# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S150
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

150 CHURCH RELATIONS

Resolved, That we suspend all fellowship procedures
until purity of doctrine is restored in our own Synod
and in The American Lutheran Church; and be it
further

Resolved, That we take clear-cut and immediate
steps to return to our former position of fearless loyalty
to Scripture in teaching and in practice.

Our Savior LUTHERAN CHURCH
Harrisonville, Mo.

Won, A. CROWDER JR., Secretary
W. T. NrerMeter, Pastor

(3-157)

To Strive for Internal Unity in LCMS
and ALC Before Fellowship

Wuereas, Our divine Savior commands us to “teach
all things whatsoever I have commanded you,” per-
mitting us neither to add any man-made teaching to
His divine revelation nor to omit any teaching He has
given us in His Word; and

Wuereas, God's Word repeatedly warns us against
entering into or long remaining in religious fellowship
with those who persistently teach contrary to God’s
Word and or tolerate and uphold religious practices not
in agreement with Holy Scriptures; and

Wuereas, Much evidence supports the claim that
leaders in The American Lutheran Church tolerate and
even support doctrines and practices contrary to God’s
Word and also contrary to The American Lutheran
Church’s own fine confession of faith offered in its
Constitution; and

WHEREAS, Many lay people and pastors within the
Synod have expressed and are expressing deep mis-
givings about the Scriptural propriety of establishing
pulpit and altar fellowship with The American Lu-
theran Church at the present time, because of the un-
fortunate doctrinal situation within that church body;
and

Wuereas, Establishing fellowship with The Amer-
ican Lutheran Church at this time would grieve and
violate the consciences of these loyal and faithful mem-
bers of the Synod, possibly compelling them to with-
hold support from or even leave the Synod and/or
cause splits in other congregations; and

Wuereas, Doctrinal aberrations and misunderstand-
ings are existing within our own Synod and call for
correction and removal; therefore be it

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church — Missouri
Synod, meeting in convention at Denver, Colo., at this
time refrain from declaring pulpit and altar fellowship
with The American Lutheran Church; and be it further

Resolved, That this convention encourage all mem-
bers of the Synod, especially synodical and District
officers, prayerfully to strive to reestablish unity of
doctrine and practice within the Synod on the basis of
God's Word, the Lutheran Confessions, and the Brief
Statement; and be it finally

Resolved, That we encourage The American Lu-
theran Church likewise to strive to reestablish doctrinal
unity within its own ranks on the basis of God’s Word
and the Lutheran Confessions, confident that such ef-
forts on the part of both church bodies will, with God's
help and guidance, bring about a oneness in confession
of faith and religious practice which can serve as the
basis of a truly God-pleasing fellowship between The
American Lutheran Church and The Lutheran Church

— Missouri Synod. Grace LUTHERAN CHURCH

Everett, Wash.

Pauu Warns, Chairman

JOHN MAXWELL, Secretary
WaLtTerR A, SYLWESTER, Pastor

(3-158)

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Yorktown, Iowa, Elmer
Eickhorst, Chairman; Martin G. Kirsch, Pastor, sub-
mitted essentially the same overture with the omission
of “fine” in the third whereas and “of doctrine and
practice” after “unity” in the second resolved.

(3-159)

To Declare that Complete Doctrinal
Agreement Does Not Exist and Therefore
to Establish No Fellowship

Wuereas, The 47th regular convention of The Lu-
theran Church — Missouri Synod declared that “the
Scriptural and confessional basis for altar and pulpit
fellowship between The Lutheran Church — Missouri
Synod and The American Lutheran Church exists” and
further resolved that “the President of the Synod in
conjunction with the Council of Presidents make the
appropriate recommendations to the 1969 convention”;
and

WuereaSs, The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod
has always interpreted the pure Word of God to forbid
altar and pulpit fellowship with those who are not in
complete agreement as to doctrine; and

Wuereas, Complete doctrinal agreement, that which
makes both church bodies involved orthodox in charac-
ter, “is established not by its mere name nor by its
outward appearance of, and subscription to, an orthodox
creed, but by the doctrine which is actually taught in
its pulpits, in its theological seminaries, and in its pub-
lications” (Brief Statement, par. 29; cf. Pieper’s Chris-
tian Dogmatics, III, 423, and J. T. Mueller’s Christian
Dogmatics, p. 557, paras. 2 ff.); and

WHEREAS, We feel at this time, on the basis of studies
among ourselves and between our pastors and local
American Lutheran Church pastors, that such doctrinal
agreement does not exist in either of these two church
bodies, nor between these two church bodies; therefore
be it

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church — Missouri
Synod, in convention assembled at Denver, Colo., July
11—19, 1969, declare that while “the Scriptural and con-