The Beginnings of LCMS Work in India - Lutheran Society for ...

The Beginnings of LCMS Work in India
Paul Heerboth
At the very first Convention of the Missouri Synod in April 1847 a
committee on missions was established. The policies of that committee
emphasized mission to the heathen-"Heidenmission." However, because of the
influx of German immigrants, the founders of the Synod were overwhelmed:
"On their isolated farms and in their self-contained ethnic settlements some
of them (immigrants) forgot their God. The lapsed and the indifferent and
the neglected had to be reclaimed by the spiritual ones, those devoted to
their God, to the Gospel, and to their Lutheran Church. The founders of the
Missouri Synod were keenly aware of this mission."'
As we look back on how this challenge was met, we thank and praise God
for the influence of Wilhelm Loehe and the Sendlinge who were sent by him to
America. Within the space of ten years Loehe had sent more than eighty
workers: pastors, candidates of theology, "emergency men" (Nothelfer), students
of theology, and teachers to America. They contributed much to the missionary
zeal of the Missouri Synod, and yet forty-eight years elapsed before the Synod
began its first foreign mission work, India, in 1895.
The need for the Missouri Synod to have its own foreign mission endeavor
was felt more keenly when in 1876 the Synod, because of doctrinal differences,
discontinued its support for the Leipzig Mission and likewise in 1879 for the
Hermannsburg Mission. In the Convention of 1887 the Synod passed a
significant resolution:
RESOLVED, That the Synod empower the Board of Foreign Missions to
take the introductory steps toward the opening of heathen missions also
beyond our own country on behalf of Syn~d.~
Paul Heerboth is Director for Administration for the Board for Mission Services of the
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and is Associate Editor of Missio Apostolica.
'Carl S. Meyer, Moving Frontiers (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House,
1964), p. 194.
*Proceedings, 5th Delegate Synod, Fort Wayne, IN, 1887, pp. 63ff.
(Synodical Bericht ... Funjle Delegaten Synode, Fort Wayne, IN, im Jahre 1887)

26 Missio Apostolica
The foreign mission board was authorized to look for a director and for young
men to be sent.
Although the 1890 Convention of the Synod was unwilling to renew the
1887 resolution, the 1893 Convention did take action:
1. Japan was chosen as the field;
2. A director of missions was to be chosen;
3. A board of ten men was to be elected. Among them were Drs. Francis
Pieper and A.L. Graebner of Concordia Seminary; pastors 0. Hansen and
C.F.W. Sapper, editors of Die Missionstaube; F. Zucker and C.M. Zorn,
formerly Leipzig Missionaries to East India; A.E. Frey, who had on his own
published a mission paper; and, of course, F. Sievers, Sr. to represent the
clergy and Louis Lange, publisher of the family magazine Die Abendschule.
Before the first meeting both Sievers and Lange were called to their
heavenly home.
Because of the availability of a young Japanese student who was fluent in
German and who received his ministerial training at Concordia Seminary,
Springfield, IL, it was decided that the Synod's first field should be Japan.
However, for a number of reasons, Henry Midsuno was not sent as a missionary.
The circumstances surrounding this disappointment call for a fuller discussion
beyond the purpose and scope of this essay.3 But this meant that eyes eagerly
focused on Japan now had to turn elsewhere-especially since Christian mission
work in Japan was becoming very difficult, partly as a result of the Sino-
Japanese war.4
It's still true that when man proposes, God disposes. It was just at this time
(Dec. 18, 1893) that two Leipzig missionaries were dismissed from their work
in East India because of their firm stand and insistence on the doctrine of the
verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. They were Theodore Naether and Franz
Mohn.
After leaving India they went to Germany to meet with officials of the
Saxon Free Church.' Following a brief stay in Germany, Naether and Mohn
3For a full discussion of this turn of events cf. E.C. Zimmermann, "Henry
Signaro Midsuno: A Japan Mission in 1895?" in Concordia Historical Quarterly
54:3 (Fall 1981): 102-1 12. Cp. W.J. Danker, "Henry Mizuno Shigetaro: Samurai
Missionary Without Support," in Currents in Theology and Mission 19:5
(October 1992): 339-348.
4Cf. Lehre und Wehre, vol. 39, October, pp. 298-307.
'The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Saxony, since its founding in
1876, has been the oldest sister church of the LCMS outside of America, and is
one of three other independent Lutheran groups who combined to form the

