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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 10

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

10

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS

R1.1

A Theological Statement for Mission
in the 21st Century
In fulfillment of 2013 Res. 1-03A and adopted by the Board
for International Mission on Feb. 24, 2014.
In November 1991, the LCMS Commission on Theology and
Church Relations (CTCR) released a document, “A Theological
Statement of Mission.” Just as the current document is the result of
a Synod convention resolution (2013 Res. 1-03A), the 1991 CTCR
document was produced as a result of a Synod convention resolution
(1986 Res. 3-02). For decades, the Missouri Synod has passed resolutions in conventions in support of mission. This reflects how the
Missouri Synod takes seriously Christ’s mandate for the Gospel to
be proclaimed to the entire world. The 1991 CTCR statement on
mission and the current document demonstrate how each generation
and age of the Church must confess and put into practice the faith
given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. The two documents, while written in different styles, are in harmony with each other, expressing
the same truths about Christ’s mission and the church’s response to
our Lord’s mandate. In fact, the CTCR statement on mission states
about itself, “This statement was not envisioned as an end in itself
but as a tool that would be available for possible use by the various units of the Synod as they seek to develop their own individual
mission statements.” In this regard, the 1991 CTCR statement has
served as a helpful tool.
1. God. Where the Holy Trinity is present via the Gospel and
received in faith, there cannot but be Witness (martyria), Mercy
(diakonia), Life Together (koinonia).1 These three reflect God’s very
being as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, and they encompass
His holy and gracious will for all in Christ Jesus—namely, that
all come to believe in and bear witness to Christ, reflect divine
compassion, and live together in forgiveness, love, and joy in the
Church (AC I).
2. Humanity. It is the deepest offense to natural man that, apart
from the life-giving witness of God in Christ, he is blind, dead,
and an enemy of God (Eph. 2:8–9); incapable of “true fear of
God and true faith in God” (AC II 1; 1 Cor. 1:22–25); and is,
therefore, helpless under the damning and merciless hammer of
divine Law (Jer. 23:29). The condemnation of the Law knows no
respect for persons, much less class, ethnicity, or sex. The witness
of the Gospel (Word and Sacrament) is the sole source of life for
the dead, the only remedy for sin, death, and the devil. Thus, the
entire life of the Christian individual and the Church is lived in
and for the fact that “the Son of man came to seek and save the
lost” (Luke 19:10).
3. Christ, the content of the Gospel. Christ Himself is the content of the Gospel, and thus of the Church’s mission of Witness
(martyria), Mercy (diakonia), Life Together (koinonia). The Gospel
is defined by Christ’s person, words, and works, and it transcends
time and space. Just as “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today
and tomorrow,” so the Gospel is the unique once-for-all offering
of Christ, the God-man, for the sins of the world (Heb. 10:10).
“The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin”
(1 John 1:7). “The work is finished and completed. Christ has
acquired and won the treasure for us by His sufferings, death,
and resurrection” (LC III 38). The communication of the Gospel
may vary from culture to culture, but the fundamental definition of the Gospel as justification is timeless because it is biblical
(Rom. 3:21–26; 4:5). “We receive forgiveness of sin and become
2019 Convention Workbook

righteous before God by grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith,
when we believe that Christ suffered for us and that for His sake
our sin is forgiven” (AC IV2).
4. Christ, the source and model for the life of faith. Faith lays
hold of Christ, and from Him it is enlivened and given its impulse
and model for Witness (martyria), Mercy (diakonia), Life Together
(koinonia). Jesus spends Himself completely (Mark 1:38) to bear
witness as the Son of God sent for the salvation of the world
(John 3:16). Jesus has compassion on the needy within and outside
the community of faith (Mark 7:28). Jesus establishes a community of believers who are “brothers and sisters” (Acts 2; Mark
3:31ff.), who are “not to Lord it over each other” (Matt. 20:25)
but to live together in forgiveness (Matthew 18), love (John 15),
and mutual service (John 15:12; Mark 10:45; Philemon 2). “Oh,
faith is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, so that it is impossible for it not to be constantly doing what is good” (FC SD V 10).
While the church’s work of extending of Christ’s Witness (martyria), Mercy (diakonia), Life Together (koinonia) in community
will always be but a weak reflection of His own, where there is no
Witness, Mercy, Life Together in forgiveness and love, there is no
Church, no faith in Christ. To paraphrase Luther, Christ is both
sacramentum and exemplum, both sacrament (gift) and model
for the Christian.
5. The saving Word of God. God’s means of bringing salvation
in Christ is the Word of God proclaimed: “The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith that
we proclaim); because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus
is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the
dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:8–9). “That we may obtain this
faith,” our confession says, “the ministry of teaching the gospel
and administering the sacraments was instituted” (AC V).2 Thus
the Church, the assembly of all believers in Christ, is found where
the Word of God is found, where “the gospel is purely preached
and the holy sacraments are administered according to the gospel”
(AC VII).3 The Word of God—read, spoken, proclaimed—will
not return to God empty but will accomplish His purpose (Is.
55:10–11) and will bring people to faith in Christ “where and
when it pleases God in those who hear the gospel” (AC V).4 That
is why the Church is not recognized by individual faith or works,
which may be invented or contrived, but by these external marks,
“the pure teaching of the gospel and the administration of the
sacraments in harmony with the gospel of Christ” (Ap VII and
VIII).5 Therefore, where the Word of God is found; where Holy
Absolution is proclaimed (the specific announcement of the forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ); where Holy Baptism is
done in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; where
Christ’s true body and blood are given by His Word of promise, there you will find the Church, the assembly of believers in
Christ, and there you will find Christ Himself. Moreover, where
Christ’s Church is located in the Word and Sacraments, there you
will find Witness (martyria), Mercy (diakonia), Life Together (koinonia) (Gal. 2:8–9).
6. Witness is the sacred and fundamental task of the Church.
Bearing witness to the saving Good News of God for us in Jesus
is the fundamental task of the Church (Matt. 28:19). This leads
to the making of disciples. The apostolic witness is connected
to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The preaching of
the Gospel consistently proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah promised by the Old Testament Scriptures, preached the damning
Law in full force (“You killed the author of life” [Acts 3:15]),