LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Page 387

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PARISH SERVICES 387

International Television

The board cooperates closely with overseas field men in
the development and utilization of programming for interna-
tional mission outreach through television. Perhaps most
notably, “Christmas Is” is being telecast in Beirut, Lebanon,
and in Caracas, Venezuela. Missionary Steve Hughey comments:

Using a coordinated “media mix" during this Christmas season
we reached more than 25 million people in Venezuela, the Caribbean.
Colombia, Ecuador. and Bolivia with the Good News of Jesus’ birth.

Highlighting the outreach was “Christmas Is.’ seen in prime time
throughout Venezuela and Ecuador on the top stations. The response
was excellent. In Caracas many young people and parents called
requesting the Spanish comic book, to speak to Benji. and to thank
us for the program. Venezuelan TV was so happy that they asked for
new material for the future and offered to air Spanish “This Is the
Life.”

After TV. the film was also shown eight times to poor children,
Christian schools, and the Venezuelan children’s orthopedic hospital.
Over 5,000 children who hardly could have seen the program on
television saw Benji and Waldo and received a gift—for many, one
of very few Christmas gifts.

“This Is the Life’ runs at 7:00 p. m. all over Holland on one
of 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
for 34 countries with our local missionary presence.

New Spanish “Life”

From a grant of the 125th Anniversary fund, 26 new ‘This
Is the Life” “lip-syne” episodes in Spanish are being produced
and will be augmented by additional episodes from 1975 grants
from the LWML. The Spanish-American population is growing
very rapidly, and very little religious TV programming is cur-
rently available. We already have “This Is the Life” films which
are perfect in concept (the most popular form of Spanish TV
is the “‘Tele-Novella” or dramatic soap opera), and lip-sync into
Spanish is an inexpensive process which makes the original
“Life” episodes go another extra mile!

After English, Spanish is the most-spoken language in the
U.S.A.. and there is already an audience of over 15 million
Spanish-Americans. located primarily in the Southwest and in
coastal cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San
Antonio, Miami, and New Orleans. There are currently 30 TV
cities which have Spanish TV stations, and the Spanish popu-
lation is concentrated where our clergy and laity can readily
follow up correspondence. In addition, there is the whole of
Latin and South America as secondary placement for our
Spanish product.

The board is also interested in producing programs in Ca-
racas, Venezuela, in cooperation with our mission there. These
films would be produced by Spanish people in Spanish and
would find a ready commercial market throughout Mexico and
South America. We would use them in U.S. Spanish markets
as secondary placement.

Network Television

Synod’s Public Relations Department has been developing
and coordinating the free time made available by the television
networks on the morning religion series “Look Up and Live.”
‘Lamp unto My Feet,” and “Directions.”

Financial Priority Needed for a Vital Television Ministry

The Synod at the 1969 Denver convention, the 1971 Mil-
waukee convention, and again at the 1973 New Orleans con-
vention, in recognition of this significant means of reaching
the unchurched outside our boundaries, called for higher
priority and more budget for the television ministry.

Resolved. To reevaluate priorities for the expanded use of the
media of mass communication in the proclamation of the Gospel.
(Denver, 1969)

Resolved. That the Synod allocate necessary funds to carry out
its previous action at Denver “to expand the use of the media of mass
communication at home and abroad.” (Milwaukee, 1971)

Resolved. That the Synod express its strong interest in television
as a key ministry in the mission of the church and ask its Board of
Directors to give high priority and increasing budget allocation to
this ministry. (New Orleans. 1973)

With due respect for the fiscal dilemmas which have faced
the Synod over some recent years. it is nonetheless true that
your television ministry has not had the priority and budget
to keep pace with its current work on “This Is the Life,” to say
nothing of specials. We have been kept alive by the very gen-
erous support of our cosponsor, the International Lutheran
Laymen’s League. Key aspects of the television ministry such
as the Benji-Waldo specials would have floundered altogether
without additional heavy support from outside agencies. Vir-
tually all of our work to take advantage of the growing future
potential of the ministry was also funded from outside grants.

AAL, LWML. CPH. ABS Grants

The board deeply appreciates the understanding and the
generosity of the members of AAL ($250.000 for eight episodes
of “This Is the Life” on videotape, $12,000 toward a television
evaluation conference, $12,000 for the development of the ‘‘Ten-
sion-Point” series), the International Lutheran Women’s Mis-
sionary League ($30,000 for the development of children’s tele-
vision spots, $50,000 toward the production and distribution of
“Easter Is,” and $18,000 toward new Spanish “This Is the Life”
episodes), Concordia Publishing House ($40,000 toward the
production of “Christmas Is’), The American Bible Society
($50,000 toward the Twentieth Anniversary ‘“‘“Hope for Modern
Man” Bible. $10,000 toward production and distribution of the
1975 “This Is the Life’ booklets “Jesus” and “The Psalms”).

Thankoffering Grant

The board also calls attention to the fact that the 125th
Anniversary Thankoffering provided funding in 1974 for the
complete production and distribution of “The City That Forgot
About Christmas” and for 26 new episodes of ‘This Is the Life”
synchronized into Spanish. We thank our church:

Growing LLL Support

All of this support is over and above the continuing and
growing contributions of our loyal cosponsor, the International
Lutheran Laymen’s League. which will provide $625,000 or
62% of a reduced 1975 television budget of $1,050,000. The
Synod owes its gratitude to the conviction and enthusiasm of
the LLL, which has increased its support for the ministry each
year. Since 1968, when the League began cosponsorship,
synodical support for television has fallen from $707,216 to
$425,000 in 1975, or a drop of 40°. Your television ministry
began in 1951, 24 years ago, with $750.000 of synodical support.

1968 — 75
Television Ministry Support

Outside Total
$1,050,000
1,335,000
1,149,000
1,139,000
1,025,000
940,000
1,040,000
957,216

1234567 12 3

12345 6
($100,000)

The television ministry is in serious danger of dilution and
weakness at a crucial time which requires added strength if
we are to take any advantage of the growing opportunities which
the medium presents for evangelism and witness.

The Synod has an invaluable, irreplaceable, and very sig-
nificant investment in a corporate television ministry which
can function only through the people of our church banding
themselves together. Parishes and individuals alone cannot
produce this outreach ministry.

On the basis of long mutual association and a quality product,
we now have the immeasurable asset of an enviable entree to
the communications media, which hold our church and its 23
years of experience in very high esteem.