# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1898_S6
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

6 Proceedings of the seventeenth convention

Let us go into this last thought somewhat more closely. In our congregations it is very often forgotten what a synod actually is. Very often the relationship of a congregation to the synod is regarded as that of a part which has attached itself to a body, as if the body had existed before the congregations, as if someone had founded a synod to which congregations afterward joined themselves; whereas in fact the origin of a synod is this, that congregations seek, maintain and cultivate fellowship with one another and together do what is the duty of each congregation. What the synod does does not become the duty of the congregation, not a matter for the congregations, because they have joined the synod; rather, what the synod does is the duty of the synod because it is the duty of the individual congregations that form the synod. It was not synods that the Savior had in view but congregations when he said: "Preach the gospel to every creature." Every congregation has this duty, not insofar as it is a member of a synod, as though it would only then have to take part in maintaining the church's institutions, in carrying on the church's mission work and all the works of charity which the synod performs, so that it would now be relieved of this duty if it withdrew from the synod; no, the congregation brought the duty into the synod, and if for any reason it separates from the synod, it takes the duty out with it again; for it was always its duty. This ought to live more in our congregations, that our brethren should be aware of this: what we do in fellowship with our sister congregations in the synod, we do not do because the synod imposes it on us, because the synod has resolved it, and because after all we are once members of the synod and must go along; but conversely, that the synod carries on these works comes from the fact that we are here, we congregations, who have this duty and want to carry it out together.

Among the duties, now, which Christian congregations and their members have to perform by virtue of their fellowship with other congregations or their members belong also those items of church practice that are themselves commanded and regulated by God in his Word. With regard to these items the Christian congregations and their individual members are to conduct themselves according to God's Word and direction, quite apart from the fact that they live together with other congregations and their members. Because God has commanded that they are to act thus, they are to act as God's Word prescribes for them. But just as we too are to pray for various reasons, as 1. God's command, 2. God's promise and 3. our need are to drive us to prayer, so we also have various reasons for which we are to practice, with regard to the church practice determined in God's Word. One of these various reasons is named here in the thesis. It reads as follows: