LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1992, Page 95

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FAREWELL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT BOHLMANN 95

body—it's what gives it life, it's what flows through all of
its parts and veins. And that’s the best way I know of for

this church to respond to human needs, to be in and of the -

Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We also want to be a mission-driven church. When it
comes to making the hard decisions, we don’t put the ques-
tion “What have we always done?” in first order or “What
is most comfortable?” or “What can we afford?” or all those
other things, but, rather, the question “What will this do
to help us bring the Good News to all the nations?”

a .

We are acongregation-centered church, We have worked
hard at that in this church body, to turn the typical or-
ganizational pyramid upside down. The Synod is not up
here and the congregations down there. But the congre-
gations are the Synod. People who serve in ministries like
mine, or my many good colleagues seated to the right and
left and in the back in the Synod’s staff and officer positions
are people serving congregations at their request. They are
enabling and helping congregations to help each other be
mission-driven and Gospel-based.

The church is also people-oriented. The church is people. .

The church is not some institution located far off the map.
We are not the church in any technical sense in this as-
sembly. The church is people: I am the church, you are the
church, we are the church together. Those words I lay on
your hearts again this morning as we remind ourselves
that God continues to set before us an open door.

I believe we're going to have to find peace among our-
selves, however, if we're going to do that, and do it well.
One of the pains I have experienced in my years in this
ministry is that all too often The Lutheran Church—Mis-
souri Synod is seen in other parts of the world as a church
that has tremendous resources; many gifts to give, won-
derful people, a church that has been innovative in elec-
tronic ministry and in so many other ways, but yet, as
some people see us, a church that fights far too much, that
bites and devours, that focuses more attention on the faults
of one another than on our mutual strengths and gifts from
God. What a pain that is to bear! And it’s not just a pain
for those who may feel themselves to have been misrep-
resented or maligned or victimized, as many do in our
church from time to time. But it hurts the Gospel mission
of our church. We could be ever so much more effective if
we could find peace. And I don’t think we're going to find
it through easy truces. We will find peace only at the foot
of the cross. Peace must be based on truth, the truth that
begins with the confession of sin and the ability to call sin!
sin, but especially the confidence that all sin is covered by
the blood of Jesus Christ, and that only His blood can
cleanse us from all sin. I believe, brothers and sisters, as
you and I together made a beginning yesterday and will
continue to strive for even greater peace in the church, we
must find a way, under God’s blessing and the guidance
of the church, to be at peace with one another.

May I add a brief word to women, to minorities, to others
who are sometimes disadvantaged and to brothers and sis!
ters in the Lutheran and Christian world beyond who care
about us, and about whom we care. I want to pledge my,
continuing personal efforts, through writing, edge my
and visiting, to help The Lutheran Church—Missouri!

Synod and all of its people to continue to do everything we
can that is faithful to the Word of God and consistent with
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to be in ministry and to work
together as the hand on God’s clock moves ever closer to
His return.

I believe that by the decision of this convention you have
in some ways freed me to use whatever gifts or experience
or talents God may have given me to find through His
leading new opportunities to pursue the same goals we've
beén talking about this morning. And I look forward with
a certain amount of eagerness to the future, believe it or
not.

You’ve seen me shed a few tears this week. My wife will
tell you how embarrassed I am about that. I don’t believe
T’'ve shed many tears in my life. (We men need to do some-
thing about that, if there are others afflicted with that
malady.) I cried at my father’s funeral; I cry in private.
But you’ve noticed me choke up often, and it amazes me
that I haven't blubbered all over this microphone. (I think
it’s the respect for this expensive equipment, in the interest
of good stewardship, you know, and all of that).

But I want to tell you what’s done that to me: it's your
love that has done that to me. I shed those tears because
of the associations with the people who have come on stage,
as my mind races back over meetings and plans and goals,
as we worked toward a better arrangement, a better struc-
ture for the work of missions in Canada, or with the LWML
or these wonderful people who have received the presen-
tations at this convention and their great ministries. The
list just goes on and on.

And, I’ve been choked up by the hugs and the prayers
and the gifts and the love of your people at this convention.
And this not only for me, but for Pat and for our two chil-
dren who saw a convention express many things toward
their father and mother. But what they will always re-
member most, I believe, is the love and the prayer and the
concern of you wonderful people who represent the very
best in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. And I
thank you on their behalf for that, and also for the ministry
that i is yet to come.

i One more thing, and then I want to refer to the third
plaque on my wall, and it will take me just a minute. I
also want to ask your forgiveness for anything I may have
done amiss, for any failure ... (silence, hesitation, ap-
plause, more applause)... thank you so much—you have
a unique way of bailing a guy out of a jam, don’t you? But
I thank you for that, as I ask your forgiveness. I can think
ofinothing more precious to me and to you, and to all the
folks back home, than the forgiveness of sins in Jesus
Christ, our Lord, who died and rose again and even now
pleads for us, and in His Word and sacraments gives us
that forgiveness each day as we are renewed in our Bap-
tigm, and then calls us to share that forgiveness with each
other. And we praise Him, as I praise Him at this time.

There is a third picture that hangs in my office at home.
It’s a picture that was taken on whatever day in late Sep-
tember 1981, when I was installed as the President of the
Synod. Back at the seminary that day some students found
an old (I trust it was old, I don’t think they could afford
anything new), an old: bedsheet. They wrote some words
on it and then somehow climbed Luther Tower, hung it on