LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 319

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS

The people are to be encouraged and guided to pray for all men. Women are
to be quided in modesty of dress and adornment. The members committed
to the overseer’s care are to be instructed about and warned against those
who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods that God created to be
received with thanksgiving. From all of this it is clear that the oversight is not
exercised according to a man’s own ideas and standards but according to the
revealed will of God through the inspired apostles’ God-breathed words
There is a bishop's office (episkopee) and oversight is one of its definitive
functions

Another Scriptural term for the office of the public ministry is elder
{presbyteros). There are different kinds of elders. and 1 Timothy 5:17
indicates that some were specifically engaged in preaching and teaching. The
presbyters teach and preach the Word of God. by which the Holy Spint
creates and sustains faith in the hearts of the members of the flock and
empowers and guides them for Christian living and seruice

Hebrews 13:7 indicates that there were in the church “leaders. those
who spoke to you the word of God.” and in verse 17 the people in the
churches that are addressed are admonished: “Obey your leaders
(heegoumenoi) and submit to them: for they are keeping watch over your
souls, as men who will have to give account.”

In Ephesians 4:11-12 St. Paul refers to the various offices that God gave
to the church for the building up of the saints for the work of service. Two
important observations should be made within the context of this report. In
giving the “shepherds and teachers” to the church, God was also appointing
them, just as He appointed kings for Israel (1 Kings 1:48; 1 Sam. 12:13: cf. also
Eph. 1:22). Moreover. by attaching the definite article “the” to “shepherds
and teachers” the apostle indicates that teaching belongs to the essence of
the duty of shepherding. Although there are varying interpretations of this
passage from Ephesians 4, it is evident that teacher (didaskalos} does not
reter to the modern office of the parish schoo! teacher. The emphasis here is
on how the saints are prepared for service by apostles. prophets. evangelists.
and pastor teachers. The pastor does this by teaching the Gospel and
administering the sacraments. Hence the Lutheran Confessions call his
office “the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the sacraments”
(AC V)

Of great significance for the nature of the New Testament ministry are
expressions hke “the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4), “ministers of a new
covenant” (2 Cor. 3:6). “the mimstry of the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:8 NIV), “the
ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18), and Paul's reference to himself as "a
minister” of the Gospel (Col. 1:23i.

In Titus 1:5 Paul writes: “This 1s why | left you in Crete. that you might
amend what was defective [ta /e:ponta. used intransitively to indicate what is
absent, lacking. missing]. and appoint elders in every town as | directed you.”

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administer the sacraments in the church and to supervise the flock
committed to their care.*+

D. OFFICE AND FUNCTION

A distinction must be made between “office” and “function.” Failure to
make this distinction results in confusion. For instance, when a congregation
18 temporarily without a man to fill the office of the public ministry tn its midst.
it may ask a properly supervised teacher or a lay leader to perform some
functions of the office of the public ministry. This is done in an emergency
situation and not as a mere convemence. However. performing such
functions does not make those who do them holders of the office of the public
ministry. Even in such emergency situations a congregation properly
requests a man who does hold the office of the public ministry and is serving
as pastor in a neighboring congregation to assume that office for them as
“vacancy pastor’ or “interim overseer.” Thus the oversight and account
ability remain with one whom the church has called and designated as a
pastor and who supervises those who temporarily perform some pastorai
functions Such practices are common and reveal a “folk” understanding of
the ministry even if the root of such practices is not consciously analyzed

E. OTHER OFFICES IN THE CHURCH

The office of the public ministry :nctudes within 1t all of the functions of
the ieadersup of the church. Early in the history of the church we have an
example of the church selecting some of its members to carry out in the stead

*Cf. Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope.
59—62. “In the Confession and in the Apology we have set forth
in generai terms what we have to say about ecclesiastical power

“The Gospel requires of those who preside over the
churches that they preach the Gospel. remit sins, admimuster the
sacraments. and. in addition. exercise jurisdiction, that 1s.
excommunicate those who are guilty of notonous crimes and
absolve those who repent. By the confession of all. even of our
adversaries. it is evident that this power belongs by divine nght to
all wno preside over the churches. whether they are called
pastors, presbyters. or bishops. Accordingly Jerome teaches
clearly that in the apostolic letters all who preside over the
churches are both bishops and presbyters.”

