# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1862_S297
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Report for the Sessions of the Synod of Missouri, etc., Western District. 297

room, where necessary, to state his opinion, and that care be taken that
the discussion not turn into wrangling, 1 Corinthians 11:16–19.

§ 47. Before the carrying out of any election by vote, the
names of those entitled to vote should be read aloud and called, those called
should signify their presence and cast their vote at once, and
those of the voting members who are absent should be permitted to vote only in
writing.

§ 48. All summonses to appear before the congregational assembly should be issued
in writing by a person responsible for that purpose.

§ 49. All who, besides the preacher, hold an office in the congregation
should have written instructions drawn up by the congregation,
in which their powers, and the extent and limits thereof, are precisely
determined; but every member should be willing, where he is able to do so, to
also accept such an office offered to him, 1 Peter 4:10–11.

§ 50. Any congregational constitution that may be drawn up in writing should contain
only the most necessary things, and what has already proved itself in the life of the
congregation, and no provision made in it concerning something that is
neither commanded nor forbidden in God's Word should be unalterable, but
should at any time be capable of being properly changed and
repealed by a sufficiently larger majority vote.

§ 51. To be sure, every member of the congregation must
acknowledge his obligation to contribute his share, in due proportion, toward the
upkeep of church and school and the support of the
needy members, Matthew 10:9–10; 1 Corinthians 9:14; 2 Corinthians 8:12; but how much
each is to give in proportion is left to the conscience and the voluntary love of each,
2 Corinthians 9:7.

F. Sixth Section. On the Exercise of a Congregation's Duty to Cultivate, Also with the
Orthodox Church Outside It, Unity of Spirit in the Bond of Love
and of Peace.

§ 52. The congregation should diligently pray together for all the saints,
Ephesians 6:18.

§ 53. As every true evangelical Lutheran local congregation shares the same public
confessions of the faith with the whole true evangelical Lutheran Church, so it should
also make it its diligent concern to be one with it also in life, and to
speak the same thing with it in one mind and one judgment, 1 Corinthians 1:10.

§ 54. Every congregation should come to an agreement with its
neighboring congregation regarding their mutual local boundaries, Titus 1:5;
Galatians 2:9, and should not receive those who belong to other congregations,
1 Peter 4:15; 5:2; Hebrews 10:25.

§ 55. The congregation should require of those who come to it from other
orthodox congregations a certificate issued to them by the latter,
and should recognize such a certificate; and, conversely, it should give such a