moves his residence until the
member transfers

b) that the pastor be encouraged to immediately refer
any member who moves to a closer congregation or send
his name and address to the Membership Referral Service.

c) that the Districts and communities which publish their
own paper and are not covered with a blanket subscription
to The Lutheran Witness be encouraged to use the changes
of address to their subscription lists to send notices similar
to those done with The Lutheran Witness change of ad-
dresses.

d) that studies be continued to evaluate the membership
referral system, to seek reasons for the high rate of defec-
tions, and to suggest possible solutions.

5. Youth Evangelism

Since the early 1960s Ambassador for Christ programs
have been conducted by various District Evangelism and or
Youth Committees for the training of young people in evan-
gelism. The program usually consists of a weekend experi-
ence in the study and discussion of witnessing, and then
some practical experience in sharing faith through calls on
homes of members or on a witness survey. Through this
program, thousands of young people have had an oppor-
tunity for the experience of sharing their faith and many of
them have been motivated to an ongoing witness in their
congregation and community.

In order to encourage the continued witness after the
experience of a weekend, the Rev. Fred C. Darkow, pastor
of Our Savior Lutheran Church. Brownsdale, Minn., de-
veloped a program called “Ongoing Ambassadors.” By this
means several pastors in a given circuit are trained as lead-
ers to meet with the young Ambassadors each month for
continued training and witness. The program has grown to
the extent that Pastor Darkow is now a full-time director
of the “Ongoing Ambassadors” functioning as a faith mission,

In pan-Lutheran movements youth evangelism has been
a concern of Lutheran Youth Alive and Lutheran Youth
Encounter. Many of our young people participate in the
local chapters of Lutheran Youth Encounter on college cam-
puses: join teams of both LYA and LYE which visit con-
gregations to work with the youth: and attend the large
congresses held in most major cities of the west and mid-
west.

In addition some of our youth. especially on college cam-
puses, are involved with non-Lutheran groups, or are using
their materials.

All of these programs and movements have demonstrated
that young people are interested in a personal faith that is
meaningful to them in their day to day living and in sharing
that kind of faith with others. Through these movements
many voung people whose faith has been largely an intel-
lectual experience have found a new dimension of their
faith that is exciting and challenging. Many have been
trained and motivated to witness as an overflow of their life
in Christ and to participate in the structured evangelism
programs of their church and youth group. Therefore, the
Board for Evangelism makes the following recommenda-
tions:

Recommendation 5— Youth Evangelism

We recommend:

a) that the Board of Youth Ministry and the Board for
Evangelism cooperate in planning programs and materials
for youth evangelism training and outreach

b) that we encourage the District Committees for Young
People’s Work and the District Evangelism Committees to
sponsor cooperatively such programs as the Ambassadors for
Christ and to include evangelism training and outreach pro-
grams in their youth conferences and gatherings

¢) that we commend Pastor Fred C. Darkow for his work
in training Ambassadors for Christ, and cooperate with the
“Ongoing Ambassador” program

d) that we encourage our leaders in Campus Ministry to
provide materials and programs for training college students
in witness and outreach on college campuses

e) that we encourage congregations to include the youth
in their evangelism training programs and outreach ac-
tivities.

6. Evangelism at Synodical Schools

The last three conventions of the Synod have received
overtures and passed resolutions about evangelism training
at the colleges and seminaries of the Synod. Evangelism
training has been largely a matter of voluntary student pro-
grams through such activities as the Ambassador for Christ
program, weekend workshops, Lutheran Youth Encounter
groups, or other programs developed on a particular campus.

Out of these voluntary programs evolved an inter-school
Evangelism Conference under student leadership with en-