LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1977, Page 75

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PRESIDENT’S REPORT 15

this, we therefore speak (2 Cor. 4:13). We are a strongly
Biblical, confessional, and evangelical church.While we
have had conflict, division, and even suffered some
losses, I believe that we can honestly say that The
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has reaffirmed its
identity and that the overwhelming majority of our
people are ready to say, without equivocation, that they
subscribe to the Scriptures as the inerrant Word of God
and the Lutheran Confessions as the correct exposition
of that Word. We are a truly conservative, orthodox,
Biblical, confessional, and evangelical Lutheran
Church.

But to say that we are a confessional and evangelical
church is perhaps not quite to say everything that we
should. A church must be confessional, but it must be
alert to the temptation of becoming legalistic. This we
must avoid. Likewise, a church must be evangelical, but
it must be alert to the temptation to become permissive.
And this we must also avoid.

To call ourselves a confessional church is really to
say three things. In the first place, we confess that we
are sinners. This we must never forget. We always begin
with this point, that we are sinners, in need of
forgiveness, that we have failed both God and ourselves,
and that we have no cause of pride in ourselves.

In the second place, to be confessional means that we
confess our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. This not only
means standing up in church on Sunday morning and
confessing the faith, confessing the Creed, but it means
confessing it in our hearts, and in our lives, and staking
our entire existence for time and for eternity on Jesus
Christ. Such genuine confession also affects the manner
by which we conduct ourselves in day-to-day living. It
demonstrates a deep concern for and active participa-
tion in the mission and evangelism efforts of the church.
We are not ashamed of the Gospel nor of speaking the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ to the world. Surely this
must be a very real part of this convention. We are here
to encourage one another and stimulate one another to
grow in grace, to grow more articulate and zealous in our
confession of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the third place, to be a confessional church means
that we speak our faith clearly as we struggle to
enunciate it in times of controversy and conflict. This
year we are celebrating the 400th anniversary of the
Formula of Concord. Thisis a very interesting document
in that it grew out of conflict, and yet it was a document
which was designed to and did achieve peace and
concord and harmony among the Lutherans of Ger-
many in that period. This document was gathered into
our Book of Concord of 1580. A confessional church is
one which continues to confess the faith. We do not
regard the Confessions as ancient, irrelevant
documents, interesting only to historians, but as living
expressions of a living faith in a living church, and the
reason for this is that our Confessions center on the
gracious act of God in establishing a relationship with
us as His children through the suffering and death and
resurrection of His Son. The great central message of the
Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions is that God no
longer charges our sins to us, but He declares us
righteous and forgives us our sins, not because of any

merit or worthiness in us but because of His grace for
Christ’s sake. We accept this marvelous act of God in
faith. This is what we call justification by faith. Thus we
come to the three great confessional principles of
Lutheranism: faith alone, grace alone, Scripture alone.
Our Confessions have not been and are now not only a
marvelous witness of what we once believed, but they
remind us constantly that we are sinners who have been
redeemed and forgiven by His Son and that it is our
greatest joy and privilege now to confess Christ before
all men.

Another blessing which we have as a Lutheran
synod is the fact that perhaps more than almost any
Lutheran church body in history, we are rooted in the
concept that the congregation is the basic unit. We are
primarily an association of congregations, and we do
not intend to give up this concept of our church
government. The real action takes place at the con-
gregational level. Here are the lay people, the men,
women, young, and old, who make up the life of the
Synod. Our voting pastors at this convention are here
because they are pastors of congregations. Often people
get the impression that in our Synod the church body
has the final word. Nothing could be farther from the
truth. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod is the
most democratic of the Lutheran bodies, acting only by
direction of the convention of representatives of the
congregations. We are three million Missouri Synod
Lutherans, worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ, glorify-
ing His name, bearing witness to Him, and attempting
in word and deed to serve Him and to extend His
kingdom and rejoicing in the salvation which He has
given us through the suffering and death of His Son. Let
us never forget this. This is a marvelous blessing from
which have grown some of the greatest achievements
which our church has ever accomplished.

Recently a survey was conducted under the
leadership of the Synod’s Board of Directors. Some
lessons were learned.

Among other things the survey indicated that our
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod people enjoy an
above-average income. There is also every indication
that while our men, women, and young people are
dedicated to their Lord and possess a rich supply of
talent, all too many are either unaware of the work of the
church body to which they belong, or they are not truly
committed to the work the Synod is doing. With all of the
challenges before us, and all of the blessings we enjoy by
the grace of God, it seems that a great deal must be done
in order to harness this energy, so that the programs we
are carrying out as a church body will be more effective.

Therefore, if we really believe that the Holy Spirit
works through the means of grace, if we really believe
that the power of the Word is the all-sufficient power that
we have in the church, then let us use that power and
blessing to strengthen ourselves, our families, our
congregations, our church, our communities, and the
whole world in Jesus Christ.

The Future

Now having looked at the world in which we live and
at the blessings which we as a church possess, let us look