Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 2019 · 67th Convention, Tampa › Page 169

LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 169

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
••

All our congregations make full use of our Synod’s
hymnals and catechisms for liturgy, hymns, catechesis,
and prayer (4-04A). The district enjoys remarkable
unity in its preaching, teaching, and worship life.

••

All of our congregations practice closed communion,
admitting members of LCMS congregations and
those in fellowship with the LCMS, declining to commune the uncatechized and those having a different
public confession, and exercising faithful discretion
in those rare, emergency situations of pastoral care
(5-15).

••

District schools faithfully embrace and practice a
fully Lutheran ethos, continue to strengthen their
Lutheran character, and eagerly embrace the classical
pedagogical content and method of the Western tradition in support of Lutheran doctrine and practice
(8-01A).
The district president, assisted by the vice-presidents
and circuit visitors, gives pastoral care to the pastors
of the district, as they also care for one another. The
district had no pastors on candidate status except for
a very small portion of the triennium (12-02A).
The district holds an annual evangelism conference designed to strengthen both laity and pastors
in outreach, daily living, and faithful confession of
the truth, while also providing occasional leadership
training (13-01A).
The district designates 6 percent of its congregational
receipts for church worker student scholarships and
active church worker school debt reduction (18-03A).

Koinonia meetings (2016 Res. 4-05A) between the Wyoming and Atlantic Districts continued in February 2016. Since
that time, each district has worked to answer questions posed by
the other district. A follow-up meeting had not yet been scheduled at the time of this writing. District leadership has also engaged in conversation with the faculty of Concordia Seminary,
St. Louis, following a resolution of the Wyoming District Pastors’ Conference addressing its seminary journal. The district
expects this conversation to be ongoing. The district pastors
and congregations act on the conviction that true koinonia and
unity in the Church is received and kept only by way of unity of
doctrine and practice. Our koinonia finds expression in this very
unity among our congregations and pastors and is sustained by
way of regular congregational visitations and well-attended and
doctrinally rich circuit and district pastoral conferences.
In carrying out biblical visitation, the district examines and
attests to the faithfulness of its congregations and pastors in
preaching and teaching, the right administration of the sacraments, and the practical matters of the congregations’ life and
conduct. We regularly study the Lutheran Confessions in meetings of the district leadership in order to deepen and strengthen
our common confession of the doctrine given to us in Holy
Scripture. We have given particular attention to the following
doctrinal matters in our conferences, winkels, and leadership:
••

The Office of Visitation in the Church: With the election of a new district president in 2015, we studied
the biblical and confessional sources and articulated
an understanding of the work of ecclesiastical visita-

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tion. The district continues its salutary, long-standing
practice (more than 30 years!) of congregational
visitations.
••

Preaching: The wellbeing and growth of the church
require clear, doctrinally rich, sound preaching. This
was the subject for a district pastoral conference, as
also for some of our winkels (cf. 2016 Res. 17-04).

••

Scripture as the only source of Christian doctrine
(principium cognoscendi): In response to instances
in Synod in which the Scriptures were questioned or
not clearly taught to be the sole source and norm of
divine doctrine (see the Formula of Concord, Solid
Declaration, Rule and Norm), the district pastors
reviewed this teaching.

••

The Internal and External Clarity of Scripture: We
studied this salutary doctrine at a pastoral conference
in response to an incident in the Synod in which the
doctrine of the external clarity of Scriptures was in
doubt.

••

The Holy Ministry, Divine Call, and Ordination: As
our Synod returns to a faithful practice regarding
call and ordination to the Holy Ministry (Augsburg
Confession Article XIV), many of our circuits and
congregations have joined in studying the doctrine of
the Holy Ministry.

••

Priesthood and Office: The district board of directors responded to a dissenting opinion from a sister
district with a brief paper reiterating the teaching of
Scriptures and the Confessions.

••

Third Use of the Law: The district pastors are
studying the place and use of the law for Christians,
responding to challenges in government and culture
and concerns about teaching in the Synod regarding
antinomianism and the Third Use of the Law (Formula of Concord Article VI).

••

The Church and the Civil Realm: The district pastors
are discussing among themselves the relationship
and role of Christians and the church to government
and civil concerns in our communities and states.
The district has exercised leadership in Wyoming in
speaking to our communities and government leaders
regarding matters of marriage, life, family, and the
free expression of conscience and faith.

The 60 congregations and one mission station of the Wyoming District serve a population of about 670,000 in Wyoming,
the Nebraska Panhandle, and one congregation in Colorado.
The district is richly blessed. It is also addressing challenges. We
are experiencing gradual population loss and aging, like the rest
of the nation, in our farming and ranching areas. Low prices
in oil, gas, coal, and other resources have caused the departure
of a part of our workforce, affecting also the railroad industry. Many of our congregations have begun planning for a future that requires new partnerships with sister congregations to
provide for their pastors. We have held meetings of groups of
congregations to explore future work together and changes in
parish alignments. Our pastors are deeply committed to serving all the congregations of the district, thus confessing their
2019 Convention Workbook