# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S15
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
in the unmerited riches of God’s mercy for sinners in Christ, the
Macedonians are eager—yes, begging—for the opportunity to
take part in the offering. They exceed the apostle’s imagination
or expectation. What do they do? They give themselves first to
the Lord and then, Paul says by the will of God, they give themselves to us.
Lutheran missions seek to be good and faithful stewards of
the resources the Lord has given to His church. Faithful stewardship seeks to build capacity in partners while not creating
harmful dependencies. In this way, the entire Body of Christ
may be strengthened in its stewardship. We recognize that we are
accountable to one another in our mutual confession of the faith
and in our handling of valuable resources—human, financial, and
property. The financing of missions and use of funding requires
transparency at every level lest the witness of Christ be diminished, mercy be overshadowed by greedy self-interest, and our
life together fractured.
22. Lutheran identity. Mission, as with the entire life of the
Synod, will be guided by confessional identity and integrity.
Bound to the Holy Scriptures as the infallible Word of the triune
God and convinced that the Book of Concord confesses what the
Bible teaches, we will joyfully and without reservation make this
good confession before God and the world in light of the Last
Day (see Matt. 10:32; 2 Tim. 4:1–8). We will not be ashamed to
be Lutheran in all that we do. Like our forefathers at Augsburg,
we will speak God’s testimonies before kings and not be put to
shame (Ps. 119:46). We will teach this theology without duplicity
at home and globally to any and all who are open to hear our confession. Given the seismic shifts in world Lutheranism away from
the historical confession of the Lutheran church, we will seek to
strengthen lonely and disenfranchised Lutherans who seek to be
faithful in doctrine and practice.
23. Theology of the cross. The “theology of the cross” (see
1 Cor. 1:18–2:5) stands in sharp contrast to the prevailing theology—the “theology of glory.” The theology of the cross shows
God at work under opposites, giving life through death, showing mercy in wrath, making Himself known in His hiddenness,
and manifesting strength in weakness. The theologian of glory
attempts to access God by way of various ladders: moralism,
rationalism, or mysticism. The theologian of the cross confesses
God condescending to humanity in the weakness of the baby of
Bethlehem and the man of Calvary. The theologian of glory would
judge a church successful on the basis of how well it accomplishes
certain goals defined by the tenants of this world. The theologian
of the cross recognizes that the Church is hidden under suffering and defeat.
Christ’s Church faces many enemies from within and without. She bears the mark of the holy cross, not as an identifier for
its own sake, but as a consequence of bearing witness to and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Church in every place
bears the Holy Cross to some degree. The Church in some places
bears what appears to be a smaller cross than the Church in other
places, yet no matter how small or big the cross it serves the same
purpose: a witness (martyria) to the world and, as Formula of
Concord XI confesses, “to conform us into the image of the crucified Son of God.” It should not surprise us, the Lord’s people,
that His Holy Church takes on the appearance of the crucified Son
of God. In fact, it is a great honor and joy that the Lord conforms
us into His image. This is why St. Paul says in Romans 8, “I know
all things work for good.” The life of the Church is cruciform in

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shape. The apt words of Hermann Sasse ring true: “All that we
think and do in the church has to be cleansed by the theology of
the cross if we are to escape the perils of a theology of glory.”21
The theology of the cross will forever be a litmus test of the genuineness of Witness, Mercy, Life Together in our midst.

Notes
1. Witness, Mercy, Life Together is an attempt to describe what the
Church always has done—proclaim the Gospel, care for people’s bodily
needs, and have fellowship and community together as the Church.
Whatever titles are given to these activities or terms used to describe them,
these basic activities have been a part of the Church since the beginning.
See Albert B. Collver’s Witness, Mercy, Life Together: Bible Study (St.
Louis: Concordia Publishing House), 2011. In Mission from the Cross:
The Lutheran Theology of Mission (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing
House, 2009), Detlev Schultz describes both the Trinitarian nature of
mission as well as the activities of the Church and Christians that could
be described in terms of Witness, Mercy, Life Together. Schultz uses the
terms “proclamation, confession, and witness,” the church’s diakonia, “a
new community … an ecclesial reality for mission.”
2. Robert Kolb and Timothy Wengert, eds. Book of Concord
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002), 41.
3. Ibid., 42.
4. Ibid., 41.
5. Ibid., 174. (Compare with Ignatius, “The Epistle of Ignatius to the
Smyrnaeans”: “Where Christ Jesus is, there is the catholic church,” 8).
6. C. F. W. Walther. “The Mission Society Established by God,” in
The Word of His Grace (Lake Mills: Graphic Publishing Co., 1978), 20.
7. Martin Luther. “Lectures on Zechariah” (1527) in Luther’s Works,
vol. 20, ed., Walther Miller, trans. Hilton Oswald (St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 1973), 213.
8. Martin Luther. Luther’s Works, vol. 20: Lectures on Galatians,
1535, Chapters 5–6; 1519, Chapters 1–6, eds. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton
Oswald, Helmut Lehmann (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999),
2:10.
9. Tertullian. Vol 3: Apology 39.6 Ante-Nicene Fathers, eds. Alexander
Roberts and James Donaldson (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishing, 1996), 46.
10. Martin Luther. Luther’s Works, vol. 26: Lectures on Galatians,
1535, Chapters 1–4, eds. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton Oswald, Helmut
Lehmann (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 104.
11. Werner Elert. Structure of Lutheranism (St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 1962), 386.
12. Friedrich Wilhelm Hopf. “The Lutheran Church Plants Lutheran
Missions,” trans. Matthew C. Harrison and Rachel Mumme. Unpublished,
2013.
13. Oswald Bayer. “Theology as Askesis,” in Gudstankens aktualitet,
trans. E. M. Wiberg Pedersen, et al. (Copenhagen: Forlaget ANIS, 2010), 49.
14. Walther, 24.
15. Martin Luther. Luther’s Works, vol. 35: Word and Sacrament I,
eds. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton Oswald, Helmut Lehmann (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1999), 36.
16. Hermann Sasse. We Confess the Sacraments, trans. Norman Nagel
(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1985), 151.
17. Mimesis means “imitation, mimicry.”
18. The Missouri Synod has used different nomenclature to express
the idea of closed Communion at various times in her history. Different
terms have been used to describe the same doctrine and practice. The terms
“closed Communion,” “close Communion,” and “close(d) Communion”
are equivalent terms. Art. VI of the Missouri Synod’s Constitution states
as a condition of membership in the Synod, “Renunciation of unionism
and syncretism of every description.” Art. VI 2 (b) provides additional
clarification by defining unionism and syncretism as “Taking part in

2019 Convention Workbook