LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 97

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98 DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS

gives us the kind of peace of mind and peace of soul for
which one generation of recent memory strived so
frantically.

Do you believe that a delegate to this convention has
aright to be comfortable? What right has any one of us
atthis convention to have peace of mind or peace of soul
when we know what our Board for Mission Services will
report to us? There are four billion people who inhabit
this earth with us who have been redeemed by their
loving Savior and whose sins have been forgiven, and
we haven’t even told them that good news. Our souls
and minds should be mightily disturbed; they should be
anything but at peace when circumstances over which
we ought to have control, such as shortage of workers,
lack of zeal, too much love of the world, everlasting
budget constraints, and our own fearfulness, thwart the
commitments we make to the Great Commission of our
Lord Jesus.

What does it mean to you as a delegate to be alive
through Baptism? What does it mean to you to be a
delegate to this convention that has chosen for its theme
“Him We Proclaim’’? You see, you are not just a person
who wears a badge that entitles you to vote. For the next
seven days you and your fellow delegates are the leaders
of this church body. For the next seven days it is you
who will speak for the three million members of this
component of the holy Christian church we call The
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. You will set goals
and objectives, you will plan, and you will pray. Let me
remind you with all the gravity the circumstances
warrant that when these seven days are over, you will
have determined how and to what extent our Synod will
be an instrument of the Holy Spirit to respond to the
Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ. You will
determine that directly for the next three years and
residually for this decade and this century. The history
you make will be written. What should have been done
can never be retrieved. For the next seven days you are
the leaders—not the synodical President, not the Board
of Directors, nor the staff. The leadership is yours.

Let me remind you of something you already know
about leadership. If you set goals and objectives that
reflect fearfulness on the part of leadership, the people
will respond in fearfulness. If a leader shows courage,
the people who are alive through Baptism will respond
with courage. If the leader proposes courses of action
with boldness tempered by prudence, the people will
respond with boldness and even recklessness for the
Gospel of Jesus. And let me say with great confidence
that if the leader-delegates to this convention resolve to
be participants with the Holy Spirit of God in a miracle
for the mission and ministry of the church, the people of
God will not only approve but will rise up and call you
blessed.

Four years ago a convention of delegates seated in
this hall struggled and prayed. They overcame their
fearfulness and in a great venture of faith they under-
took what seemed to be and was often characterized an
impossible goal. They did that because they knew that
their God wanted to do mighty things in mission and

ministry through this church body in the 1980s. The
Lord their God saw the faith in those delegates and in
the people they represented. He opened their hearts, and
under Him they realized the miracle of Forward in:
Remembrance. They brought to the altar of God the
largest thankoffering for mission and ministry ever
gathered by a single church body in the history of the
Christian church.
The church is an institution of miracles. A miracleis'
performed in Baptism. The forgiveness of sins is th
result of a miracle. Word and Sacrament have power:
because of miracles. Faith is a miracle. The church v
not fulfill its mission or achieve its goals if we m
plans and set objectives that you and I can achiev:
and of ourselves. They will be achieved only if w
believe that God will do miracles through us and I
church. If we pass only resolutions that we can ca
out, then I’m sure our battle hymn soon will be “As
in Jesus, Blessed Sleep.”
I sat through the Memorial Day weekend i
committee meetings and heard our President an
staff describe one exciting, God-given opportunity
another challenging our beloved Synod. Then The ai
one reason after another why we can’t do the work Gas
is asking us to do. I wanted to pray that God would
Paul to be His delegate to this convention. He w
stand before us who are timid and fearful, and hew
cry out, “I can do all things through Christ, y
strengthens me.” If a floor committee would brin;
resolution concerning mission and ministry, and
consensus of the delegates would be, “Sure, we ¢
that,” St. Paul would counsel, “Send it back to com
tee.” If the committee would bring in a new resol
and a delegate would say, “I feel comfortable with
St. Paul would insist it go back to committe
when the committee members, alive through Ba
would propose a resolution of which all the dele
wouid say, “Wow! This would take a miracle!’
pleased St. Paul would say, “This time the co
gotit right!” You and I and the three million me
our Synod, like St. Paul, can do all thing
Christ, who strengthens us. 7
If in our Baptism we have the entire Christ.
Holy Spirit and all His gifts, then we will begin:
courageous resolutions that recognize the pres
the power of the Holy Spirit in the mission and
of the church. We will come to the conclusion:
we should have come a long time ago:
intended that we should be able to do without
we will have the means and the power to bring.
four billion unclaimed in our world the only re@
news they need to hear: that they too are His?
and forgiven children.

That’s what it means to be alive through.
That’s what it means to wear those badges this’
the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spit
participating in a convention that could be
ning of a great evangelism crusade in our ¢
that could change the history of hundreds of

of people’s lives: a crusade whose ultimate