LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 3

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OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
a sure sign of confidence and joy among the generous people in
the Synod. The amount of money spent on operations (the things
the Synod tells us to do, like missions, congregational and district
services, individual ministry areas, etc.) was 75 to 78 percent of all
spending (a very respectable number). We continue to be thankful
for our districts—our single largest “donor”—who together provide
around $13 million annually in vitally important unrestricted funding. These are the dollars coming from the gifts you put into the
offering plate during worship each weekend, some of which your
congregation gives to your district.

Commission on Theology and Church
Relations (CTCR)
The CTCR has produced significant documents in recent years,
and they have assisted me on several occasions in matters of doctrine and practice. I’ve requested their assistance with the issue of
“lay readers,” that is, laymen who lead a service, read a sermon
written by a pastor, and do not administer the Lord’s Supper. With
their help, we hope the COP will provide guidance and a theologically acceptable way to provide for congregations which simply
cannot get a pastor regularly.

Conclusion
Thank you for consenting to serve the Synod at this 2023 convention. There is, of course, much more about your church’s work
in the U.S. and around the world I could report, but I thought I’d
make this report as short as possible and easier for you to read.
These and many other issues will come before us in Milwaukee. I’ll
mention more of them in Part II to be delivered at Floor Committee
Weekend in June.
We face tremendous challenges. The devil, the world, and our
sinful flesh would seduce us to veer this way or that, as Luther says,
“Like a drunk riding a donkey who swings to this side and now
the other.” But I’m confident, even in the face of strong headwinds
faced by so many of our blessed congregations, in spite of a world
that hates us, our sin which besets us, and the devil who relentlessly attacks us precisely because the LCMS confesses the Gospel
throughout the world, that the LORD will provide exactly what we
need to be His people at this moment.
What we need most will always come in a cruciform package.
The Lord blesses under crosses and grants us the joyful hope of the
resurrection in Christ. “Have no fear, little flock. The Father has
chosen to give you His kingdom.”
“We preach Christ crucified.”
Matthew C. Harrison, President
R1.1

Church Relations
Jesus is Lord!
Jesus is Lord! This first, short creed of the Christian Church was
confessed by Christ before Pilate (Matt. 26:63–64), fleshed out in
the Apostles’ Creed for Baptism into Christ, and confessed robustly
in the Nicene Creed for fellowship at His altar. “Jesus is Lord!”
continues today as the summary of the Christian faith, the certainty
of the forgiveness of our sins, and the power which creates church
fellowship through faith in Christ.

3

To confess that Jesus is Lord means that Jesus is Yahweh, God
from eternity, our Savior. The Son of God was sent by the Father
to take on our human flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit in the
womb of the Virgin Mary. As the God-Man, He kept the eternal
Law of God for us by His holy life, He atoned for our sins on the
altar of the cross by His substitutionary death, He justified sinners
before God by His glorious resurrection from the dead, and He
opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers by His victorious
ascension into heaven.
The redemptive words and deeds of Jesus have the power to
create fellowship with God because Jesus is the Son of God, of
one substance with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit. That
is why we preach Christ crucified! Faith and Baptism unite us with
Christ, and by way of His shared human flesh, we are united with
the Holy Trinity (2 Pet. 1:4) and one another. This is the unity expressed in the LCMS Church Relations (CR) vision statement:
“Worldwide confessional Lutheran churches … United in Christ’s
Word, Gathered at His Altar, Witnessing to the World.”
Fellowship in Christ is created by faith and Baptism, which
unite us with Him and He with us (unio mystica). All believers in
Christ are united internally in the “one holy, Christian and apostolic church” (una sancta). But because in this sinful world false
doctrine and truth are often mixed with grave danger to souls, external or church fellowship may only be manifested where God’s
saving Word is taught purely and Christ’s Sacraments are administered rightly according to His institution. These are the external
marks of the Church through which the Spirit works (Apology of
the Augsburg Confession [Ap] VII and VIII 5). Thus, Jesus prays
for His disciples, “Father, … [grant] that they may be one as We
are,” adding the means of that unity, “Sanctify them by Your Word.
Your Word is truth” (John 17:11, 17). Church unity is confessional
unity, agreement in the truth of God’s sanctifying Word. Article VII
of the Augsburg Confession puts it this way: “For this is enough
for the true unity of the Christian Church, that there the Gospel is
preached unanimously according to a pure understanding, and the
Sacraments are administered in conformity with the divine Word”
(Augsburg Confession [AC] VII 2, German text, our translation).
In sum, we confess the Holy Scriptures as the inspired, inerrant
Word of God, the only rule and norm of faith and practice, and we
subscribe to the entire Book of Concord as a faithful exposition of
the Word of God (quia subscription).
The purpose of CR is to advance church fellowship in Christ
worldwide. As part of the LCMS Office of the President, CR collaborates with 42 sister church body “partners” to share Christ’s
Word and Sacraments, strengthens 40 church body “friends” toward future fellowship, and engages 19 “other” church bodies for
faithful ecumenism and united ethical expression to the world. With
partners—those with whom we are in altar and pulpit fellowship—
we share Word and Sacrament, meet to study the Word, and address
church challenges together. With friends, we cooperate in theological dialogue, education, and/or mercy support to move toward
future fellowship, God willing. With others, we practice faithful
ecumenism to be honest about our theological differences, grow
in mutual understanding, and work on Christian ethics statements
to bear witness to the world. We seek to confess the goodness and
value of God’s created orders … of all human life (from the unborn
to the very old, and those of every race and culture), of human
sexuality (being made male or female, and instituting one man–
one woman marriage), of the estate of government (for protecting
2023 Convention Workbook