Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 43
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 43

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

MISSIONS 43

local congregation looks upon itself only as a place
of refuge where we may escape from the problems of
our world and a place of retreat where like-minded and
congenial people may enjoy each other. The local con-
gregation must come to understand itself also as God’s
mission in its community, concerned about everything
that happens in the family of man, opposed to whatever
dehumanizes man, supportive of whatever aids man
to live his life fully as a creation of God in God's world.
It is evident that we are still a long way from realizing
this kind of self-understanding. Since the congregation
is a community of healed and reconciled persons, it
must also become a healing and reconciling community.
Far too many congregations still avoid the tensions of
the problems of their community and fail to study the
Word of God in order to understand His will for their
situation.

In its study of this problem the commission held con-
sultations with representatives of the Lutheran Human
Relations Association of America, with pastors of inner-
city congregations, and with the staff of the Board of
Social Ministry. With all the resolutions which our
church has adopted in the area of the need of the
Christian fellowship to be a healing community, there
is much reason for gratitude and rejoicing.

But when we look at the actual situation in the
church, we find that there is an alarming absence of
orientation in the congregations to this kind of ministry.
We haven't yet learned how to translate knowledge and
put resolutions into the kind of action which demon-
strates and manifests the love of God in Christ and
illuminates the reconciling work of Him who makes
all things new.

Also related to this problem of self-understanding
of the local congregation is the pattern of ecclesiastical
interrelationships in the larger urban centers of our
country. In the larger concentrations of population
there are forms of ministry which are beyond the re-
sources of any individual congregation. It is the respon-
sibility of all of the Christians in a particular area to
understand themselves as being not only related to
their one Head but also related to one another in the
fulfillment of His mission in that place. It often appears
that each individual congregation is connected by a
pipeline to some far-distant headquarters in a much
more vital way than it is related to a fellow congregation
in the fulfillment of its mission in that place.

As in the case of congregational structures, the cir-
cuit, District, and synodical structures need ongoing
study and evaluation in order to become more effective
instruments of the mission.

Structures as Servants

The development in many of the Districts of the
church toward a centralization of administration, giving
the impression that congregations exist for the sake of
the District, is cause for alarm. If the District does not
exist to be a servant of the congregations, to help them
in their mission, and to serve in their stead in those

areas of mission and ministry where they are unable
to act, then what is it for? Is this the image of the Dis-
trict which we have projected into the life of the con-
gregations, or have we rather given the impression that
the District is the master of the congregations, who must
be fed from their resources? These are sharp questions,
but they must be asked in all love if we are once more
to understand that we need the District in order to ful-
fill the mission God has given us.

It is no secret that in many parts of the church there
is much disillusionment about the role of the Synod in
the mission of God to the world. Many small actions
and words, and some very large ones, have given the
impression that the individual congregation exists for
the sake of the Synod. It cannot be said too often and
too loudly that the Synod must understand itself as the
servant, not the master, of the individual Christian and
the local congregations in helping them to fulfill their
mission throughout the entire church and throughout
the world.

No individual Christian is able to fulfill all the de-
mands which his obedience to Christ’s mission makes
upon him. To fulfill that mission, he must have an
agency through which he can join his efforts with that
of many more individual Christians and local congre-
gations. Much of the language which is used to moti-
vate the involvement of individual Christians and local
congregations in the worldwide task of the church
gives the impression that somehow they are helping
the Synod to carry out its mission rather than helping
them to understand that the Synod places itself at their
service for the fulfillment of their mission.

In all of the above areas it must be said that there
is growing awareness of the deep-rooted problem which
we face. We do not move easily out of our traditional
patterns of thinking. The commission does not believe
that additional machinery is needed to bring about a
revolution in our thinking. What we all sorely need is
a conversion —a conversion to the heart of the Gospel
so deep and so wide that we will be freed from the fet-
ters of institutionalism and find ourselves set free in
the world with no visible means of support save the
love of God in Christ.

Fellowship with Other Christians

Another area about which the commission has great
concern is that of fellowship with Christians who are in
churches which are not organizationally related to us.
We affirmed that the church is Christ’s mission to the
church and said thereby that Christians must strive in
every possible way to manifest the unity which God
has given them and to seek ways of working together
in His mission. In spite of this, we fail to demonstrate
in many instances the conviction that the fulfillment
of Christ’s mission to the world must dictate our rela-
tionships to our fellow Christians.

In the face of the great need of the world about us
to believe that God sent His Son into the world to save
the world, and of the great need for all Christians to