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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 4

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

4 MISSIONS

We ought to beware of submitting to “either-or” choices
when we ought to be responding witha profound “‘both-and.”’
For example, our Lord once met someone who wanted
to trap Him into making a choice, when choosing was actu-
ally impossible and wrong. The question that set the trap
was: “Which is the greatest commandment?” Our Lord’s
stunning response, you remember, was an answer that held
two truths, which some may have deemed contradictory,
in a profound unity. You shall love the Lord your God....
You shall love your neighbor . . . (Matt. 22:34:40). Both had
to exist side by side to have the truth.
As God calls us to Himself,
God calls us to “community,”
God calls us to “servanthood,”
God commissions us for “proclamation”’;
~these three that He/we might also call others to Him.
. . these three dimensions of Christian existence and
mission must be held in a tight unity for us to understand
and engage in evangelism. Conversely, we must refuse to
give way to any force or tendency which would make us
choose one as having priority over the other.

. .. We must understand that our words of witness, to
be credible, need the context of action! We could again
express this truth in these terms: The “servanthood” of
Christians becomes part of the content of the message which
they offer to others.

The Mission Affirmations kept the remarkable unity
between action and proclamation when they said, ‘‘Chris-
tians minister to the needs of the whole man, not because
they have forgotten the witness of the Gospel but because
they remember it. They know that the demonstration of
their faith in Christ adds power to its proclamation.” ‘‘What
God has joined together, let no man put asunder!”

c. The church’s communication of the living Word,
in word and deed by living letters, is often impeded
because we do not realize that the world is made up of
many different types of “worlds,” each of which needs
to hear the Word in a way relevant to it. There is indeed
only one message: the saving, redeeming action of God
for men through His Son Jesus Christ. But the type of
communication that “turns one group on” (a folk-song
service for teen-agers) might “turn off” others (folks
who like only the old chorales). Both types of communi-
cation, however, might really communicate the glorious
news of the Gospel. So both are needed. Prof. James
Scherer, head of the mission department of the Lutheran
School of Theology, Chicago, has suggested:

The new approach to “nations” as social groupings means
that frontier ministries will become increasingly specialized,
as general evangelism gives way to specialized approaches
to students, industrial workers, farmers, intellectuals, gov-
ernment officials, urban immigrants, backward tribes,
adherents of higher religions, refugees, housewives, and
other particular groups. ... New forms and media of com-
munication such as radio, television, newspapers, maga-
zines, the theatre and other arts will also engage the attention
of missionary strategists. The multiplication of missionary
fields is endless.

d. The church’s witness is often impeded because
we speak without first listening to the real needs of
people. In the St. Louis Metro Mission Movement pilot
Project, “eyes and ears” task forces were formed.
Groups of eight to 10 Christians went into a community
and attempted to see and hear with the eyes and ears
of Christ—to discover the needs and burdens of people
in the area and the opportunities for witness and min-
istry. One of the task force members said later: “I’ve
gone to church and worked in this community all my
life, but so many things go unnoticed until you have

a specific purpose in mind.” These listening and seeing
task forces uncovered a variety of the hurts and prob-
lems of people, which many Lutheran Christians in
St. Louis are now trying to meet. We must always pray
the Lord of the church to give us ears that will really
hear the cries of men, eyes that will see things as they
are, and hearts that will respond to people as people.

Il. THE EDIFYING WORD:
WE HELP EACH OTHER IN MISSION

A. Edification: Building One Another Up for Mission
1. Oneness and a Two-Way Street

Communication is a strange word containing two
paradoxical elements. The root of the word means “at
one with” or ‘“common’”—but true communication is
always a two-way street. It involves a sender and a re-
ceiver as well as a message. As the sender and the
receiver move toward understanding what each other
has to say, communication is achieved. Effective com-
munication comes from a willingness to listen, observe,
discuss, explore, share, and trust.

Edification has similar elements. People who have
been made one in Christ share the edifying Word—each
receives or learns from the other—in order that all are
“built up” for His one mission.

2. A Variety of “Building Sites”

The edifying Word never uses just one place to build
up His people for mission: He uses a variety of build-
ing “‘sites.”

God’s people are built up for mission in formal Chris-
tian education settings—day schools, Bible classes, ete.
(One of the examples in this section, therefore, describes
an important Board for Missions-sponsored conference
on Lutheran education.)

But edification is not limited to the classroom. Much
of the equipping for mission goes on informally, as
Christians talk to one another. Here in the U.S. A., for
example, many of us who are white Christians have
been ministered to by our black brothers, particularly
by the Black Lutheran Churchmen, who “got them-
selves together” to speak to us collectively, out of concern
for our mutual edification and welfare. Without the in-
sights of black clergy and laymen we are impoverished.

And God’s people are edified, or built up, for Christ’s
mission not only by talking together but by actively
working together side by side—as partners in mission.
There is much we can do for one another and much we
can learn from one another in the process. For example,
Lutheran Christians from Europe, England, India,
Nigeria, and the U.S.A. are serving on medical relief
teams, backed by financial aid and guidance from Chris-

-tian and secular agencies all over the world, united in

a common task to bring healing to all the people of
Nigeria. And many of the medical personnel, in return,
are edified or strengthened by the witness and faith-
fulness of Nigerian Christians, some of whom had lost
almost all they had—possessions and loved ones—in
the war.