# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1876_S41
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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is called temporarily, that he now, after his time with a congregation has expired, should cease to be a preacher and take up, say, a trade or a business, but that he should also later hold the office, if not in the same congregation. That indeed happens in most cases.

To this it was objected: Just as man and wife cannot conclude a marriage contract for, say, five years, for such a relationship would be no marriage, but only whoredom, so too a preaching service for a certain time cannot count as an administration and a holding of the preaching office. A call in which one is obligated to preach God's Word purely and clearly and to administer the sacraments according to Christ's institution swallows, to be sure, much that is false which is otherwise found in it, but something can also be so far outside its range that the mouth does not reach to swallow it. That is the case here with the time limit: it lies entirely outside the call.

As to the point that one, after the expiry of his time at a congregation, can accept a call elsewhere, that changes nothing in the matter itself. The congregation will say: Up to that time we regard you as our preacher, so long we pay; when your time is up we do not care what becomes of you.

If a church government called us into the service of a whole particular church, to work as often and wherever it was needed, but gave us over for a certain time to the service of our brethren in the faith in foreign parts of the world and after the expiry of this time wanted to employ us again in the service of the home church, this would be no ungodly but a right and valid call.

But how can one say to a hireling: Be faithful to your congregation, feed the congregation of Christ that is entrusted to you? On 31 December one says it to him still, but already on 1 January one could not say it any more, because then his time would be over. He would now have to go. By Christ such a one was not called, hence one cannot say either that the congregation has driven him out, but it deals merely with him according to their mutual contract. Such a thing there is not in the Church. God wants to have his servants honored unto death. But as soon as I conclude a contract, I have no longer to claim this honor. In the case of a temporary call one would have to ask dear God whether he is satisfied with such a call. The answer to this can come only from God's Word. There we find, of course, nothing about the fact that one is to be called for only five years.

As to the last point, if a congregation sees that it did not call rightly, but should have called for always, and now strikes this out of the call, whether one can then draw from it the conclusion that the whole call was invalid? it was said: If a congregation