# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1849_S90
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

e.g., at weddings, then the minister should work toward this through
friendly and fatherly admonition and instruction of individuals, so that
this custom decreases more and more — partly so as not to conform to the
world, and partly so as to give no offense to the weaker brethren.

Connected with this was the other question of how one should conduct
oneself toward a member of the congregation who must earn his
bread by playing dance music or theater music. The Synod was of the opinion
that here too much would depend first on the musician's Christian standpoint,
and that one should, through instruction and admonition, try where possible
to move him to give up dance and theater music.

The Synod spent a long time on the conference's plan to keep
systematic collections of notes on the outward and inward state of the
congregations; — in doing so the Synod called attention to the great usefulness
of keeping official diaries and, by recording important
cases in the areas of the pastoral office and pastoral care, helping to gather
materials for a future
compiler of an American-Lutheran *Pastorale* [pastoral handbook].

The Synod was further occupied with the conference's statement that on
Sunday and festival-day mornings one should always preach on the Gospel readings and
not, for variety, on the Epistle readings. The Synod agreed with
this in general, but with the qualification that no one should be
bound in conscience by it, and that especially in
congregations where the Epistle pericopes could not be preached on
at any other time, an exception to this rule might be allowed.

The conference recommends as an aid for preparing sermons
the writings of Luther, particularly his House Postil and Church
Postil, with which the Synod fully agreed. — Regarding
Reformation sermons, the conference points to the necessity of
always giving in them, in particular, an overview of the history of the
Reformation, so that everyone gets the opportunity to become acquainted with it.

On this occasion the Synod expressed the wish to have a
concise and popular history of the Reformation; — and since no such
work yet existed, it was proposed to approach a
capable and experienced theologian to compose and publish one.
Considering the circumstances of this country and the needs of
readers here, the Synod resolved to ask Pastor Löber
to undertake this work — and, should he not be able to do it himself, to
charge the St. Louis Conference with it.

The conference of the 6th District, New York, held its sessions on
April 11 of this year and the following days in Philadelphia. — Present
were Pastors Brohm, Wyneken, Hoyer, and Schaller. — Various
church questions were discussed by the conference.

The first question was what should be done to restore the
liturgical part of worship in our congregations, etc. — The
answer: one should seek to awaken among the people a sense for liturgical
life through instruction, whether written or oral.

Another question was whether certain ceremonies already introduced
should be omitted outside the congregation out of regard for the weak.
The answer: No — not if either one's own members would be upset by
such a change, or if it were doubtful whether others would be won over by it.

On the claim that tradition had been normative in the establishing
of the New Testament canon, the conference gives this answer: it