Evangelical Lutheran Church. Board of Foreign Missions.

See also ELC 4 Administrative History.

In order for the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America/Evangelical Lutheran Church (NLCA/ELC) to publicize its mission efforts, it was necessary to create a means through which mission news and information could be disseminated to congregations and their members. Initially there were two NLCA publications pertaining to specific mission fields: Gleanings published by the Lutheran United Mission, China; and The Messenger, a publication pertaining to Madagascar. For many years the NLCA Board of Foreign Missions (BFM) discussed creating a publication devoted solely to foreign missions. It did so in 1938 with publication of the first issue of The Foreign Missionary. It was published monthly, except for June/July and August/September, and was published at Augsburg Publishing House, 422 South Fifth Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Each issue contained articles about the different NLCA/ELC mission fields, news about missionaries, and suggested missionary study programs. Not only was this magazine used to communicate mission news to the church's congregations, it also communicated news from the homeland to deployed missionaries. The first editor was the Rev. Andrew S. Burgess, January 1938-February 1949. He was succeeded by the Rev. Rolf A. Syrdal, March 1949-December 1962. With the May 1949 issue, a managing editor was added. Irwin M. Ledberg served in this capacity until December 1962, after which he became the editor. After the merger in 1960 The Missionary continued to be published as the foreign mission publication of the newly-created The American Lutheran Church (TALC). It ceased publication in 1969.