LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1971, Page 137

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RESOLUTIONS 137

with the leadership of The American Lutheran Church,
to provide for multilevel study and discussion of such
issues with the brethren of The American Lutheran
Church, and that the Interchurch Commission on Fel-
lowship when feasible receive reports of these studies
and discussions; and be it further

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church — Missouri
Synod representatives on the Interchurch Commission
on Fellowship share their findings and recommendations
with the Commission on Theology and Church Relations
and the Council of Presidents; that the CTCR and the
Interchurch Commission on Fellowship report to the
next convention of The Lutheran Church — Missouri
Synod; and that continuing fellowship with The Ameri-
can Lutheran Church be evaluated and determined on
the basis of their reports; and be it finally

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church — Missouri
Synod advise its pastors, congregations, boards, and
commissions, because of doctrinal concerns still remain-
ing between the two church bodies, to defer new imple-
mentation of fellowship with The American Lutheran
Church until The American Lutheran Church has had
opportunity to respond to our Synod’s concerns.

Action: Adopted (10).

(A motion that the vote on this resolution be by secret
ballot failed to carry. Time was extended to 11 a.m. An
amendment to change “defer new implementation of” in the
final resolved to “suspend” was defeated in a rising vote.
The resolution was adopted by a rising vote at approximately
10:48 after the previous question had been called for by at
least % of the assembly. Rev. Emil Jaech, chairman of the
floor committee who had introduced the resolution, led the
convention in a prayer of thanksgiving.

In Session 13 the delegates resolved that the introductory
prayer and statement of the committee chairman should be
printed in Today’s Business. In line with the spirit of that
request these are being included also here:

Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, we love You but not nearly as
much as You love us; we love the church and our Synod but
not nearly as much as You love the church and our Synod;
we want to be in fellowship with one another, but not as
much as You want us to be in fellowship with one another,
because You made us members of Your one body by Your
grace alone. We thank You and praise You for Your mag-
nificent grace and Your wonderful love for us poor, sinful
beings who so often know not what we do.

Blessed Lord, it is to Your promise we now cling when
You said that You will be with us always; that You will pray
to the Father for us; and that the Father will give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask Him.

We surely need You, and all Your gifts and blessings in
this convention. And at this time as we begin to consider the
question of our fellowship with The American Lutheran
Church, give us, we pray, guidance and direction so that
what we say and do about this matter may be right and
pleasing in Your sight. But even more, give, we pray, to each
of us a truly humble heart, a truly loving spirit, and a true
desire to live in peace and joy with one another as the people
of God. Help us to listen to one another as well as to speak.
Help us to appreciate one another as being together Your
redeemed children who share Your forgiveness. Help us to
be kind and loving, in honor preferring one another as we
talk together about this matter, and as we work toward our
decision. Lord, it is Your will that we want to be obedient
to, and it is Your glory that we want to seek. Now help us
so that we will go forth from this convention, not as a di-
vided, angry people, but as brothers and sisters who can
bear each other’s burdens, because You have borne all of ours

and made us to be, by Your grace alone, the very heirs of
life. Jesus, please help us now, please; we’ll not be able to
do what is right — alone! Amen.

Introductory Remarks

There are many troubled, burdened, and confused people
in the Missouri Synod, if what we hear being said is true.
And there are many of you delegates and guests who share
this restlessness and concern. Some are even saying that if
this convention doesn’t take the kind of action which they
expect, they may even withdraw from our Christian fellow-
ship.

Among the big issues in our church concerning which
many people are tense, burdened, restless, angry, is the one
about our Synod’s fellowship with The American Lutheran
Church. We’ll soon be speaking about that issue on the floor
of this convention. But before I present to you the recom-
mended resolution of Committee 3, permit me to share with
you something of our committee’s experience during the past
nine days that we have been meeting here in Milwaukee.

We have had our own little miniature convention, wrest-
ling with this matter —38 men, one gracious and patient
woman; and a number of resource people were also available
to us. We prayed a lot, we studied and talked. We disagreed.
But we were frank, honest, open about our personal convic-
tions, and, by the mercies of God, we began to grow together
peacefully.

We were ready to recognize the different reactions among
our people as far as The ALC fellowship matter is concerned.
They seem to be the following:

1. Some folk are disturbed, even angry, because they be-
lieve that at Denver our Synod violated clear Scripture truth
when it declared itself to be in altar and pulpit fellowship
with The ALC. For them there is only one proper solution,
and that is to rescind that resolution.

2. Others are convinced that we made a mistake at Den-
ver because there is not a sufficient basis for God-pleasing
fellowship, but that our best solution now is to suspend our
fellowship agreement until at least the most glaring disagree-
ments which appear to exist between our Synod and The
ALC are removed.

3. A third category would be the folks who believe that
we do have some serious differences in doctrine and practice,
but that we should not rescind or suspend the Denver reso-
lution, but rather seriously begin to negotiate some changes
with The ALC so that we can feel comfortable and happy
in their fellowship.

4. Still others do not see any serious obstacles to full
fellowship, and are encouraging us to go full-steam ahead in
implementing as many opportunities for the expression of
our fellowship with ALC congregations and people as we can.
Perhaps there are some categories in between which I have
not mentioned.

Your committee wrestled earnestly with these concerns
and options. What can we recommend to you for your
adoption? There was a time when it appeared there would
be both a committee report and a minority report. That in
itself tends to be divisive.

We prayerfully kept on working the problem! All of us
on Committee 3 agreed we want to be 100 percent in accord
with Scripture and the Confessions. We want to show con-
cern for the consciences of our people in the Missouri Synod.
We want to be brotherly and charitable and fair toward the
fellow Christians in The American Lutheran Church. You
heard Doctor Knutson yesterday. You know what he said.

By the grace of God we finally arrived at a single resolu-
tion adopted by our committee and now to be offered to you
to join us in its adoption. It won’t fully please all of you,
even as it doesn’t fully please the members of Committee 3,
but it is the best that we were able to do.

I thank God that we can come to you with one recom-
mendation and not with two, so that you might have to
choose. Brethren and sisters in Christ, if you can improve
upon it please do, but I plead with you to evaluate our work
with the remembrance that there will be no perfect under-
standing and agreement about fellowship this side of heaven.
We are dealing with fellow Christians in The ALC, not
pagans. As we make our decision in this very important
matter, let us make it in great humility, recognizing our own