# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2016_S269
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

IX. REPORT OF THE RES. 5-14A TASK FORCE
is taught that no one should publicly teach, preach, or administer the
sacraments without a proper [public] call.” The translation from the
Latin is: “Concerning church order they teach that no one should teach
publicly in the church or administer the sacraments unless properly
called.” The restriction within this article is the relevant point: “without
a proper [public] call” is based on the German ohn[e] ordentlich Beruf
and “unless properly called” is based on the Latin phrase nisi rite vocatus.2 Public ministry—preaching, teaching, and sacramental administration in and on behalf of the church—is restricted only to those with a
proper call, or, in other words, to those properly called. So what does
that phrase “rite vocatus” mean? What is a proper call?
While the question about the proper understanding of the phrase
rite vocatus is, in large measure, a topic we must consider from within
the realm of our confessional commitments, we should not ignore the
biblical texts underpinning Art. XIV. As confessional Lutherans, we
subscribe to the Confessions because they rightly express Scripture’s
teaching. Thus, C. F. W. Walther properly grounded the Office of the
Ministry not in custom or good order (as much as they may play a role),
but in the Word of God. It is the Word which restricts those who should
preach, even though the Word also affirms that every Christian is a priest
(1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10), that all Christians are “taught by God”
(John 5:45), and that, as Luther explained, when any Christian is with
those who do not know Christ “it is his duty to preach and to teach the
gospel.” “In such a case a Christian looks with brotherly love at the need
of the poor and perishing souls and does not wait until he is given a
command or letter from a prince or bishop. For need breaks all laws and
has none.”3 There is no biblical restriction on sharing the faith in one’s
daily vocation in the world.
In the church, however, things are different. Walther says that “there
is an office to teach, feed, and rule, which Christians by virtue of their
general Christian calling do not possess.”4 The texts are clear: Paul asks
rhetorically whether all are apostles, prophets, or teachers in 1 Corinthians 12:29, knowing that the answer is no, for God Himself appoints
(sets in place) different people in different offices for the well-being
of the whole church (1 Cor. 12:28).5 Paul himself declared that he was
“appointed” to his office as preacher, apostle, and teacher (1 Tim. 2:7;
1 Tim. 1:12).
This truth pervades the whole of Scripture. God, not man, calls each
of us to proclaim the message of His redeeming love in Christ Jesus,
yet He also establishes this particular “office.” He called prophets in
the Old Testament and then promised through them that He would give
shepherds (pastors) also in his new covenant to “feed” His people “with
knowledge and understanding” (Jer. 3:15). The Lord Jesus Himself
saw to the fulfillment of this promise when He called His apostles and
commanded them to feed His sheep (John 21:15–17; cf. also Matt. 10;
28:18–20; Lk. 9:1–10; Mark 16:15; John 20:21–23). The apostles were
unique as eyewitnesses, but not as appointed preachers—for the office
of public preaching and teaching and sacramental administration would
not end with them. Rather, they assured the growing church that their
pastors/elders/bishops (the name of the office varied) had been placed in
their office by the Holy Spirit, not human decision, in order that God’s
Church would be nurtured (Acts 20:28; cf. Eph. 4:11). Moreover, the
apostles, who had been called directly (immediately called) by Christ
Himself did not exalt themselves over those whom God later called and
appointed through the church (indirectly or mediately). Rather, Peter
exhorts elders “as a fellow elder” (1 Pet. 5:1).6
It should be clear, then, that this responsibility—the Office of the
Public Ministry, as we are accustomed to refer to it in the LCMS—is not
optional, but commanded. Walther emphasizes that in his Thesis III on
the Ministry/Office, yet he immediately also reminds us that this vital
office is not in opposition to the priesthood of believers or a sign of
superior holiness, but one of service (Thesis IV). Art. XIV stands on
firm scriptural ground as it restricts the public preaching and teaching of
the Gospel and its sacramental administration to those who have been
appointed to such duties.

269

How does that appointment—that right and proper public calling—
take place? In a variety of ways. No one particular method of providing
the Office of the Ministry has been followed either through the tradition
of the Church catholic or in Lutheran tradition. What is vital is that the
public ministry be filled in a way that is in keeping with the requirements of Scripture and the Confessions. The proper calling—rite vocatus—involves several aspects. The task force commends to the Synod
the understanding of this phrase that was emphasized in the CTCR’s
2003 report Theology and Practice of “the Divine Call.”7 The report’s
focus is “placement into the Office of the Public Ministry”—that is, the
“divine call” or “call and ordination.”8 The report speaks of “the divinely
established office referred to in Scripture as ‘shepherd,’ ‘elder,’ or ‘overseer,’ ” or, as “the office of the public ministry.”
After examining the scriptural evidence for the call into ministry,
the report summarizes by noting that placement into the office of Word
and Sacrament occurs in several different ways and that the texts which
describe these methods provide guidance only inferentially. It also notes
that the New Testament is less concerned with procedure than with
the qualifications of ministers and the importance “for the church to
know that the man who occupies the pastoral office has been placed
there by God.”9 Prefatory to its examination of the Confessions, Divine
Call notes: “In general, the Confessions stress two points: pastors are
not self-appointed; and, bishops are not the exclusive ones who may
ordain.”10 The latter point is especially emphasized in the Treatise:
“Philip Melanchthon’s treatise is a theological rationale for Lutherans
to undertake the ordaining of their own pastors.”11 Melanchthon also
obliquely addresses the development of the diaconate as a step toward
the Roman view of a necessary hierarchy in ministry. The report affirms
Melanchthon’s view that, “Regardless of their title (pastor, elder, teacher [doctor], preacher, minister, and occasionally bishop, though almost
never priest), all ordained clergymen have the same basic authority to
discharge the duties of their office (AC XXVIII, 8, 21; Tr 60–61, 74).”12
Noting Melanchthon’s references to the rights of calling, choosing (or
electing), and ordaining, Divine Call argues that, “Taken together, the
terms used by the Treatise constitute and explain the ‘rightly called’
(rite vocatus) of AC XIV.”13 Further, Divine Call suggests how the three
aspects of “rightly called” may be distinguished:
The “right of choosing” (jus eligendi) refers to the nomination and selection of an individual. The “right of calling” (jus
vocandi) designates the actual request or call of the individual to
serve. The “right of ordaining” (jus ordinandi) refers to the act
by which one is placed into the public office of ministry.14
Therefore, the confessional understanding of rite vocatus involves
three elements: examination (or certification), call, and ordination. The
examination identifies an individual who has been properly prepared in
terms of doctrine and whose life will be in keeping with the office he is
to hold. The call is the congregation’s affirmation that God has called
this individual to serve them as their pastor. The ordination provides the
means by which the wider church—the Synod in our case—recognizes
the examination and call of the individual and places him into the ministry of the church. Thus, the congregation’s call is the local affirmation of
an individual’s ministry, and ordination is the transparochial affirmation
of the same. So the CTCR said in 1981:
We stress the fact that ordination is the declaration of the
whole confessional fellowship. In the end, a single congregation
or an agency representing larger segments of the church does
issue the call. Nevertheless, in a synod of congregations bound
by a common confession and loyalty, good order demands
that admission into the pastoral of office or into its closely allied auxiliary offices is not the act of a single congregation or
agency. Various ways can be found to establish this approval of
the whole church. Presently the certification of suitability for the
ministry by the faculty members who have taught the candidates
and the assigning of first calls by the Council of Presidents is
workable and does express the transparochial nature of the ministry.15

2016 Convention Workbook