# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2016_S347
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
5-11

To Reaffirm Standard for Pastoral Admission
to Lord’s Supper: Full Agreement in All Articles
of Christian Doctrine
Whereas, Paul in 1 Corinthians says, “For as often as you eat
this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he
comes” (11:26), denoting that our Communion confesses and proclaims all that Christ’s death means and brings to us; and
Whereas, The substance of that confession and proclamation is
inclusive of “all the articles of the faith as well as in the proper use of
the holy sacraments” (FC SD X 31); and
Whereas, Paul also instructs us that to participate (have koinonia)
in an altar is to participate in what that altar stands for and brings when
he writes, “Consider the people of Israel; are not those who eat the
sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food
offered to idols is anything or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that
what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. You cannot
drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake
of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the
Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?” (1 Cor. 10:18−22); and
Whereas, Great spiritual harm comes to those who do not recognize that they receive the very body and blood of Christ in the
Lord’s Supper, and therefore a pastor must exercise proper spiritual
care (1 Cor. 4:1) in the admission of those coming to Christ’s altar, as
Paul writes, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of
the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body
and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so
eat the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks
without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself”
(1 Cor. 11:27−29); and
Whereas, Paul writes that the Corinthian congregation is to fully
agree with one another when he writes, “I appeal to you, brothers,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that
there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same
mind and the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10); and
Whereas, Our Lord Jesus Christ also says, “I do not ask for
these only [the apostles], but also for those who will believe in Me
through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are
in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may
believe that You have sent Me. The glory that You have given Me I
have given them, that they may be one even as We are one, I in them
and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world
may know that You sent Me and loved them even as you loved me”
(John 17:20−23); and
Whereas, Our Lutheran Confessions recognize that from the days
of the Early Church Fathers, proper pastoral care included admitting
or denying admission to the Lord’s Supper, as when the Augsburg
Confession says, “The Fathers before Gregory make no mention of
any private Mass [Communion]. Chrysostom says ‘that the priest
stands daily before the altar, inviting some to the Communion and
keeping back others’ ” (AC XXIV 35−37 [Bente/Dau]); and
Whereas, C. F. W. Walther (first president of the LCMS) comments on 1 Corinthians 10:17, writing,
Accordingly, in that Christians eat of the one bread of the Sacrament,
all become mystically, that is in a spiritual, moral, or figurative way, one
body, and by the act of eating together a person is declared to be one
in Christ with all Christians. For as the bread consists of innumerably
many particles of baked flour, so that it is impossible to separate these
particles again from one another, even so are all Christians one in Christ
through Communion and many thousand times more intimately bound

347

together than even body and soul into one organism. They are actually
one. One God dwells in them. One Spirit rules in them. They all have
one Savior in them, and one Lord Jesus speaks from them. And now
consider what a grievous sin those commit who administer Communion
to those who are, after all, of another faith and confession, and confess
themselves to be one and brothers with them.…Therefore one who goes
to Holy Communion in a Lutheran church declares openly before the
world: I hold with this church, with the doctrine that is confessed here,
and with all the confessors who belong here. The pastor who administers the Sacrament to him declares the very same thing” (C. F. W. Walther, “Communion Fellowship,” Essays for the Church, vol. 1, p. 215);

and
Whereas, The LCMS has repeatedly reaffirmed that to administer the Lord’s Supper in accord with Christ’s institution is to do so
admitting only properly instructed Lutherans to our Lutheran altars,
thus requiring full agreement in all articles of doctrine prior to establishing fellowship at the altar (1967 Res. 2-19; 1983 Res. 3-12; 1986
Res. 3-08; 1995 Res. 3-08; 1998 Res. 3-05.); and
Whereas, Many LCMS congregations today have sadly abandoned the standard of full doctrinal agreement for admission to the
Lord’s Table by limiting that agreement only to a selected few doctrines, or by eliminating any limiting Communion statement at all,
or by opening the Communion Table to all baptized Christians, and
the like, thus abdicating their pastoral oversight responsibility toward
the spiritual well-being of those communing or proclaiming a unity
in doctrine which does not exist; therefore be it
Resolved, That the LCMS reaffirm that the standard for pastoral admission to the Lord’s Supper is full agreement in all articles of
Christian doctrine.
Zion
Chippewa Falls, WI
5-12

To Direct District Presidents re Errant
Communion Practices
Whereas, “Open Communion,” though not officially sanctioned,
still exists across the LCMS; and
Whereas, This practice is not consistent with or faithful to our
Synod’s official practice of “closed Communion,” by which only
members in good standing of LCMS congregations or members of
those churches with whom the LCMS is in altar and pulpit fellowship are to commune; and
Whereas, The practice of “open Communion” offends against
Holy Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions, the Synod’s historic practice, and the members of its congregations; and
Whereas, It is the duty of the Synod, as pastors and congregations, above all to promote sound doctrine, including calling the
erring to repentance and disciplining those who will not turn from
their errors, all for the sake of the salvation of sinners; therefore be it
Resolved, That the 2016 LCMS convention publicly reject and
condemn all such errant Communion practices as mentioned above;
and be it further
Resolved, That the Synod’s district presidents visit every congregation during their elected time in office (Bylaw 4.4.4—“The district
president shall, in accordance with the Constitution of the Synod, in
his ministry of ecclesiastical supervision visit the congregations of the
district.”) to make sure the Communion practice of each congregation
is in accord with the official teaching of the Synod and in accord with
the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions; and be it finally
2016 Convention Workbook