# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1949 08 30_S287
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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that our Emergency Planning Council met the wish of the participants and this year again arranged a series of meetings. About a hundred persons took part in each meeting.

The gatherings lasted from June 1 to July 13. During this time four sessions were held: the first from June 1 to 10; the second from June 12 to 21; the third from June 23 to July 2; the fourth from July 4 to 13.

This year's representatives of the Missouri Synod were: Dr. Theo. Gräbner, Dr. J. T. Müller, Dr. P. Bretscher, Prof. M. Franzmann, Vice-President Dr. H. Harms, P. Paul König, P. A. C. Müller, member of our Board for Parish Education, and Dr. Ad. Häntzschel. The last was actually the representative of Valparaiso University; but he rendered valuable services to the representatives of the Missouri Synod by writing for them, as secretary, the daily as well as the concluding "summaries."

Owing to circumstances the first meeting was under the direction of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany, the second under that of the National Lutheran Council, and the third and the fourth under that of the Missouri Synod. Thus the gathering took the form of a free conference at which the testimony of our Synod rang out bright and clear. And people really listened to Missouri! Even when they did not agree with every testimony. The heavy suffering that has befallen Germany has moved many to let the old liberalism go and to return to Luther, to Scripture, and to the Lutheran Confession.

At Bad Boll people worked diligently. At 7:45 in the morning there was the devotion, followed by breakfast at 8 o'clock. At 9 o'clock the sessions began, lasting until 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Then followed the noon meal. At 3 o'clock the representatives of the Missouri Synod usually gathered for a private session to deliberate on one matter or another. At 3:30 there was coffee. Then at 4 o'clock came group meetings at which particular points were discussed that had been suggested by the papers of the morning. From 5:30 to 7 o'clock the plenary session was held, in which all the guests took part. At 7:15 in the evening there was supper, after which came the evening devotion. From 8:30 to 10 o'clock in the evening the German participants were shown how in the United States a Lutheran congregation, independent of the State, is active in every direction in order to carry out its Christian work properly. From 10 o'clock until midnight the representatives of the Missouri Synod then met once more to hear the "summary of the day" and to deliberate further. Between the meetings there were usually two days of rest, which one very much needed.

The meetings were so arranged that one came together with the German representatives as much as possible not only during the sessions but also outside of them, in order to discuss theological and other questions. Precisely these private conversations often proved very rich in blessing.

First Meeting

At the meetings important, timely topics were treated. Each meeting was devoted to a general theme, which was then discussed by various speakers from various points of view. The theme of the first meeting read: "The Christian Claim upon the School in the Life of the State." This theme was of practical importance because on the one hand much liberalism and materialism still remains in the schools of Germany, and on the other hand also because all Germany now faces a real "youth emergency." How the conference at Bad Boll stood on Christian education of the young appears from some sentences which we take from the unanimously adopted "Summary" of the first meeting. We read:

"In the Word that has been entrusted to the Church the living God places all the world under His commandment and under His promise. God the Lord wills that all men order their life according to His commandments. Therefore the Church has the commission to proclaim this to all men, within and outside the congregation. . . .

"The Church has a gift to offer to the school that has been entrusted to it alone: the Gospel of the redemption through Christ. It must demand that the school be open to this message. It is obligated to prevent the school from being misused by a non-Christian propaganda. Nor may the Gospel be falsified into a sham-Christian religiosity. Christian instruction can be given only by a teacher who is ready to listen to the Gospel together with the children and to live in the Christian congregation.

"The Church has under all circumstances the task of gathering the parents under the Word and helping them to recognize and discharge the obligation they assumed at the baptism of their children. Through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism Christ receives the children into His congregation. From this arises for the parents the duty of bringing up their children 'in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.'"

To understand these sentences properly, one must bear in mind that they were written out of German conditions and are intended primarily for German conditions. They form a firm testimony for Christian education against all liberalism and materialism.

Second Meeting

At the second meeting, from June 12 to 21, the general theme treated was "The Lutheran Church in the Present World Picture." Of the papers presented the following might perhaps be stressed: "Our Position toward the Confession"; "Our Position toward Catholic Theology"; "Revelation and Scripture"; "The Position of the Christian toward the State." On the side of the German theologians, those who spoke very finely on these matters were especially Dr. W. Künneth of the University of Erlangen, Dr. Edmund Schlink of the University of Heidelberg, Lic. Ernst Kinder of Heilsbronn, and Oberkirchenrat Edo Osterloh of Oldenburg.

In the evening programs the participants were also given further information about the Missouri Synod, its history and its work, about the National Lutheran Council and its extensive relief work in Germany, the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany (VELKD), and the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKiD). In the treatment of the position of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany toward the Evangelical Church in Germany it was pointed out again and again that the latter is not a church but