LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1973, Sheet 448

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APPENDIX I
Other Reports

The following reports come from sources which do not have the privilege of access to
the convention under the Bylaws but which fall under the statement: “May be required
or permitted ... by the President to report to a convention.” The Bylaw goes on to state,
however: “A report shall not include an overture unless the report is submitted by someone
authorized (in the following paragraph 2) to submit overtures.”

Report of International Lutheran
Laymen’s League

God willing, the Lutheran Laymen’s League will hold its
56th annual convention in Tulsa, Okla., July 28 to Aug. 1,
1973. The Fairmont Mayo will serve as the convention
hotel. The opening Lutheran Hour Rally service and the
convention sessions will be held in the Tulsa Assembly
Center.

The theme of the convention is “Plant and Reap.” The
Rev. Harold Brockhoff, President of the Oklahoma District
of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod, will deliver the
keynote address.

Aims and Objectives

The Lutheran Laymen’s League continues to serve the
Synod in word and deed. We strive to inform and equip the
laity to be God's reconciling witnesses to all the world. The
League challenges the laity of the church to respond crea-
tively and responsibly to the opportunities of service to God
and man in a changing world of tremendous scientific ad-
vancement. We seek to enable and enthuse the laymen of
the church to be a vital part of the parish life of the local
congregation in reaching out to the community with Christ's
message of love and forgiveness.

Membership

The league now numbers 153.000 individual members who
support the cause of the league with an annual voluntary
contribution. Some 1,700 local clubs or chapters espouse the
program of the league in addition to sponsoring meaningful
projects in the local parish, such as evangelism, Bible study,
visitation of the sick and the shut-ins, working with the
youth, witnessing to and enabling one another to be better
stewards and disciples of Christ through sharing their per-
sonal Christian experiences, topic studies, workshops, lead-
ership training and church management clinics.

Service to Congregations

We are a service organization. In our desire to serve all
congregations within the Synod the league offers its mate-
rials and services to any and every congregation. They are
yours for the asking.

These include, among others. an Annual Planning and
Resource Guide. It contains a brief history of the Missouri
Synod as well as of the Lutheran Laymen’s League. A fea-
ture of the planning and resource guide is 12 timely topics.
They deal with joy and thanksgiving, appropriate for the
anniversary year of our league and Synod. They address
themselves to youth as well as adults. Try them in your
Bible classes, church councils, and discussion groups. You'll
like ‘em.

The League produces worship materials for Rogate Sun-
day, Laymen’s Sunday, Advent and Christmas, Lent, and
Easter. The Operation Mercy manual contains timely sug-
gestions for social ministry to the parish and the community.

You will find the evangelism tools very helpful for your
parish outreach. Study cassettes in personal evangelism are
relevant and timely. You will find our 64 evangelism ads
to be interesting and effective.

Our church management workshops are being well re-
ceived. They train, equip and enthuse laymen for leader-
ship and effective parish outreach.

415

The League's Preaching Through the Press program
continues to elicit increased response. The booklets pro-
vided help answer the problems of frustrated people, lead
them into the Scripture, and confront them with Christ.

The Lutheran Hour

The blessings of God still continue to rest upon The
Lutheran Hour. now in its 40th season. Each week more
than 40 million people in 142 countries, in 46 languages,
hear the blessed Gospel invitation, “Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and be saved.”

Eighteen hundred stations around the world carry The
Lutheran Hour each week. Eleven hundred are domestic
and 700 are overseas broadcasts,

The special Christmas and Easter broadcasts continue
to flourish. In 1972, 2600 stations carried the special Easter
broadcast and 3,200 stations aired the special Christmas
message. This year’s Easter special, “The Wide, Wide World
ot Easter,” featured Colonel James Irwin, moon astronaut,
and an interview of Dr. Paul Maier by Dr. Oswald Hoff-
mann.

The 1973 special Christmas program will feature “Christ-
mas in the South Pacific.” It includes an interview with
King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, King of Tonga, and Tupua
Tamasese Lealofi IV, Prime Minister of Western Samoa, by
Doctor Hoffmann.

People continue to ask, “Are we reaching people for
Christ?” Here’s what a listener wrote recently: “Today
I heard your inspiring message. God spoke to me through
your message and I saw how foolish I have been. I have
failed to see until now that a life dedicated to God and
lived for Him every day preaches a greater sermon than
words. I vow today that I will let Christ into my life as
Lord and Savior and will stand up, work and live for Him
no matter what. May God continue to bless you and others
in and through this ministry.” Responses like this convince
the Lutheran Laymen’s League that we must continue and
even expand this mighty evangelistic miracle of God's grace,
The Lutheran Hour.

Last summer, through the generosity of the Aid Associa-
tion for Lutherans, nineteen overseas branch managers vis-
ited in Saint Louis to exchange ideas, to study new tech-
niques, and to develop expertise in getting the Word out
to a spiritually starving world. Each manager told of one
personal experience after another of how people are finding
Christ through The Lutheran Hour. Each overseas manager
is using a program indigenous to his country and its people.
Yet the message remains the same: “Christ and Him cru-
cified, your Savior and mine.”

God continues to open doors for the Gospel outreach.
Stations are becoming available to beam The Lutheran
Hour into mainland China, India, Russia, Africa and South
America. We solicit your prayers. We plead for your con-
tinued support.

The league offered a new Bible correspondence course
this spring on a limited number of radio stations. It is en-
titled ‘Man Alive.” We are excited about it. We believe it
will be well received. We are confident it will lead many
souls to Christ and into the Kingdom of Grace.

In Conclusion

We pray God's gracious benediction upon our beloved
Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod. We are proud to be
a part of it. We are grateful for the privilege to serve. We