LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1992, Page 71

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

of people baptized in these churches, we also recognize that
that graph line has gone up—not down.

I’m not trying to suggest for one moment that we are
doing all that we can as a Synod to send missionaries. I
think we need to confess our sin here again and again in
this convention, and we need to do everything we can or-
ganizationally to increase the number of personnel we
send, but we also need at the same time to remember how
our good and gracious God has blessed our efforts in mis-
sion outreach, too.

Brothers and sisters, boldness is the name of this con-
vention. We need boldness to increase our use of Word and
Sacraments. We need boldness in world evangelization,

beginning at home. We need boldness to explore new ed- .

ucational and organizational options. We need boldness'in
forming new congregational networks and linkages. We
need boldness in continuing to do all we can to help small
and rural churches (which are so dear to us in the Missouri
Synod) to grow. We need boldness to give major attention
to major mission and ministry opportunities, and not to
those internal activities that weaken and destroy. We need
to deal with those issues fairly and firmly, but without
losing perspective. We need a discipline of restoration
when we fall. We'need to respect the episkope, or the su-
pervision, of our pastors and leaders in the church who
have been called to exercise it. But above all, we need
boldness in becoming steadfast and unmovable and
abounding in the wonderful work of the Lord.

I have always liked a quotation that J found years ago
when I was teaching at the seminary. A little more than
two hundred years after our Lord gave His church the
Great Commission, a North African churchman by the
name of Cyprian wrote these words to his friend, Donatus.
“This is a cheerful world as I see it from my garden under
the shadow of my vines. But if I could ascend some high
mountain and look very far, what would I see? Robbers on
the highways, pirates on the seas, armies fighting, cities
burning, in the amphitheaters men murdered to please
applauding crowds, selfishness and cruelty, misery and
despair under all roofs; it is a bad world, Donatus, an in-
credibly bad world. But I have discovered,” Cyprian went
on to say, “in the midst of it a quiet and holy people who
have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which
is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of dur
sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care
not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome
the world. These people, Donatus, are the followers of the
Christ, and I am one of them.”

Change the words a bit, and our world doesn’t seem all
that different. From our gardens, and under the shadows
of our vines, this, too, is a very beautiful and cheerful
world, Advances in science and technology, accompligh-
ments in engineering and medicine and many other areas
continue to highlight the beauty and the cheerfulness! of
the world that God gives us. The tools that we have at our
disposal—to literally talk to a Chinese missionary during
this convention—live—are just unbelievable! And yet, we
too have wars and rumors of wars, unborn children killed
by the millions, economic depression, poverty, disease,
AIDS, the threat of nuclear holocaust not completely Te-
moved, crime on the streets and off of them, what Cyprian

REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT , 71

called “selfishness and cruelty, misery and despair under
all roofs,” seem to be the order of the day. And yet in the
midst of this world that is at one and the same time cheer-
ful and bad, there exists what Cyprian called “a quiet and
holy people who have learned a great secret”—the follow-
ers of Jesus Christ. And with him we exclaim, “And I am
one of them.” But let’s correct one thing: That secret that
we have discovered is not ours for keeping and holding
inside. It’s for sharing! It’s for giving away! It’s for bringing
this world to know and become a part of that quiet and
holy people.

And how is all that to happen, you ask? We reminded

ourselves (or rather God’s Spirit did) through His Word
last night and again this morning that this power is God’s’
gift to us through His Word and Sacraments. Dr. Martin
Luther said it very well in a letter to an Augustinian monk
he had come to befriend. In a letter written in 1516 he
wrote, “My dear brother, get to know Christ and Him cru-
cified, Learn to praise Him and not to despair of yourself.
And then to say to Him, Dear Lord Jesus, You are my
‘righteousness. I am Your sin. You have accepted what is
‘mine, and given to me what is Yours. You took upon Your-
self what You were not, and gave to me what I was not.
‘For Christ lives only among sinners. In Him alone and
utterly despairing of yourself and your works,” Luther
wrote, “you will find peace, and you will experience that
He makes His righteousness to be yours, just as He ac-
cepted you and made your sins to be His very own.”
:  Itis to Him, the Christ of the past, the present, and the
future, the changeless Christ in a world of dizzying
change—it is to Him that we dedicate this 58th Convention
of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod with the prayer
‘that all of our deliberations will help. us and alt of our
‘people, with vigor and enthusiasm, with excitement and
vision, to Tell Everyone What HE Has Done as part of that
great and holy people who have learned His great secret
‘and who want to share it with others With Great Boldness.
So be it! Amen.

' Ralph A. Bohimann, President
‘Addendum to Part Ill

Report of the Praesidium of
_ The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod
; on Its Charges against
, Dr. Robert Preus

_ (See Part IL of the President’s Report, which made reference
to a future more complete report from the Praesidium)

On May 31, 1992, the Commission on Appeals (the COA)
of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod announced its
decision in our complaint against Dr. Robert D. Preus,
holding that Dr. Preus be restored to membership in good
standing on the clergy roster of The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod. The COA’s decision reversed the decision
of the Indiana District Commission on Adjudication (the
IDCA) on Jan. 20 that Dr. Preus’ membership in the Synod
be terminated unless and until he repents of sinful conduct
with which he had been charged. The IDCA found Dr.
Preus unrepentant of unbrotherly conduct and falsehood