LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1977, Page 83

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83

CONVENTION SERMON
INI

Text: 2 Peter 3:18

But keep on growing in grace and knowledge from our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory both now
and for eternity.

Reverend Clergy, Honored Delegates and Friends,
Dearly Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Welcome in the Savior’s name to the 52nd regular
convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod!
It is good to be together in thriving, metropolitan Dallas
and meet in national assembly for the assessment,
planning, and promotion of the work of the Lord in our
church body. We are encouraged by Workbook reports of
the accomplishments of our faithful people and pastors,
under the blessing of the Lord, in the past biennium. We
rejoice that the challenge of our church’s entering new
overseas mission fields will be presented to the delegates
of this convention. We thank God for the privilege that
will be ours here in Dallas to inaugurate Synodwide
celebration of a century of our church’s ministry among
the Blacks in the U.S.A. and to begin observance of the
75th anniversary of the Church Extension Fund. We
praise our heavenly Father that our seminaries are
flourishing and by God’s grace will provide the church of
the future with Christ-exalting, orthodox, able ministers
of the New Testament. We are grateful that the Lord has
helped us through many of the Synod’s recent troubles
and shown us countless additional undeserved mercies.
Most delegates have come to this city with an
enthusiastic, God-given determination to help make the
o2nd regular convention one of the most positive,
fruitful, and forward-looking in the Synod’s recent
history.

Yet it must also be admitted that our hearts are filled
with a certain degree of concern and sadness over
circumstances which have affected our life together in
the Synod and over problems with which we must still
grapple in the church and here at this synodical
meeting. We regret that little progress can be made
toward establishing God-pleasing fellowship relations
with other Lutherans or other Christian groups. We
grieve over the fact that some brethren who once walked
and worked with us have left our fellowshio tp organizea
new church body; that a minority of others who remain
in the Synod continue to be dissatisfied with our
church’s 130-year-old position in doctrine and practice
based on the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions,
and by divisive contrary teaching and churchly activity
continue to confuse some of our congregations and
prolong our internal strife and disunity. We are
distressed over the Synod’s perennial shortages in
income—and this in a time of unparalleled prosperity for
our people—so that missionary expansion at home and
Overseas has had to be seriously curtailed. We note our
membership decline and an apparent lack of zeal for
evangelism and local missionary outreach on the part of
humerous congregations (one statistic revealing, for
example, that one half of the churches in the Synod in a

Vice-President Walter A. Maier

normal year confirm one or less adults). Recruitment of
students for full-time church service vocations is down.
There are further disappoinments. We consider all these
factors and are led to ask the serious questions: Have
many in the Synod lost their first love of the Lord, and
are they becoming lukewarm in their devotion to Christ
and His kingdom’s cause? What can be done about this
situation?

The crying need in our Synod today is for humble,
heart-deep repentance before God over our failures; for
earnest request of His strengthening help in our
weakness; for application on the part of our entire
membership to an intensive study of the sanctifying
Word, through which the Holy Spirit fosters spiritual
growth, through which He enlightens and fires God’s
people for full, eager obedience to the divine will and the
joyous assumption of Kingdom responsibilities as
assigned by Christ in the Great Commission. The
wonderful news for us at Dallas is that our Synod has
just such a necessary program of Bible study ready for
our people; it is titled “That We May Grow.” Yours will
be the privilege of launching and supporting this Bible-
study effort at this convention. As it takes hold in the
church, multitudes by the Spirit’s power will be built up
in the faith and activated for more rigorous, God-
glorifying service in His kingdom, and the way will be
paved under God for mighty, divine benediction upon
our Synod in all departments of its operation.

Grateful to God for his many blessings and with a
desire to promote throughout the Synod an accelerated,
Spirit-given solution to our difficulties, beginning with
us who are assembled here in convention opening
worship, we direct our attention to the edifying Word
and to the vital subject of Christian growth. In thename
of Jesus we bid you resolve with the Holy Spirit’s help
and with renewed dedication to