LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1986, Sheet 97

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ALIVE IN CHRIST—THE MINISTRY OF THE LAITY 95

Il. The Ministry of the Laity
Is a Mandate for Motion

During the days of this convention business is con-
ducted and the future agenda for the Synod is set through
the adoption of a series of resolutions. Each of them is a
mandate that sets boards, the districts, parishes, schools,
colleges, and members of the Synod into motion. It must
become clear to every layman or woman that God has an
agenda for the world and that the vocation of every Chris-
tian is to be in service for Him. It is simply not enough to
affirm a theology of the laity or of the priesthood of all
believers or to adopt resolutions at a convention and let it
go at that. Good theology is also eminently practical—it
goes to work in the real world where God’s people live,
where they practice their vocation.

The same Lord who chose Israel to be His own people
sent them forth with a mandate to be in motion, at work,
energized for Him. They were to possess the land to which
Moses had led them. On the other side of the Jordan they
would face one challenge and opportunity after another.
Doing God’s bidding would call for them to walk the hard
road of commitment to God’s plan. It would require nothing
short of the steady sacrifice of self.

Think for a moment about how much of God’s plan has
been accomplished through laymen, women, and youth
who have been active and moving in the church and the
world. The Reformation was a movement of the laity; sim-
ple men and women, as well as those of position, were
active participants who contended for the truth of the
Gospel whatever the risks. Through their efforts the Ref-
ormation was much more than just another movement; it
became a religious revolution that turned the tide of West-
ern history.

Read the engaging history of this Synod and you will
read the surprising record of laymen and women, the
young and the old, who stood shoulder to shoulder and
worked hand in hand with those who were their shepherds.
People with a heart for our Lord’s commission, “Go and
tell.” They established parishes and schools, colleges and
institutions to care for others. They made no small plans;
without apology they held fast to the Scriptures and the
confessions of the fathers and they moved out into the
frontiers of life with the Gospel.

I am privileged to serve the Lord and this beloved Synod
at one of the Concordias. Students, most of them from the
homes and families of dedicated laymen and women, or
from the homes of faithful teachers and pastors, come to
the campus year after year. One hundred and twenty-two
years ago, when this nation reeled under the bitter strife
of the Civil War, this Synod took the first bold steps to
establish what today exists as Concordia, River Forest. The
laity, people with vision and in motion for the Lord Jesus,
willingly sold sheep and hogs and cattle to buy the first
acres on which the college would be built. They sacrificed
of the little they possessed to construct the first building
that would house students and two professors. There is no
complicated philosophical reason why they did it; burning
in their hearts was the bright flame of the love of Christ,
by it they were constrained. They believed passionately

that God had something important for them to do.

The long and illustrious record of the accomplishments
of laymen, women, and youth is not diminished in this
present time. The Lutheran Women’s Missionary League,
spread across the nations, determined to “serve the Lord
with gladness,” encourages the spiritual growth of women
and gathers resources to fund one worthwhile mission proj-
ect after another. This summer youth of our Synod use
their skills, giving of themselves in over a dozen different
servant events and soon over 15,000 of them will be in
Washington, D.C., witnessing to their faith and growing
in Christ. How many souls have been won, how many
hearts touched, and how many lives changed through the
work of The Lutheran Laymen’s League? Forward in Re-
membrance, Alive in Christ, and a thousand other pow-
erful examples give evidence of the great things God is
doing through a laity that is in motion for Him.

The point needs to be made that a theology of the laity
is also a powerful theology for the laity. If we have the
courage and faith to speak and act out what the Scriptures
plainly teach, the whole matter of the laity gets a new full
face. It opens the windows and pushes back the horizons
so that we recognize that laymen and women are not sim-
ply objects to be manipulated in parishes, but are subjects
and agents with a vocation, with a call, with a mandate
to carry out God’s plan. Laymen and women take heart,
listen to what the Lord says about you through the words
of St. Paul to the Corinthians, “Therefore, if any one is in
Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away,
behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who
through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the
ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:17-18 RSV). Be what
you are and do what you must!

Think of what could happen in this Synod of ours if in
the average parish every lay member, man or woman,
would take his/her calling, his/her vocation seriously—and
get moving at the Father’s business. Suddenly the number
of “ministers” in the average parish would increase from
one or two to 100 or 200 or 300. With the laity and clergy
powered by the Spirit and in motion, we could do something
about the embarrassing outreach record of our parishes.
Seventy members to gain one, that’s not worthy of a strong
and gifted church like ours.

In the midst of a culture crazed by the thirst for power
and perpetually hungry for more, it is the still but strong
voice of the Father that teaches us like it taught Zechariah
and Zerubbabel, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my
Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6 RSV). In a time
when a preoccupation with status sets young and old on
a maddening scramble for prestige and power we gather
to talk about the ministry, the vocation of the laity, the
things of God.

Your vocation and mine rest on a point of privilege—
and it brings with it a mandate to be in motion, to be in
mission, with and for the Lord who blesses our labors, who
gives us joy in our calling, and who through His Son, Jesus
Christ, still says, “Peace be with you. As the Father has
sent Me, even so I send you” (John 20:21 RSV).

Eugene Krentz, Ph.D.