Collection › LCMS Convention Proceedings (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1941 · 38th Convention, Fort Wayne › Page 178
LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1941, Page 178

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

178 Reports on General Missions -

every mission department. Be it therefore suggested again to refer
this matter to the Board for Higher Education, the Board of Control
of our St.Louis Seminary and its faculty, and the Board of
Directors for restudy, with power to act.

Resident Adviser in Foreign Mission-Fields. — This question
was ventilated not only at the convention in 1938, but already in
‘1935 and in 1932. In 1938 the Board of Foreign Missions was again
instructed to appoint or call a resident adviser or advisers for the
mission-fields both in India and in China. (Cf. Proceedings, 1938,
p. 184.) For various reasons this measure could again not be
carried out in the past triennium.

But as we are again gathered to consider our far-flung missions
and think on what might be done to improve matters, we cannot
but point anew to the urgent need of a primus inter pares, a resi-
dent adviser. Resident advisors are needed to coordinate the
efforts of the separate units in the respective field. They are
needed to bring about grater uniformity in the work of these fields.
They are needed to guide, advise, and direct the missionaries in the
many vexing problems continually arising before them. They are
needed as Seelsorgers to the missionaries and their families when
personal spiritual problems beset them, when they are downcast,
weary, and in need of comfort and encouragement. They are
needed as supervisors of the various mission-stations, of our
properties and investments, of our equipment. They are needed
to help carry out the resolutions of the Board of Foreign Missions
in the homeland. In short, they are needed to systematize, to
coordinate, to unify, and to help place our mission activities on the
highest, most effective plane possible. We believe it more urgent
and of greater benefit to our work at the present time to place
resident advisers into both the India and the China mission-fields
than to send new missionaries to open new fields. We dare not
post-pone this matter lest our missions suffer. The resolutions of
the 1938 convention were the following:

“Resolved, That Synod again instruct the Board of Foreign
Missions to appoint or call a resident adviser or advisers for the
mission-fields both in India and China; and be it further

“Resolved, That the Board of Foreign Missions be instructed
to consult with the Venerable President and Vice-Presidents of
Synod, the Secretary of Missions, and the workers in the respective
fields before making the selection of the respective man or men and
before drawing up rules and regulations concerning the most prac-
tical arrangement, the authority, and the work of such a resident
man or men; and be it finally

“Resolved, That Synod’s Fiscal Conference make provision for
‘the arrangement herein set forth in its appropriations.”