Immediately the prerequisites for such elders, who are referred to as bishops,
are presented (v. 7)

In Acts 14:23 the example of the apostles is recorded. They appointed
(ordained) elders for them in every church.3InActs 20:17 and Acts 20:28 the
terms elder and bishop are used interchangeably, as in Titus 1:5 and 7. In
Acts 20:28 Paul admonishes the elders: “Take heed to yourselves and to all
the flock. in which the Holy Spint has made you overseers, to care for the
church of God which he obtained with the blood of his own Son.”

From these references there emerges a picture of an office that was
instituted by God, in and with the apostolate. for which very specific
qualifications are listed, and the essence of which is properly defined in the
Augsburg Confession as “teaching the Gospel and administering the
sacraments” {AC V) on behalf of and with accountability to the church
(publicly) 4AC XIV)

No specific “checklist” of functions of the office of the public ministry is
presented in the Scriptures. For instance. nowhere are we told specifically
that an elder “celebrated communion” or that only the elders spoke the
words of institution at the celebration of the sacrament. The supervision of
the shepherd-elder-bishop is a supervision of the teaching of the Word and
administration of the sacraments. In this way they are leaders to be obeyed in
their speaking of the Word of God. They are supervisors of the spiritual life,
the faith, and the Christian service of the church and its members. This is a
heavy responsibility that no man can take upon himself but rather to which
he must be iegitimately called by the church (rite vocatus) (Acts 1:23.26:
13:2-3; 14:23; 2 Cor. 8:19; AC XIV)

On the basis of the Scnptural evidence and the corroborating statements
of the Lutheran Confessions, the office of the public ministry, the ministry of
teaching the Gospel and admunsstering the sacraments in the church, is
divinely mandated. It may exist in various forms, that is, the “flocks” to which
aman ministers may have various forms, and the office may be designated by
anumber of names, but it remains an office mandated by God for the good of
the church. It is not enough to say that God commands that the Gospel be
preached and that the sacraments be administered. God has ordained a
specific office. The duty of those who hold the office by God's call through the
prayerful summons (“call”) of the church 1s to preach the Gospel and

?The verb used in this passage is cheirotoneoo, “elect or
choose by a show of hands.” Reference to this root meaning of
the verb may emphasize the congregation's role in calling men
into the pastoral office. However. the word is also used in the
simple sense of “choose.”

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of and under the direction of the apostles some of the functions of their
ministry. In Acts 6 we read that. at the request of the apostles, the church
selected and commissioned certain men to perform functions that the
apostles had been carrying out. They were appointed to the duty of providing
for the physical support of the widows in the church. They were called by the
church in prayer and were set apart for therr office by the iaying on of hands.
Scripture suggests (although it does not say it directly} that this new office
was of great help to the work of the church. It 1s reported that immediately
after they were commissioned “the word of Gad increased: and the number
of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem” (v. 7). The calibre of these
menis forever memorialized in Acts 6 and 7 by the account of the witness and
martyrdom of Stephen.>

The church has the right to create offices from time to time that have the
purpose of extending the effectiveness of the office of the public ministry.
Here awordotC. F. W. Walther is instructive. He wrote: “The highest office
is the ministry of preaching. with which all other offices are simultaneously
conferred. Therefore every other public office in the Church is merely a part
of the office of the ministry. or an auxiliary office. which 1s attached to the
ministry of preaching “+ Walther sees such offices as “sacred offices of
the church,” and each exercises a function of the pastoral office of the church
and is an aid to the pastoral ministry.

The church has the right to distinguish such auxiliary offices of the
church from each other. Some require extensive knowledge of Scripture.
ability to teach or to counsel. or other capabilities that are closely related to
the teaching and shepherding functions of the office of the public ministry:
The church has always exercised the right to designate some of its offices as
so involved in the spiritual functions of the office of the public ministry that it
has provided specific training, 1s more formal in summoning members of the
church to such offices. and has nightly included such offices within its

= Serving in the distribution of food did not in and of itself
entitle Stephen, for instance. to preach or teach publicly. Since he
clearly did so. our great theologians of the past. like Chemnitz
and Gerhard, surmised either that the “seven” of Acts 6 were
selected from among the ministers of the Word to begin with. or
that some of them were subsequently ordained into the ministry:
of the Word. However. we are not told in the Scriptures that
Stephen either was or became an elder of the Word

*C. F. W. Walther. “The Theses on the Ministry.” in
Walther and the Church. ed. Wm. Dallmann. W. H. T. Dau, and
Th. Engeider (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1938). p
79

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