Same challenges, different priorities

Yesterday I posted a quote I found from 1929. It dealt with the desire of some progressives to lose our hymnody. Well, here’s another awesome find from 1929. It’s a report from the Missouri Synod titled, well, “The Work of Your Synod 1929.”

As folks like to say about the United States federal budget, “a budget is a policy document.” It tells you what an organization’s priorities are.

So I thought it really interesting that some 84 percent of the budget in 1929 went to seminaries and colleges.

Also interesting, we had 730 ordained missionaries in the field that year.

And it looked like the Synodical President was rolling in cash — getting paid $4,000 a year. Which in those days was not terribly bad. But he also had to pay his own travel expenses and his own secretary’s salary. So at the end of the day, he made about what the top professors at the seminary did — $200 per month.

I found all this information over at The ABC3S of Miscellany blog, where the author notes that not everything is different:

In 1929, the Synod had a $751,000 deficit. Financial challenges are nothing new for the Missouri Synod. Nonetheless, in 1929, the Synod kept to its goals and borrowed money to support its mission.

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