LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1979, Page 66

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66 PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Black Work

Another area of activity of the past biennium which
is of great interest to all of us and is expressive of the
forward mission of the Synod is that which has been
done with reference to Black work. Many of you are
aware that the 1977 convention gave great emphasis to
one hundred years of Black Ministry, including a
collection of $1,500,000 for an educational fund for the
preparation of Black pastors, the renewed emphasis on
Black Ministry, and a renewed interest in all of us in
ministering to a segment of our population which now
represents at least 20 million people. We have made a
beginning toward the goal of $1,500,000. Much more
needs to be done. We hope that every congregation in the
Synod, on each Father’s Day, or on another day selected
by them, will participate in this collection. And if this
fund can be established as a kind of endowment or
ongoing fund, the interest of which can be used to
educate Black pastors and workers at our colleges and
seminaries, continuity would be established and impe-
tus given for many years to come.

I’m very happy to report there has been a fine
increase in the number of Black students at our semi-
naries, both as full-time and as colloquy students. I’m
happy to report that the Commission on Black Ministry
has been established in keeping with the Dallas resolu-
tion and that Dr. Richard Dickinson, one of our out-
standing Black pastors, has been appointed executive
of this commission. He is busily engaged in the work of
recruitment and arranging for financing the educa-
tional program of Black students, in working with
Districts and with Black pastors and leaders and
congregations throughout the Synod to augment and
increase the work of Black Ministry on the part of our
church.

During the past biennium we have lost six Black
pastors. We gained one through colloquy, three through
reinstatement, and we now have 14 in colloquy and
three in the regular program—a net of 15, plus 36 in
college and 76 who have shown an interest in studying
for the ministry. This has been a great step forward, and
we hope that additional emphasis can be given to this at
this convention.

Hispanic Work

Likewise, the Dallas convention and several pre
ceding conventions spoke very strongly in regard to the
expansion of our ministry among Hispanic people, a
minority which is rapidly approaching the size of the
Black minority in this country. The Hispanics have the
additional handicap in that millions of them are not
bilingual and still conduct their lives in a language
which excludes them from many jobs, from the full
advantages of our educational system in our country,
and from economic advantages.

If we are going to carry on work among the Hispanic
people in this country, a large portion of it is going to
have to be done in the Spanish language. This calls not
only for the preparation of Anglos to work among them
but for massive recruitment of Hispanics—Mexicans,

Chicanos, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and South Amer-
icans. In keeping with these resolutions of Dallas, the
Synod through its Mission Board has engaged the
Reverend Carlos Puig of Racine, Wis., to serve as our
executive in the field of the Hispanic ministry. His
portfolio is not unlike that of Doctor Dickinson. He is to
encourage the recruitment and education of Hispanic
workers, the establishment of Hispanic congregations,
to work with congregations and neighborhoods which
are turning Hispanic, to help in urban ministry, social
ministry, parish education, and the many areas which
are related to carrying on a churchwide ministry to this
important and valuable segment of our society.

Ihave been extremely impressed with the work of our
Hispanic Advisory Council appointed by the Mission
Board. These people are all Hispanic, representing a
spectrum of the various groups within the Hispanic
community, and they are dedicated, soundly Lutheran,
and vitally interested in working within the framework
of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in carrying
out a ministry to their people.

Orientals, Filipinos, Native Americans

We also are discovering a large number of Oriental
ethnic groups within our country. For example, there
are about 300,000 Koreans living within a very small
enclave in Los Angeles. In consultation with our breth-
ren of the Lutheran Church in Korea, as well as Dr. Won
Yong Ji, a Korean professor on our St. Louis faculty and
aman of vast experience in international church work,
efforts are being made to establish a meaningful and
effective ministry among the Koreans living in this
country.

Efforts are also being made in the state of Hawaii to
open work among countless Filipinos living there. This
work is being carried on in collaboration with the
Lutheran Church of the Philippines.

We are only making a beginning in work among
native Americans. The Board for Missions has a report
on that subject too. Much more needs to be done in this
area.

I mention these matters of missions, fully realizing
that these items have been dealt with in depth in the
report of the Board for Missions, but to highlight these
matters, and also because, as your President, I have
been very closely and intimately involved with them. I
have the utmost respect for our mission staff and board
and for the overseas partner churches and our mission-
aries, and want to commend them for the kind of
thinking and actions they have been taking in the past
year.

New Foreign Fields

Obviously also I should mention that a new mission
field was opened in Liberia in West Africa, and we will
enter Togo in 1979. And perhaps, most importantly, we
should mention the work of each of our congregations,
of the partner churches, and of all of our workers, both
here and overseas, who have been going forward with
the usual energy and dispatch. The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod does not only have a Mission Board and