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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 369

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

IX. 2016 RESOLUTION 13-01A TASK FORCE REPORT
er” Matt. 12:50. So we are not only true clerics and
priests according to our right as children but also
according to our right as brothers. This, our hereditary priesthood with which we are born, we do not
want to have taken away, impeded and obscured;
rather, we want to have it brought out into the open,
proclaimed and extolled with all its honors in order
that it should beam and shine like the precious sun
and blind the eyes of the devil and his hypocrisies
and abominations, … . (AE 38:187–88)
and also
If they were forced to grant that all of us that have
been baptized are equally priests, as indeed we
are, and that only the ministry was committed to
them, yet with our common consent, they would
then know that they have no right to rule over us
except insofar as we freely concede it. For thus it
is written in 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen race, a
royal priesthood, and a priestly royalty.” Therefore
we are all priests, as many of us as are Christians.
But the priests, as we call them, are ministers chosen from among us. All that they do is done in our
name; the priesthood is nothing but a ministry”
(AE 44:127);
and
Whereas, The holy ministry, or the pastoral office is an office
distinct from the priestly office, which belongs to all believers; and
Whereas, God has blessed the Church with a talented laity,
whom He has blessed with spiritual gifts; therefore be it
Resolved, That The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod give
thanks for district, university, and college-based lay training programs and the many willing lay servants who have sought to further
their theological education and desire to serve in the work and mission of the Lord’s Church; and be it further
Resolved, That such lay training programs continue their work
and include a major emphasis on evangelism and the task of outreach, as well as mercy, education, visitation, and so forth in our
increasingly diverse and challenging cultural context; and be it further
Resolved, That congregations and districts be encouraged to
identify individuals for special training in and attention to evangelism and outreach; and be it further
Resolved, That congregations and districts be encouraged to
facilitate lay training on both local and district levels and to establish new opportunities for lay people to make use of their gifts in
evangelism and service to the church; and be it further
Resolved, That districts be encouraged to provide assistance
and support for lay training; and be it further
Resolved, That the President of the Synod convene a task force
of lay leaders, representatives from districts both with and without licensed lay deacons, and representatives from the Council of
Presidents, both seminaries, and the CTCR to consider how best to
facilitate an ongoing conversation and communication among laity,
districts, and the Synod in order to foster the blessed complementary relationship between the royal priesthood and the Office of the
Public Ministry, and also to consider
(1) the royal priesthood and the Office of the Public Ministry
in the New Testament (in light of the many offices that
are mentioned, e.g., deacon, elder, overseer);

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(2) the challenges of an increasingly multicultural North
America and a country that has become the third largest
mission field in the world; and
(3) the growing number of congregations and ministries that
cannot provide financial support for a pastor;
And be it finally
Resolved, That the task force complete its work and present
its recommendation to the Synod in 2018 for consideration at the
2019 convention.167

APPENDIX B
Walther’s Theses on Church and Office
(From The Church & The Office of The Ministry
[2012 edition, pages 3–6])
Theses Concerning the Church
THESIS I: The Church in the proper sense of the word is
the congregation of saints, that is, the entirety of all those who,
called out of the lost and condemned human race by the Holy Spirit
through the Word, truly believe in Christ and by faith are sanctified
and incorporated in Christ.
THESIS II: To the Church in the proper sense of the word
belongs no wicked person, no hypocrite, no unregenerate person,
no heretic.
THESIS III: The Church in the proper sense of the word is
invisible.
THESIS IV: It is to this true Church of believers and saints that
Christ gave the Keys of the kingdom of heaven, and it is the proper
and only possessor and bearer of the spiritual, divine, and heavenly
gifts, rights, authority, offices, and the like that Christ has procured
and are found in His church.
THESIS V: Although the true Church in the proper sense of
the word is in its essence invisible, nevertheless its existence can be
(definitely) recognizable, namely, by the marks of the pure preaching of God’s Word and the administration of the Sacraments according to Christ’s institution.
THESIS VI: In an improper sense Scripture also calls the visible entirety of all the called—that is, of all who confess and adhere
to the proclaimed Word and use the holy Sacraments—which consists of good and evil [persons], “Church” (the universal [catholic]
church); so also it calls its several divisions, that is, the congregations that are found here and there in which the Word of God
is preached and the holy Sacraments are administered, “churches”
(particular or individual churches). This it does especially because
in this visible assembly is hidden the invisible, true, and properly
so-called church of believers, saints, and children of God; outside
this assembly of the called no elect are to be sought.
THESIS VII: As visible fellowships that still have the Word
and the Sacraments essentially according to God’s Word bear the
name “church” because of the true invisible Church of genuine believers that is found in them, so also they possess the authority that
Christ has given to His whole Church on account of the true invisible Church hidden in them, even if there were only two or three
[believers].
THESIS VIII: Although God gathers for Himself a holy
church of elect at a place where His Word is not taught in its complete purity and the Sacraments are not administered altogether according to the institution of Jesus Christ, if only God’s Word and
the Sacraments are not denied entirely but both essentially remain,
2019 Convention Workbook