Dear Christian friends:

Today we are joining with many other churches of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, LCMS to celebrate the Black Lutheran Centennial.

Today we thank and praise God because one hundred years ago He had led our LCMS to begin preaching the Good News of Christ our Savior to black people of America.

To help us do that we shall attend to our text and also tell you some important events of the past one hundred years of Black Missions.


In our text Jesus tells His Church, "Go and make disciples in all the nations." All nations, means also black nations and black people. Jesus also died for them. He is their Savior, too. Baptism, the Lord's Supper and forgiveness is for them, too.

During July 18-24, 1877 our Church had a convention in Fort Wayne, Indiana and voted to begin bringing the Gospel to Black people of America. They did this because of Jesus' command here in our text, "Go and make disciples in all nations."

They began bringing Christ to Black people also because they believed Jesus' promise. Here in our text Jesus promises to go with us when we preach and teach His Word: "Go and make disciples in all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and then teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you, and remember - I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

Jesus means, "You go preach, teach about Me, and I will bless your preaching and teaching. I will give people who hear you, I will give them faith. I will give them the Holy Spirit. You go - plant My Word and water it - and I will make it grow and give fruit.

One hundred years ago the leaders of our Lutheran Church believed Jesus' promise and they sent preachers to proclaim Jesus' cross to black people in the South. At that time there were not many black people here in the North.

So, did Jesus keep His promise? Yes, Jesus always keeps His promises to us. What He promises happens exactly. When we obey His command and believe His promise He always blesses our work. If we disobey His command and doubt His promises then we do little or nothing and He does not bless us.

Today in the USA we have 175 black church groups with 50,000 members. During the past 100 years we have trained one-hundred-fifty black pastors to serve the black churches, also many white pastors have served black churches during the past one-hundred years. (Tell of Rev. Harold Pranschke and his wife Esther at St. Philips Lutheran Church here in Toledo)

Today we have fifty-five black pastors in our Lutheran Church. But we need many more black pastors. Because we have fifteen million blacks here in the USA and about one-half of them are not yet Christians.

So we today will have a thank offering to thank God for past blessings during the past one-hundred years. What will we do with the money? Invest the money, and hopefully receive $1,500,000 for the endowment fund, and use the interest and profits to help support black students in our Lutheran Colleges and seminars to become pastors. We hope we can train one-hundred-fifty new black pastors during the next ten years.

Today we look back past one-hundred years. We thank and praise God because He led our fathers in our Lutheran Church to obey His command and believe His promise here in our text. They went to blacks, obeyed, believed Him and He blessed their work in wonderful ways.

Also today we look to the future. We hear Jesus command to us, "Make disciples in all nations." we know He means black people too. We believe His promise that He will bless our mission work in the future. So, we give Him praise and offer our gifts. Alleluia!

Amen!