# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S80
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 80 —

Good church government, pastoral care, and so forth — none of that
replaces faithfulness in the preparation of the sermon.

As a further necessity, by which the burying of the blessing can be
prevented, the following was named: "conscientious pastoral care exercised
in an evangelical spirit." Conscientious means that every soul is to be
cared for by its pastor in such a way that it lacks nothing for its spiritual
nourishment. In an evangelical spirit means: not legalistically, not pettily,
but with the goal of converting, of bringing to salvation.

At this point Pastor Schaller was called upon to carry out a task long
since given him, namely to prepare for *Lehre und Wehre* [Doctrine and
Defense, the Synod's theological journal] an extract from the proceedings
of the St. Louis Pastoral Conference on private pastoral care. Mention
was also made again of the "Materials for Pastoral Theology," which
people wished at last to see in book form as well.

It is further stated that a preacher should abstain from all "lust for
dominion" [*Herrschsucht*]; he should not merely reject priestly rule in
theory, but should also abstain from it in practice. Through a lust for
dominion one drives people away from oneself and brings them into a
servile, legalistic condition. Our Synod must not forget that it owes its
growth, next to God, to the circumstance that through its whole conduct
and its confession it has convinced the congregations that the preacher does
not intend to rule, but to make the congregation come of age [*mündig
machen*, i.e. self-governing], and that he wishes only to be the servant of
the congregation. It is in large part owing to this circumstance that our
Synod's name has a good ring to it, that our preachers have shown
themselves so little given to a lust for dominion, and have been so willing
to serve. Very many complaints, on the other hand, have come in of late
that young preachers behave just like worldly officeholders. Luther already
in his own time labeled this a sin occurring among preachers of the pure
doctrine. While the Roman priests are belly-priests, Luther says, our
preachers are harsh and given to wrath. (XXI, 1348.) It is heartbreaking
to see how inconsiderately, how presumptuously young preachers often act
in their congregations. Let us not allow such a spirit to penetrate among
us! If we preachers seek our own interest, if we wish to be lords over the
faith of the congregations, then we are lost, and our beautiful structure of
the Synod collapses. We are not to have ourselves served, but to serve.
To be lords already begins the moment one always insists on having one's
own opinion prevail. A preacher must be able to bear it when people,
especially when they are in the right, often contradict the preacher. A
preacher has no authority whatsoever, not even over the lowliest servant or
the simplest maid. The Missouri Synod would become a hypocritical
synod, untrue to its own declared principles, if we were to fall into the
disgraceful practice of priestly rule. Many of our preachers stood, only a
short time ago, in another calling entirely, and now that they wear the
preacher's coat as well, it can then