Beginnings in India 27
were recommended to the Missouri Synod as possible foreign missionaries who
were recognized as indeed being united in faith and confession.
Because of their prior experience as missionaries in India and since political
conditions in Japan were worsening, it became necessary to persuade the
Districts of the Synod to give permission to switch from Japan to India. This
consent was gladly given, though California did so reluctantly. That District was
really hoping for Japan, since it was to them that Henry Midsuno first came
before attending the Springfield seminary.
In October 1894 the Western District convention was in session, as was also
the Board of Foreign Missions. Prof. A. L. Graebner and Pastor C.M. Zorn had
examined the credentials of both Naether and Mohn and were persuaded that
they were qualified and exemplary both in doctrine and life. Then on October 14,
1894 at Immanuel Lutheran Church, St. Charles, MO, both men were solemnly
commissioned as Missouri Synod missionaries to India. The commissioning was
conducted by President H.C. Schwan in the presence of the Western District and
the entire Board of Foreign Missions.
At this point it is appropriate to remember that while the majority of the
men who became charter and voting members of the Synod in 1847 were Loehe
missionaries, when it came to the Synod's first foreign mission field, the church
owes a debt of gratitude to the manpower resources of the Evangelical Lutheran
Free Church in Saxony. The roster of the earliest Missouri Synod missionaries
to India (1894-1913) shows a predominance of Saxon influence. The following
listing was furnished by Dr. Hans Kirsten, the last president of the Saxon Free
Church prior to the merger of German Lutheran free churches to form the
Independent Evangelical Lutheran Free Church (SELK) in 1972.6
The following listing of the early missionaries indicates their years of service
in India with the Missouri Evangelical Lutheran India Mission (MELIM):
1. Four missionaries of the Saxon church who had sewed in India under the
Leipzig Mission and who left to come to Missouri for doctrinal reasons are:
Theodore Naether
Franz Mohn
Otto Kellerbauer
Reinhold Freche
1894-1904, 10 yrs.
1894-1913, 19 yrs.
1895-1914, 19 yrs.
1897-1915, 18 yrs.
Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1972. Cf. Bachmann & Bachmann,
Lutheran Churches in the World (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1989), p. 363.
6Cf. Hans Kirsten, "Pioneer Missionaries of MELIM," Concordia Historical
Institute Quarterly 56:3 (Fall 1983): 116-132.

-
28 Missio Apostolica
2. Five who grew up in Germany and were educated there but later studied
at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis before going to India:
Albert Huebener
George Neumann
Heinrich Nau
Gerhard Huebener
Heinrich Stallman
1900-1916, 16 yrs.
1902-1916, 14 yrs.
1905-1913, 8 yrs.
1909-1919, 10 yrs.
1911-1916, 5 yrs.
3. Four who came directly from the Missouri Synod and whose service
began before World War I:
John F. Forster 1902-1911, 9 yrs.
Theodore Gutknecht 1907-1916, 9 yrs.
George J. Kuechle 1910-1925, 15 yrs.
Frederick Zucker 1920-1936, 16 yrs.
4. Another seven men were called for service in India between 1912 and
1915. For the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Missouri Synod in 1922, a
special volume of reports, titled Ebenezer, was published. In it Rev. Richard
Kretschmar succinctly describes the mission board's policy and strategy for
India: "The first missionaries sent out by the Missouri Synod were charged
not to build on ground previously occupied by other missions, but to select
a territory where the Gospel had not been preached before" (p. 393.'
In terms of unreached people in India there was no difficulty deciding where
to begin. Missionary Naether located in Krishnagiri to begin the work in what
is known as Salem District. This was the northern edge of the Tamil language
area, ca. 160 miles west of Madras.
Franz Mohn did not arrive in India until early 1896. Because of the need to
improve his poor health he stayed in Germany till then. Naether and Mohn were
later joined by Otto Kellerbauer in March 1895 and Reinhold Freche in March
1897. After assisting Naether in Krishnagiri, Kellerbauer worked in Barugur, a
village ten miles away. Freche worked in Vaniyambadi, about fifteen miles west
of Ambur.
'Ebenezer: Reviews of the Work of the Missouri Synod during Three
Quarters of a Century, ed. W.H.T. Dau (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House,
1922).

