Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 2016 · 66th Convention, Milwaukee › Page 448
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 448

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

448

ROUTES TO MINISTRY

13-17

To Retain Office of Lay Deacon for Sake
of Mission of the Church
Whereas, A growing number of congregations dotting the landscape of the LCMS struggle to have an ordained pastor serve them
in a Word and Sacrament ministry, and the LCMS for decades has
answered those needs by providing lay deacons to serve in that capacity; and
Whereas, There is an expressed concern that our lay deacon ministry is in conflict with Article XIV of the Augsburg Confession which
requires those serving in a Word and Sacrament ministry to be “rightly
called,” even though other LCMS conventions in 1989 and 2004 have
endorsed their service; and
Whereas, The 2013 Res. 4-06A Task Force Report identified the
three challenges impacting our LCMS congregations’ ability to have
an ordained pastor serve them, including financial challenges, geographical challenges, and demographic challenges; and
Whereas, There are other even more significant challenges
impacting our ability to have Word and Sacrament ministry in all
places where the Lord has called us to serve, namely these:
1. We in the LCMS find ourselves living in the third largest mission
field in the world—and the mission is growing to the point that now
80 percent of our neighbors no longer attend worship services and
are part of the mission we are called to serve.
2. We live in a post-Constantinian church age, meaning that much of
the structure created to serve a churched culture up until recent times
struggles to engage the culture that remains outside our sanctuaries
and Christendom; and

Whereas, The Res. 4-06A Task Force Report does not identify
these last two challenges that impact the future of our church but
presents a solution that will in effect restrict our church body from
providing Word and Sacrament ministry to our present churches and
keep us from responding to the actual mission need; and
Whereas, Augsburg XIV understands that “rite vocatus” involves
three aspects:
•

Examination in terms of teaching ability and lifestyle

•

Call by a congregation

•

Ordination of the candidate and his call by the Synod; and

Whereas, The LCMS has defined its understanding of “rite vocatus” to fit the human structures of a Constantinian church model that
struggles to exist in the unchurched mission culture that now has overtaken the United States; and
Whereas, The New Testament era, which our culture is replicating more and more, met the expansive mission need by opening the
door to the involvement of others, such as deacons like Philip whom
the Church consecrated through the laying on of hands and who was
then used by the Holy Spirit in a powerful way to bring the Gospel
and the Sacrament of Baptism to the Ethiopian official; and
Whereas, The church leaders in Jerusalem opened the door to
the Antioch Church to be a missionary-sending church by removing
restrictions at a time in which the Holy Spirit was opening doors to
a vast mission field; and
Whereas, At the very time when we need more harvest workers,
we have a gifted laity well-placed to serve both the congregations
who presently lack an ordained pastor and congregations who have
a need for a licensed lay deacon to serve; and
Whereas, The Lord of the Church gives the Church the freedom
and wisdom to organize itself to serve the mission and ministry needs
in the age in which it serves; therefore be it
2016 Convention Workbook

Resolved, That our congregations continue to encourage the people to answer the Lord’s call for harvest field workers and prepare
themselves for service as ministers of religion, ordained and commissioned; and be it further
Resolved, Congregations encourage our laity to receive theological education and formation through our Concordia universities and
seminaries to prepare themselves for service in the Church; and be
it further
Resolved, Our Concordia universities presently offering theological training for the laity work together to standardize all of the
education opportunities for diaconate training to ensure a uniformity
of education synodwide and provide a report demonstrating a unified curriculum to the Council of Presidents by September 2018;
and be it further
Resolved, That we can be faithful to the stipulations of Article XIV
in this missionary age by
•

providing theological training for those affirmed by their congregations to serve as lay deacons;

•

encouraging congregations to lay hands on those among them they
have affirmed and thereby call or consecrate lay people to serve in
Word and Sacrament ministries;

•

asking our LCMS districts to oversee a ministry of support, encouragement, and accountability for our lay deacons; and

•

in these ways honor our mutual understanding of what it means to be
“rightly called” (AC XIV);

and be it finally
Resolved, That we retain all lay deacons presently serving in Word
and Sacrament ministry under the supervision of an ordained pastor
and licensed by the district in which they serve, while we expand the
number of lay deacons to serve a variety of needs according to the
needs of the Church and the gifting of the Holy Spirit.
Board of Directors
Southeastern District
13-18

To Affirm and Expand Established Practice
of Licensed Lay Deacons
Whereas, Deacons are clearly mentioned in Holy Scripture in
1 Timothy 3:8−15 and Titus 1; and
Whereas, Deacons in the Holy Scriptures assist in the food distribution (Acts 6) as well as evangelize, preach (Acts 8:4−8), and even
baptize (Acts 8:26−40); and
Whereas, The CTCR (as illustrated in the 1981 CTCR document,
“The Ministry: Offices, Procedures, Nomenclature”) already has recognized the office of deacon as an auxiliary office; and
Whereas, The LCMS Res. 4-06A Task Force advocates termination of convention-supported and established LCMS practice through
the following recommendations:
• All trained, ecclesiastically supervised licensed lay deacon ministry be
phased out by January 2018
• Deacons older than 55 be ordained through a regional colloquy process
• Deacons younger than 55 apply and enter the specific ministry pastor
(SMP) training at seminary
• Congregations served by licensed lay deacons (a) become multipoint
ministries served by one pastor, (b) be served by inactive and retired
pastors, (c) be assisted by the Synod to cover the cost for SMP training for any deacons needing financial assistance;

and
Whereas, A sizable number of LCMS altar and pulpit fellowship churches around the world are not phasing out the service of