LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 318

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318

THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS

ll. DEFINITIONS AND DISTINCTIONS

It will be helpful already at this point to note the definitions of the
following terms as they will be used in this report

Ministry —This ts a general term when it stands alone. It may be used in the
most general sense of the service (diakonia) of all Christians. For the
sake of clarity i: is preferably used to indicate the special service of those
who are called to function publicly in the church

Public Ministry--To be in “public ministry” a person must be formally
assigned to labor in the work of the church on behalf of those in the
church who are notin public ministry (laity). It refers to offices that have
specific duties, responsibilities. and accountability

The Office of the Public Ministry—It is the divinely established office referred
to in Scripture as “shepherd,” “elder.” or “overseer.” This term is
equivalent to “the pastoral office.” Within this office are contained all the
functions of the ministry of Word and sacrament in the church

Auxiliary Offices—These are offices established by the church. Those who
are called to serve in them are authorized to perform certain of the
function(s) of the office of the public ministry. These offices are
“ministry” and they are “public,” yet they are not the office of the public
ministry. Rather, they are auxiliary to that unique pastoral office. and
those who holc these offices perform their assigned functions under the
supervision of the holders of the pastoral office. Such offices are
established by the church as the need arises, and their specific functions
are determined by the church. The most common auxiliary office today
1s the office of the teaching ministry

Details regarding these definitions are presented below

B. THE OFFICE OF THE KEYS

The church is not ieft to itself to decide what it shall preach and teach.
God has commanded and empowered the church to proclaim the Law and
the Gospel. He has instituted the sacraments and commended them to the
church, and He has authorized the forging and retaining of sins

The Law. of course, does an alien work. Through it the Holy Spirit brings
people to an awareness of their sinful state and drives them to repentance
The Gospel alone, in Word and sacrament. is the means by which the Holy
Spirit creates and sustains faith. The Office of the Keys 1s “the peculiar
church power whicn Christ has given to His church on earth.” It belongs to

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Il. DEFINITIONS AND DISTINCTIONS
A. MINISTRY

The word “ministry” can be and frequently is used in more than one
sense. Francis Pieper points this out as he begins his discussion of the public
ministry:

The term “ministry” is used both in Scripture and by the Church ina

general, or wider, and ina special, or narrower, sense. In the wider sense

it embraces every form of preaching the Gospel or administering the
means of grace, whether by Christians in general, as originally entrusted
with the means of grace and commissioned to apply them, or by chosen
public servants (ministri ecclesiae) in the name and at the command of

Christians. In this article we are speaking of the public ministry in the

narrower sense, that is, of the office by which the means of grace, given

originally to the Christians as their inalienable possession, are admin-
istered by order and on behalf of Christians

There are those who would prefer to use the term “ministry” only in the
narrower sense. They feel that this avoids confusion. Others feel that to
speak of “the ministry of the laity” is not only permissible but even essential,
so that the individual witnessing and teaching of Christians in general may be
properly stressed and dignified

The service of all Christians is intimately connected with the public
ministry. All Christians are commissioned in 1 Peter 2:9: “But you are a
chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you
may deciare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into
his marvelous light." In Ephesians 4 special offices are pointed out as given by
God to equip the saints for the work of serving (eis ergon diakonias}.? The
absence in this report of a detailed discussion of the privilege and
responsibility of all Christians to proclaim the Gospel does not indicate a
disregard for that service. Here the focus is on the ministry in the narrower
and public sense.

‘Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols. (St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 1950), 3:439.

2Ct. E. W. dJanetzki, “The Doctrine of the Office of the
Holy Ministry in the Lutheran Church of Australia Today.”
Lutheran Theological Journal 13 (November 1979), 73. In this
article a distinction between ministry in the abstract and ministry
in concrete is attempted by speaking of the ministry of the church
and the ministry in the church

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the whole church. However, its exercise is not left merely to the efforts of
individual Christians or to the uncertain ventures of selfstarting, charismatic
individuals. The church, as a single congregation or as a group of
congregations, must cali and authorize certain of its members to function
publicly on its behalf

The public ministry, it is here maintained, is not a mere human
arrangement or the product of sociological evolution but a divine arrange-
ment from the beginning of the New Testament church. Already in the Old
Testament God arranged for the priesthood and prescribed the manner of
the selection of the priests. He also called and sent the prophets. They did not
decide to prophesy on their own authority. They were selected and
commissioned by God, and in some cases they assumed “the burden” with
much reluctance. In the New Testament God chose, trained, and sent the
apostles. In the post-apostolic church He continued and continues to
choose, call, and send men for the ministry which is an expansion of the
apostolic office to succeeding ages (Treatise, 10)

C. THE OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC MINISTRY

The office of the public ministry is not merely a divine suggestion but a
divine mandate. God has decreed that the church should carry out its
functions not only in private, individual actions and speaking but also
corporately by selecting men who meet God's criteria and whom He then
places into the office of the public ministry

The office and its functions are called “public” not because the functions
are always discharged in public, but because they are performed on behalf of
the church. The acts of one whois called to fill the office of the public ministry
are “public” even when they are performed privately with one individual.
Moreover, the word “public” connotes accountability to those who have
placed them into “public” office

The functions of the divinely established office of the public ministry can
best be seen by looking at the nomenclature that Scripture uses to refer toit.
In 1 Timothy 3:1 Paul uses the word episkopee, that is, the “oversight,” to
refer to the office of bishop. As a father manages his household, so the bishop
stands at the head of his congregation as one who is charged with the duty of
caring for the church of God. As the apostle Paul's co-worker, Timothy
himself is to exercise the duties of this office as he worked among the
congregations founded through the preaching of the apostle. As an overseer
of the congregation, Timothy is to command and teach pure doctrine. He is
to attend to public reading of Scripture, to preaching, to teaching. He is to
oversee the spiritual life of the old men, the young men, the old women, the
widows, the children, the siaves. the masters, and “the rich in this world.”

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