Beginnings in India 29
Herbert M. Zorn characterized the work of these four men in a few brief
paragraphs:
These four men all came to the new mission with a basic training in
Tamil, and, except for Kellerbauer, some experience in the work. They were
at one in their emphasis upon a conservative, confessional Word-based
ministry to people. Their correspondence shows devotion to their tasks, trust
in the Lord of the church, and impatience with the slowness of people to
understand and accept the Savior.'
The pioneering work of the early missionaries to India presented formidable
difficulties and challenges which put their courage and even their faith to severe
tests. As Richard Kretshmar described their task in the language of his time,
The heathen did not flock to them to hear the glad tidings of the Savior.
The messengers of peace had to go out along the streets, to the market
places, or to the fields to find people to whom they could preach the eternal
truths about sin and salvation. Sometimes they played music and song to
draw a crowd. Some listened, asked questions, became interested, and would
hear more about it; others objected, reviled and picked up stones to throw
at the preachers?
To appreciate fully the tremendous difficulty of communicating the Gospel
cross-culturally at that time and out of the contextual German background of
those early missionaries, one would do well to read a book like Luther W.
Meinzen's A Church in Mission, Identity and Purpose in India." Its early
chapter headings indicate what missionaries to India encountered: Hinduism and
Hindu people; village and folk religion (village temples, deities, astrology,
omens, magic); political movements and urbanization; sociological factors (the
caste system); the church and caste; women and marriage, etc.
Dr. Meinzen writes:
In the early period, 1895-1958, the missionaries were largely responsible
for bequeathing to the church in India structures of congregational life from
the West. They were very likely convinced of Walther's position regarding
'H.M. Zorn, Much Cause for Joy (Vaniyambadi: Concordia Press, 1970), p.
13.
'Dau, Ebenezer, pp. 395-396.
"Published in 1981 at the IELC Concordia Press and Training Institute,
Vaniy ambadi.

30 Missio Apostolica
the proper ordering of congregational life for the church in America, and equally
confident of the harmony between Missouri Synod structures and New Testament
patterns, and the consequent applicability of such patterns to the situation in
India. Hence they began organizing congregations along these lines without
critically examining the suitability of democratic forms of government in the
context of an extended family or caste-dominated society."
From very humble beginnings the work under the blessing of God took root
and grew, but slowly. On March 11, 1900, Easter Sunday, Franz Mohn had the
joyful privilege of performing the first MELIM Baptism, a man by the name of
Chinnian in Ambur. Chinnian had attended the mission school and later became
an instructor for younger children. He took the Christian name Devasahayam,
"God is my help."
The four original mission stations in the Ambur District: Krishnagiri, Ambur,
Vaniyambadi, and Barugur were along the highway between Madras and
Bangalore. This was an area dominated by Caste Hindus and Muslims and about
thirty percent Sambavars who followed a primitive religion. They were poor and
for the most part worked as common laborers or as tannery workers.
Following the Board of Foreign Missions' instruction to work among
unreached people, and of course also to avoid unionism, the missionaries were
careful to avoid contact with workers from the Leipzig Mission Society and with
missionaries from other church bodies. Dr. Herbert Zorn, for example, tells that
when Otto Freche found a school in Vaniyambadi, operated by the London
Missionary Society, he solved the problem by buying out the school and
operating it as a MELIM institution." A number of schools were conducted for
the children, with teachers hired and instructed first by the missionaries.
This beginning of establishing schools for reaching children set a pattern for
the future. An India Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELC) pastor, looking back,
commented,
Institutions were the bedrock on which many of the churches in India
were built. The Indian Church is not an exception. Educational institutions,
boarding schools, not only helped the people to get released from social,
economic and psychological bondage, but also from the bondage of
paganism. They were taught and trained to 'live' a human life, and to
witness for Christ. Educational institutions were the means by which the
Gospel reached the people in the past. Many villagers were attracted by the
witness of the Christian missionaries who went from village to village and
"Ibid., p. 92.
I2Zorn, pp. 14-15.

