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LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 15

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

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ACCEPTANCE STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT-ELECT HARMS

In THE NAME or Our Lorp AND Savior JESUS CHRIST,
GREETINGS!

On Wednesday, June 16, you cast votes by which
you asked me to continue to serve in the office of the
President. By this action you honored me, for you ex-
pressed your confidence in me. By this action God has
also called me. I say this, not because I seek to find
additional glory but to confess that God’s voice is heard
in your vote. This conviction is necessary because it
provides the proper perspective for the office and offers
a proper foundation for our relationship to one another.

Dr. Oliver R. Harms officially accepts election to his second term as
President of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod.

The honor conferred on me is truly undeserved. But
even with the full knowledge of my limitations I can
announce my acceptance because God has given the
assurance that He will bless in the future even as He
has in the past. We continue to put our trust in Him
who died for us and rose again.

This is an occasion for me to express my view of

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this holy office. The Scriptures and my experience com-
pel me to view this office in a pastoral frame of refer-
ence. God has called me to be His undershepherd. You
have called me to be your chief servant. These two
concepts form the platform for the coming term of
office.

As God’s undershepherd I am pledged to lead you
to the green pastures of God’s Word and to the still
waters of His forgiveness. But I will fail as under-
shepherd if I do not call you away from what is false
and dangerous. I will seek to arouse you from sleep
and indifference, to stir you to keep on the move, and,
if it please God, I will guide you nearer to other sheep
God is gathering into His fold.

As your chief servant I will seek to fill your needs
by providing, directly and indirectly, for a full and
faithful ministry. But I will also prod you on to develop
and use the gifts God has given you for the ministry
to which He has called you. The President’s office will
not rest until the people of God in our Synod are shar-
ing the richness of God’s gracious blessings with people
everywhere.

All of this has some practical implications. The Pres-
ident’s office will continue to plead for more aggressive
mission outreach in every form and in every place. The
President’s office will seek to be the source of factual
information and fair dealing. The President’s office will
foster responsible scholarship and reject all that is less
than this. Scholar and critic both stand under the judg-
ment of God’s Word. Both are pledged to use God’s
Word and their gifts to strengthen faith and the bonds
of Christian love.

Personally I now pledge, as I did three years ago,
that I will seek to be faithful to the Holy Scriptures and
the Lutheran Confessions. I also pledge myself to honor
all doctrinal position statements of the Synod.

Tension develops in the office of the President when
he seeks to be both undershepherd and chief servant.
The President is at the same time God’s man and the
people’s man. I plead with you, for the sake of God’s
people in our fellowship and those whom God would
reach through us, that you help me to fill this double
role to the highest potential God gives.

Finally I ask that you join me in the fervent and un-
ceasing prayer that God will grant peace to our nation
and to our world. We ask it in order that His work
may go forward without hindrance.

In the confidence that our joint ministry will be to
His glory, I accept your call to the office of the presi-
dency of The Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost. Amen.