LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 322

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322

INTERNATIONAL WITNESS

PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING
Upon the recommendation of the Office of International Mission, the
board shallmay serve as the onlya sending agency through which workers and funds aremay be sent to the foreign mission areas of the Synod,
including the calling, appointing, assigning, withdrawing, and releasing
of missionaries (ministers of religion—ordained and ministers of religion—commissioned) and other workers for the ministries in foreign
areas. This bylaw shall in no way be interpreted as forbidding or limiting
the direct work of and financial support by districts, circuits, congregations, auxiliaries, and RSOs for international missions, either specifically or generally. However, districts, circuits, congregations, auxiliaries,
and RSOs are encouraged to communicate their international mission
activities to the Synod’s Director of Church Relations and Offices of
National and International Mission for the purposes of healthy coordination and good stewardship.

and be it finally
Resolved, That the Synod authorize those individuals and entities charged with the editing and publishing of the 2016 Handbook
to conform the language of any other Bylaw so that it is in conformity and harmony with the intent and language of Bylaw 3.8.3 as
amended above.
First, Hanford, CA; Redeemer, Fresno, CA; New England
District
2-10

To Amend Bylaw 3.8.3 and Recognize, Affirm,
and Protect Authority of Congregations
to Send Missionaries
Whereas, The Lord Jesus Christ, the true and only Head of the
Church, sends His people into the world so that they might accomplish
His mission of making disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18–20); and
Whereas, The Lord Jesus Christ, after His encounter with two
disciples on the way to Emmaus, appeared to “the eleven and those
who were with them gathered together” (Luke 24:33) and said to
them: “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the
third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of
sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from
Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. But stay in the city until
you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:46–49); and
Whereas, This same Lord Jesus Christ, speaking through His
special servant Stephen, one of the seven deacons mentioned in Acts
6:1–6, proclaimed His Word, both Law and Gospel, with the hope
that the Council in Jerusalem might repent of their unbelief and come
to faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 7:1–53); and
Whereas, In response to Stephen’s witness and message, the
Council, instead of repenting of their unbelief and receiving the forgiveness of sins by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, began a great
persecution in Jerusalem and the disciples “were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles … those
who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip [another
one of the seven deacons listed in Acts 6:1–6] went down to the city
of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ” (Acts 8:1, 4–5; emphasis added); and “those who were scattered because of the persecution
that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and
Antioch, speaking the word to none except Jews. But there were some
of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene who on coming Antioch spoke to
the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord
was with them and a great number that believed turned to the Lord”
(Acts 11:19–21; emphasis added); and
2016 Convention Workbook

Whereas, It was on a road to Damascus that the Lord’s plan for
sending Paul on his missionary journeys was first made known when
the Lord revealed to Ananias that Paul would be His special instrument “to carry My name before the Gentiles and kings and sons of
Israel” (Acts 9:15; emphasis added); and
Whereas, The Lord, in order to accomplish this sending of Paul
used the church in Antioch, while His people were gathered for worship, to call and send out both Barnabas and Saul (Paul) to those
places where the Holy Spirit would use them as His messengers and
proclaimers of the Gospel when He said: “Set apart for Me Barnabas
and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then after fasting
and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off” (Acts
13:2–3); and
Whereas, In these selected verses from the Book of Acts, we
have several examples of God’s people engaged in making known
the Gospel through their witness and Gospel proclamation (Romans
10:14–17) because “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through
the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17); and
Whereas, Art. II of the LCMS Constitution states that “the Synod,
and every member of the Synod, accepts without reservation … the
Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament as the written Word of
God and the only rule and norm of faith and of practice”; and
Whereas, Art. III of the LCMS Constitution states that “the
Synod, under Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions, shall …
strengthen congregations and their members in giving bold witness
by word and deed to the love and work of God, the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, and extend the Gospel witness into all the world” and to
“provide protection for congregations, pastors, teachers, and other
church workers in the performance of their official duties and the
maintenance of their rights” (Constitution, Art. III 2, 9; emphasis
added); and
Whereas, Art. VII 1 of the LCMS Constitution states that “in its
relation to its members the Synod is not an ecclesiastical government
exercising legislative or coercive powers, and with respect to the individual congregation’s right of self-government it is but an advisory
body” (emphasis added); and
Whereas, Art. XIV of the LCMS Constitution states that “the
Synod in convention may adopt bylaws that are consistent with and do
not contradict the Constitution of Synod, which controls and supersedes such bylaws and all other rules and regulations of Synod”
(emphasis added); and
Whereas, CCM opinion 14-2724 states that foreign missions
is a jurisdiction that the Synod has reserved solely for itself (CCM
Minutes, Sept. 26–27, 2014, pp. 37–38) and that LCMS congregations and districts may not call and send church workers for ministry
service in foreign areas, an opinion that impinges upon the authority
and rights of LCMS congregations to fulfill their official duties and
reason for existence, that is, to extend the Gospel to the ends of the
earth so that the loving actions and will of the triune God might be
made known among the nations of the earth; and
Whereas, Bylaw 3.8.3 appears to contradict portions of Articles
II, III, VII, and XIV of the Synod Constitution when it states that
“upon the recommendation of the Office of International Mission, the
board shall serve as the only sending agency through which workers
and funds are sent to the foreign mission areas of Synod, including the calling, appointing, assigning, withdrawing, and releasing
of missionaries (ministers of religion—ordained and ministers of
religion—commissioned) and other workers for the ministries in foreign areas” (Bylaw 3.8.3; emphasis added) when judged in light of
the clear testimony of Scripture that the congregation possesses the