Beginnings in India 3 1
preached the Gospel. The children of the villagers were sent to boarding
homes. They were taken care of by the missionaries-free boarding, free
books and free schooling. Nearly 80 percent of the present day members and
workers are by one way or the other connected with the mission schools.
Bible teaching was considered as an important part of schooling. It was
compulsory for every pupil to attend Bible classes, but no one was
compelled to believe in Christ. But many believed in Christ when they heard
about Jesus as their only sa~iour.'~
In 1907 a group of very poor, low-caste people in the southern tip of India,
the Sambavars, felt that they were quite neglected by the London Missionary
Society (L.M.S.) which had been working there since 1816 among the Nadar
caste. One congregation separated from the LMS group. G. Jesudason, a member
of this group, approached the Lutherans with a Macedonian call to bring the
Gospel to more than thirty thousand Sambavars in the area. Mr. Jesudason was
a well educated layman, private secretary to a British officer at the time.
However, because of the Board of Foreign Missions' policy that the
missionaries were to concentrate work in unreached areas, this request had to be
submitted to the board in St. Louis for consideration. The board approved the
survey report of the two missionaries and the missionary conference's favorable
recommendation, which, by the way, was adopted only after lengthy, heated
debate. When the board approval came, Albert Huebener, his brother Gerhard,
Theodore Gutknecht, and Henry Nau were assigned to begin the work in the
Nagercoil area. One early result was that Jesudason left his goverrment post to
work for the church. After extended private training he was ordained as the first
pastor of the IELC.
In 1912 an opportunity came to expand the work to Trivandrum, located in
the Malayalam language area. Henry Nau was the chief agitator for this move.
He was assigned to this new work and diligently studied this language in
addition to the Tamil he had already learned. Frederick Zucker, John Harms, and
Otto Ehlers were also assigned to this work when Henry Nau left for furlough
in 1914.
Meanwhile, back in St. Louis there was a change in the directorship of the
Board of Foreign Missions. In May 1912 Julius Friedrich succeeded J. Frederich
Zucker as director. Friedrich quickly arranged to make an extended field visit to
India, where he spent time in each station between September 1912 and March
1913. This visit did much to produce better harmony between the northern
13Martin Jesudas, "India Evangelical Lutheran Church Growth, Expansion and
Mission-An Evaluation," Master of Theology Thesis, Fuller Theological
Seminary, 1976, p. 86.

district where the missionaries "carried on in faithful and unspectacular
~ervice"'~ and the southern district where the missionaries "could show greater
results for their ~ervice."'~ This visit also contributed to better understanding
between the field and the board at a time when correspondence between India
and the United States took a minimum of six weeks each way.
A major contribution to help missionary families, particularly the wives and
children, to survive the hot season in tropical India was the purchase of Loch
End Compound in Kodaikanal in 1912. Situated at an altitude of 7,000 feet, two
double residences were constructed on this property plus one additional building
made possible by the Walther League societies in Milwaukee. At this point in the
early history of MELIM a rather practical problem began to appear over the
horizon, the education of the missionary children. The board in St. Louis
indicated that attention would be given to the matter. Unfortunately the
exigencies caused by World War I interrupted further action for the duration.
In 1913 Miss Louise Ellennann arrived in India. Her main responsibility as
a nurse was to conduct a small dispensary in Bargur. This embryonic beginning
of medical missions remained at most a humble start until the establishment of
hospital work under Angela Rehwinkel in 1923.
Dr. Herbert Zorn has in summary given the status of MELIM work at the
time of World War I:
As war broke over Europe, MELIM had established a base of
congregations in the northern district around Krishnagiri, Vaniyambadi,
Bimgur, and Ambur. It also had entered work in the southern district, in and
near Nagercoil in the Tamil language and in and near Trivandrum in
Malayalam. The 38 baptized Christians of 1904 increased 17 times to 575.
Fifteen missionaries were serving in seven stations. Mohn, who retired from
mission service in 1913, after twenty-five years in India, left behind him
many tracts and a book of Tamil sermons. The church had a solid base.I6
Because many of the early MELIM missionaries were Germans, the mission
was seriously affected. The German-citizen missionaries were forced to leave
India. Otto Kellerbauer happened to be on furlough when the war broke out. He
died in late 1914. Henry Nau was also on furlough in Germany and so was not
allowed to return. Mrs. Freche went ahead of her husband on furlough to
Germany. When the war broke out, the two were separated. Reinhold Freche was
more than fifty years old and so was not interned. In 1915 he left India for the
United States via Hong Kong. There the British interned him for four-and-one-
14
Zorn, p. 21.
%id.
161bid., p. 22.

