# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1858_S214
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

214 On the Advancement of Pastors.

whose pastor they send elsewhere, suffers no appreciable harm. If this is
the case, perhaps nothing at all is gained thereby for that which they
claim, namely, the general good of the church. Nor is it of God that they
should relieve the distress of one congregation to the harm of another, to
which they offer no compensation.

3) Those who wish to transfer a pastor elsewhere should diligently
inquire whether the one who is to be transferred is not seeking his own
advantage. It is to be examined whether there is in fact a (proper) cause
for the transfer being sought, or whether something else lies behind it.
For the itinerant Levites God has provided, when they come only with the
whole desire of their soul to be of use to the church.

Therefore one may not move away so long as the grounds of the first call
remain; but nevertheless someone may, upon the judgment of other
congregations and with the agreement of the congregation to which he is
bound as pastor, be transferred for the greater fruit of general
edification.

For when, contrary to expectation, a full call is extended (for not every
demand voiced by a congregation is at once fully of God, of which it is in
some cases only a preliminary indication), and the one called is convinced
in his conscience that it is a proper one (for where conscience wavers, it
is dangerous to leave the congregation) — that he is, as it were, sent
from above to bear richer fruit — and moreover others who have been asked
for advice neither disapprove of the plan to move nor fall back on
stronger reasons, and finally the authorities themselves, together with
the congregation, grant the release in peace: then I do not see why one
may decline the new office.

To settle particular cases I will add a few points:

1) When those who stand at the head observe that a preacher's
administration of his office will be wholly useless, they may transfer
him, if it is likely that it will be more useful elsewhere. The
administration of an office tends to become useless, as it were, either
because of offense given, when he is a stumbling block to this
congregation, which would not be the case in another place; or when he
has wholly lost his standing and his person is held in low esteem; or
because of an inequality of gifts in relation to the congregation; or
because of enmity which can scarcely be reconciled, as long experience has
taught. When, therefore, one sees that the hearts of a great part [of the
congregation] are estranged, so that they spurn the pastor's labor and
receive his admonitions with all too little reverence, or an
irreconcilable grudge exists, it would be better to transfer him to
another place than that he, to the disgrace of the office he administers,
be despised by his own people.

2) When, because of the unhealthiness of the climate, a sickly pastor is
altogether unequal to the administration of his office, the church may,
as soon as an opportunity offers, [transfer him] to one that, for his
bodily