# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S550
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

FLOOR COMMITTEE REPORTS AND OVERTURES ASSIGNMENTS

550

12. Retention: Schools, Family, Youth
and Young Adults
REPORTS
R1, R1.1, R1.2, R7, R12, R15, R63, R65, R66
OVERTURES
Ov. 12-01

To Develop a General Confessional Ethos
in Our Congregations
WHEREAS, Congregations of the Minnesota South District
(MNS) all have in their constitutions a statement that says they
believe the Augsburg Confession is a proper exposition of the
Scriptures, along with its Apology and the other writings of the
Book of Concord, namely the ecumenical creeds, the Small and
Large Catechism, the Smalcald Articles, the Treatise on the Power
and Primacy of the Pope, and the Formula of Concord
(henceforward referred to as the Lutheran Symbols); and
WHEREAS, Every pastor of our district, when he is ordained and
installed, makes the same statement about our Lutheran Symbols,
confessing them to be a proper exposition of the Scriptures; and
WHEREAS, Every congregational council, when installed,
according to the agenda of the Evangelical Lutheran Church,
implies a similar statement regarding these Lutheran Symbols; and
WHEREAS, When Jesus gave the Church the commission to make
disciples, it was to be not only by baptizing, but teaching them what
He had commanded the disciples, thereby making it clear He
expected the disciples to be precise about the teachings and to make
sure the next generation of leaders knew the apostolic faith well;
and
WHEREAS, Our Lord taught us to pray that His name would be
hallowed among us, which meant He expected His Word to be
“taught in its truth and purity” (Small Catechism III 2); and
WHEREAS, Our Lord recognized that false teaching would
always be a problem even as He warned His disciples about these
false teachings saying, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matt. 16:6, 11); and
WHEREAS, When the Holy Spirit inspired these apostolic writers
to record what Jesus had said, bringing to mind what He had taught
them saying, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into
all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever
he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are
to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and
declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that
he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13–15),
we can be confident of what they have written; and
WHEREAS, It was recognized that some of the next generation
would not be faithful to those teachings even as Paul the apostle
warned the elders of Ephesus to “pay careful attention to yourselves
and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you
overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his
own blood… I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come
in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own
selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the
disciples after them” (Acts 20:28–30); and
2019 Convention Workbook

WHEREAS, It became necessary that there was division to
establish who had the truth as Paul said, “For, in the first place,
when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions
among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions
among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be
recognized” (1 Cor. 11:18–19); and
WHEREAS, The Lord raised up fathers of the church who were
faithful to the apostolic writings and confronted those false
teachings our Lord and Paul had warned against, and the writings
of these fathers have been recorded in history; and
WHEREAS, Martin Chemnitz, one of the authors of the Formula
of Concord (FC), reflecting the attitude toward the reliability of the
writings contained in the Book of Concord—also reflected in our
clergy and congregational subscription—said, “We assign to the
writings of the fathers their proper and, indeed, honorable place
which is due them, because they have clearly expounded many
passages of Scripture, have defended the ancient dogmas of the
Church against new corruptions of heretics, and have done so on the
basis of Scripture, have correctly explained many points of doctrine,
have recorded many things concerning the history of the primitive
church, and have usefully called attention to many things”; and
WHEREAS, The Confessions themselves knew the limitations of
human writings, saying in the introduction to the Formula of
Concord, “Other writings of ancient and modern teachers, whatever
their names, should not be put on a par with Holy Scriptures. Every
single one of them should be subordinated to the Scriptures and
should be received in no other way and no further than as witnesses
to the fashion in which the doctrine of the prophets and apostles
were preserved in post-apostolic times” (FC Summary Content,
Rule, and Norm 2); and
WHEREAS, George Porterfield Krauth, leader of the 19th century
Lutheran Council, which eventually became part of the ELCA,
wrote concerning the Confessions, “We do not claim that our
Confessors were infallible. We do not say they could not fail. We
only claim that they did not fail”; and
WHEREAS, Based on their history, we have every right to make
the bold confession regarding these Lutheran Symbols that they are
the truth and are faithful expositions of the Scriptures; and
WHEREAS, By the very nature of membership in the Synod, both
as pastors and as congregations, we already make the bold
confession that Lutheranism is the true confession of faith, as
opposed to any other Christian denomination’s confession; and
WHEREAS, Being able to make this bold confession gives us great
comfort because we are not, as so many denominations are today,
merely struggling to know the truth, but we are confident we have
it, especially since our Lutheran Symbols constantly point us back
to the One who is the truth, as well as the way and the life (John
14:6); and
WHEREAS, We are in the midst of celebrating the first year of the
500th anniversary of the Reformation, and celebrating this has
created a broader awareness of our Lutheran Symbols; and
WHEREAS, We could lose the impact of our celebration if we
don’t encourage further study and simple consideration of the role
of these Symbols in our congregation; therefore be it
Resolved, That the Minnesota South District in convention
encourage the congregations of the MNS District to consider these
statements and create an ethos in their congregations that looks
upon these Symbols as being more than just a statement of