# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2004_S461
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

OTHER PERTINENT DOCUMENTS 461

3. Report of the CTCR on Women in the Church: Scriptural
Principles and Ecclesial Practice, 1985, 42.

4. See 1985 report on Women in the Church, 32-33, for more
detailed discussion.

5. Ibid., 34-37.

6. For a discussion of the creational pattern of male headship in
the church, see Women in the Church, 27-37.

7. See the Commission’s discussion of 1 Tim. 2:12, with special
reference to the Greek term authentein, in Women in the Church,
35-36. At its September 1992 meeting the Commission received a
request from the Atlantic District to clarify concerns relative to
women’s service in the church, including the meaning of the term
authentein.

8. Ibid., 44.

9. The term “elder” is derived from the Old Testament and the
Jewish Synagogue. In the Old Testament the “elders” were the
chief representatives of the tribes and together represented the na-
tion (see Exod. 3:16ff.). The New Testament often refers to the
Jewish elders who were the rulers of the synagogues and were ap-
parently responsible for the discipline of the people in the practice
of the Law (see Luke 7:3). The New Testament’s own use of
“elder” is in continuity with its Jewish antecedents. When used as a
designation for an office, the New Testament uses the title “elder”
as a synonym for “pastor” or for “overseer” (“bishop”), thus desig-
nating those who on behalf of the people are responsible for teach-
ing and the maintenance of Christian discipline. The “elders” of
Ephesus are “bishops” placed by the Holy Spirit “to shepherd the
church of God” (Acts 20:17-29). The “elders” “shepherd the flock
of God in their midst” and are to perform this task as “types of the
Shepherd” (1 Pet. 5:1—4). Elders “preside” in the church and labor
“in the word and teaching” (1 Tim. 5:17). Scriptural evidence,
therefore, indicates that “elder” signifies those who represent the
church and on its behalf have oversight in doctrine and life. Even in
the early Church when a distinction between bishop and the elders
existed, elders were closely associated with the duties of the bishop
and were usually ordained to Word and sacrament ministry.

C.F. W. Walther stated in 1864, “A congregation shall also es-
tablish (aufzurichten) the office of such elders or overseers as do

not labor in the Word and doctrine (1 Tim. 5:17: ‘Let the elders
who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially
those who labor in preaching and teaching’) but who assist the in-
cumbent of the office of the divine Word in ruling, disciplining,
and keeping order in the congregation . . .. The qualifications of the
candidates for this office are to be determined from Acts 6:3...
1 Tim. 3:8-12 ....” (“The Proper Form of an Evangelical Lutheran
Local Congregation Independent of the State,” in Walther on the
Church, John Drickamer, tr. [St. Louis: Concordia Publishing
House, 1981], 141). Cf. E. Eckhardt, “Vorsteher,” in Homiletisches
Reallexikon (v-z) (St. Louis: Success Printing Company, 1917),
219-22; Theodore Graebner, Handbook for Congregational Offices
(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1939), 1-44.

It has been consistently maintained by Missouri Synod theolo-
gians that the office of elder is not divinely mandated, but an of-
fice created by the church following apostolic precedent. Eck-
hardt’s Reallexikon states that to have elders in the congregation is
not forbidden, nor is it a sin to abolish them (Vol. v-z, 219).
Theodore Graebner writes, “The Lutheran contention is that the of-
fice of eldership, the deaconship (diaconate is the better English
word), was not divinely appointed, not instituted by God’s com-
mand, as is the office of the ministry” (Handbook, 9).

10. This request was forwarded to the Commission by the Task
Force on Conflict Resolution in February 1993.

11. Martin Franzmann, Romans (St. Louis: Concordia Publish-
ing House, 1968), 274.

12. 1969 Resolution 2-17, “To Grant Woman Suffrage and
Board Membership” (1969 Convention Proceedings, 88-89).

13. See 1971 Convention Workbook, 244.

14. Resolution 3-11, “To Urge Completion of Study on
Women’s Role in the Church” (1981 Convention Proceedings,
158).

15. Resolution 3-09, “To Reaffirm Position of LCMS on Ser-
vice of Women in the Church” (1986 Convention Proceedings,
144).

16. Women in the Church, 46.

17. 1989 Convention Proceedings, 188.

2004 Convention Workbook