LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1973, Page 338

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CHURCH LITERATURE AND COMMUNICATIONS 335

time and will also afford another utilization for current and
past films.

Clay Whitehead. director of the President's Office of Tele-
Communications recently commented: “50°C of all American
homes will be on cable by the end of this century. There
will be no technical limit as to the number of channels a
home can view; there will be a limitation only by economics.
The public won't be limited to programs that must reach
40 million people to be successful. but will be choosing what
they want to see from the entire spectrum. This will offer
opportunity for less ‘prime time’ programming in that there
will be so many more channels and so much more pro-
gramming.”

Our church will also be able to take advantage of cable
outlets with This Is the Life. Pattern for Living, (a rerun
series) and Tension Point.

The Board continues to cooperate closely with the Mis-
sion Board and the overseas field men in the utilization of
programming and concepts for international mission out-
reach through television. Perhaps most notably, “Christmas
Is” was telecast in Beirut, Lebanon, this year. and This Is
the Life runs at 7:00 p.m. all over Holland on one of only
two television channels available to the Dutch population.

The staff is very active in working on local programming
with field missionaries, and in integrating This Is the Life
coverage in 34 countries with cur local mission presence.
Little time has been available to devote to the sporadic net-
work availabilities to our church through the CBS Series
“Look Up and Live™ and “Lamp unto My Feet,” and the
NBC “Directions” series. It is hoped that we can take further
advantage of these opportunities as they are cultivated in
the future.

An Invaluable Investment

The Synod has an invaluable, irreplaceable. and very
significant investment in a corporate television ministry. a
ministry which cannot function individually. or through
parishes alone, but which has been accomplished by God's
prace as a Synod for over 22 years.

In the Lutheran Laymen’s League, Synod has an ener-
getic. enthusiastic. and able cosponsor. Continuing strong,
positive, grassroots support for the TV ministry is plainly
evident in the important, generous financial contributions
made each year by the cosponsoring LLL. Cosponsorship
began in 1968 with $250,000; current LLL support is at the
$410,000 level for 1973.

On the basis of mutual long associations and a quality
product, Synod has the value of an enviable entree within
the communications media, which hold The Lutheran Church
_ Missouri Synod and its 20 years of experience in this area
in high regard. We have learned how to utilize this great
medium efficiently and with economy to carry the Good
News in Jesus Christ. In a nutshell, “We've Come a Long.
Long Way!”

Nationally distributed programs by Synod have created
open doors for our congregations, for our lay people, and
for the preaching of the Gospel, which we dare not shut.
But if we are to keep them open this year, next year, and
the next, we will need consecrated mission dollars.

TV Priority Moving Lower

With due concern for the fiscal dilemmas which have
faced the Synod and her Board of Directors now and then
over the past 5 years, it is nonetheless true that the tele-
vision ministry has not enjoyed growth together with the
other ministries of the Synod, and is in serious danger of
dilution and weakness at a crucial time which requires
strength, if Synod's objectives are to be accomplished.

Given the fact that the Synod accepted and welcomed
the cosponsorship of the Lutheran Laymen’s League in or-
der to reinforce the effectiveness and the forward thrust of
this ministry, the Television Board has found it increas-
ingly necessary to secure outside support. through one-time
grants, beyond our cosponsorship, not to expand, but merely
to stay alive and vibrant.

It was massive outside support that made our special
“Christmas Is” possible (CPH): a quarter million dollars
of outside support keeps This Is the Life strong today (AAL)
and the board is very grateful to the members of Aid Asso-
ciation for Lutherans for this generous grant for eight addi-

tional episodes of This Is the Life; outside support was nec~
essary for our experiment with television spot announce-
ments for children (LWML): and outside support developed
the shorter series, Tension Point (AAL). We are please
that these outside agencies understand and are sympathetic
to the opportunities that lie before us.

Synodical Support Declining

Synodical budget subsidy for the television ministry is
progressively and substantially declining. For the current
(1973) spending program in which the Synod’s budget was
raised, subsidy for Television is $537,721.00, the lowest sup-
port level since this ministry began 22 years ago, an 11%
reduction from last year, and an overall 21% reduction from
the $750,000 set side for TV in 1952, 22 years ago.

While our brethren in the LLL have raised their com-
mitments to Television 70°; since 1968, ($250,000 to $410,000),
synodical subsidy has fallen 24% (from $707,000 to $537,721)
in that period.

The declining synodical subsidy has impaired the service
and thrust of our television ministry to both the Synod and
to the unchurched public.

Synodical Resolutions Have Called for New Priority

Yet the Synod in her 1969 and 1971 conventions at Den-
ver and Milwaukee, recognizing the growth potential of
this significant means of spreading the Gospel in a contempo-
rary way, called for new priority for communication.

Resolved, That the Synod encourage and instruct the Board
for Lutheran Television to carry out the Great Commission of
our Lord to “preach the Gospe] to every creature’ in its area
of activity by continuing to explore and utilize more fully the
developing television opportunities at home and abroad.

Resolved, That the Synod allocate necessary funds to carry
out its previous action at Denver “to expand the use of media
of mass communications at home and abroad.” (MIL 10-19]

Resolved, That the Division of Communications be instructed
to present specific plans and projects with appropriate budgetary
requests for the 1973 New Orleans convention of the Synod for
action. [MIL 10-11}

Resolved, To re-evaluate priorities for the expanded use of
the media of mass communications in the proclamation of the
Gospel. {Denver 1-12]

While understandably dismayed over the ever-increasing
opportunity and need coupled simultaneously with decreas-
ing priority and subsidy support, your TV Board is mak-
ing every possible effort to give substance to the synodical
resolutions at Denver and Milwaukee.

Evaluation Conference

In order to plan as professionally as possible, and to carry
out the directives of the synodical resolutions to bring to
New Orleans new plans and budgets for an expanded use of
mass communication, the TV Board felt that an objective
analysis of the Synod’s TV work would prove helpful.

In order to achieve professional assessment of the past
and a projection of potential for the future, the Board for
Lutheran Television was privileged recently to sponsor an
evaluation conference. different in scope from those pre-
viously held. This conference was made possible by a gene-
rous grant from the members of Aid Association for Lu-
therans.

Twelve television professionals with broadly recognized
competence within the broadcast industry for creative pro-
gram development, marketing, and station relations, were
invited, Most of the men were not known previously to the
staff of Lutheran Television and most were not Lutheran.
Several members of the Synod’s Board of Directors were in
attendance, and our cosponsoring LLL management was also
invited.

The Board considers the input of the conference to be
very significant for the future of the Synod and this min-
istry, and the conference ranks in importance with previous
communication studies for Synod, i.e. the “Conley PR Re-
port,” the “Holt Radio Report,” the “Spitz Mass Media Re-
port.” and the “Temme Task Force” Report.

After study of the preliminary findings of the conference,
the Synod's Board of Directors resolved “to commend the
TV Board for holding the Evaluation Conference and en-
couraged it to study the recommendations made by the con-
sultants and to endeavor to implement their worthwhile