Beginnings in India 33
half months before he finally made it to the U.S. where his family joined him.
The remaining missionaries of German citizenship were likewise repatriated. The
US.-citizen missionaries who remained suddenly had to take on increased
responsibilities.
One of the blessings that resulted was that between 1913 and 1919 the
number of Indian Christian helpers of all types increased from fifty-eight to 127.
In that same period baptized membership nearly tripled from 675 to 1681.
Communicant membership doubled from 162 to 3 18.
In 1916 when the problems stemming from World War I were at their
greatest, MELIM had opportunity to serve another group of Christians in
Vadakkangulam, about sixteen miles from Nagercoil. Again this was an
exception to the original policy to work only where there were no Christians. The
situation was a challenging one and points to one of the great difficulties
confronting Christian mission work in India-that is, how to deal with castes.
The Vadakkangulam group had been members of a Roman Catholic group
made up of two castes, Vellalars and Nadars. The boundary line between these
two was evident even inside their church, where a low wall inside separated the
two.
When a new priest came who physically broke down that wall, the higher
caste Vellalars left the church and looked for a different kind of spiritual help.
They applied to MELIM for help. Once again in missionary conference there was
considerable discussion before it was decided to assign Anton J. Lutz to work
among these people. He came to India in 1912.
For a summary of the first twenty-five years, here is an overview as seen by
Dr. Herbert Zorn:
At the end of 1919, MELIM completed its first twenty-five years.
Missionaries had labored through disappointment, through new situations,
and through the dangers of a world war. The church had grown from
nothing to a baptized membership of 168 1. Sixty-eight schools served 2657
children. Missionary manpower had grown to seventeen by 1914, but
dropped sharply during the war to eight in 1919. The policy of using Indian
helpers in all capacities was showing results; it seems that this policy
developed more from the needs of the times than from planning. Medical
missions were tried. New areas and new kinds of work were entered.
Theological training was discussed; the following period would see its
establishment. Literature efforts had begun. The groundwork had been laid
and had survived the storm of war. MELIM was ready for a new surge of
growth.17
171bid., pp. 25-26.

34 Missio Apostolica
Throughout the major portion of this essay little reference has been made to
the commitment, dedication and the personal sacrifices which the early
missionaries of MELIM and their families made in serving their Lord. To remain
silent on this subject would be a grave injustice to those who labored to lay the
foundations for the church as it has grown to this day. A word from St. Paul to
the Thessalonian Christians shows the true heart and spirit of the early MELIM
workers. Paul wrote: "We loved you so much that we were delighted to share
with you not only the Gospel of God, but our lives as well" (1 Thess. 29). The
following four examples are gleaned from the biographical research which Dr.
Hans Kirsten did and are about the four men who broke with the Leipzig .
Mission Society and served under the Missouri Synod with MELIM in 1ndia.I'
1. Theodore Naether, wife Johanna nee Neumann. Their two oldest
children, a girl and a boy, died of dysentery within a few days of each other
in 1900. Naether himself after only ten years of faithful service, while
ministering to a church member who had bubonic plague, contracted the
disease himself and died in the Lord, Feb. 13, 1904 at the age of thirty-
seven years and five months. His wife Johanna stayed in India till her next
child was born and returned to Germany.
2. Franz Mohn came to India at age twenty-two after a two-year stay in
Germany because of poor health. Franz and his wife Charlotte also knew the
pain of losing a child who lies buried in Ambur. Mohn continued to suffer
from poor health. Finally in 1913 he had to resign. After some time in
Germany, the Mohns went to America to accept a call into the parish
ministry. He died June 18, 1925 in Ft. Wayne at age fifty-eight.
3. Otto Kellerbauer with his wife Louise served with MELIM from 1895.
Their life too was marked by heavy crosses and family burdens. In 1905
they went to Leipzig, Germany, where he was bedfast with a sickness. Their
son born in Leipzig died of a viral pneumonia. In 1913 Kellerbauer had a
year furlough during which he visited the U.S. With the outbreak of the war
he could not return. He died October 27, 1914, apparently after prolonged,
chronic dysentery at age forty-six.
4. Reinhold Freche with his wife Selma came to India to serve with
MELIM, February 3, 1898 at age thirty-six. They had five children of whom
three boys and one girl grew up to live full lives. Their fifth child, a
daughter, Irene, born in 1906, died shortly after being born.
18 Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly 56:3 (Fall 1983): 1 l6- 132.

The beginnings of Missouri Synod work in India, 1895-1919, became the
foundation for the future stages in that church's development under the grace and
blessing of God. Through the succeeding decades of growth, consolidation, trials
and tribulation, controversy, and churchmanship the grace of God in Christ
prevailed and continues to do so. For even though in 1993 only one MELIM
missionary continues in India, a well established partner church, the India
Evangelical Lutheran Church, under difficult circumstances and a cloud of
internal problems continues to share with the millions in South India the saving
knowledge of Jesus Christ who comes in Word and Sacrament with forgiveness,
with love and mercy, with new power for life in this world and for the sure hope
of the life to come.
The early MELIM pioneers would rejoice to see this day.