LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1981, Page 74

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

74 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS

have to take my share of the responsibility and ask the

- pardon of any who felt that it was not conducted in the

way it should have been. On the other hand, as a person
who all his life has loved and admired the theology of
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and who felt
and still feels that he had his hand very much on the
pulse of where the Missouri Synod stood in regard to its
Biblical and confessional heritage, and as one who has
his own convictions before God and before the world, I
have.to say that there was no way in which, under the
circumstances, the conflict could have been avoided,
postponed, or settled without some serious conflict.
There is no question that the diffuculties were infinitely
magnified and aided and abetted by the press, both
within and outside the church, that the walkout of the
faculty at St. Louis in 1974 extended the conflict and
made it much more difficult to bring it to a proper and
God-pleasing conclusion. The difficulties we had with
District Presidents, and then the concomitant diffi-
culties brought about by congregations leaving with
great fanfare, with much publicity, and oftentimes with
financial problems and constitutional problems, all
added greatly to my personal anguish and to the
difficulties under which the Synod had to carry out its
work.

Now that itis all over and the dust is settled, I believe
that we came through it far better than our feeble
human talents warranted and far better than we had
any right to expect, humanly speaking.

And now after much prayer and thought I have
made the decision not to be a candidate for the office of
synodical President.

While these 12 years have certainly taken their toll
on my wife and my family and my own personal health,
Iam not leaving the office primarily because of personal
or family considerations. I am leaving the office because
I genuinely believe that the Synod needs the strength,
energy, leadership, and enthusiasm which a younger
and more vigorous man can give to the position.

The Synod needs a period of peace and to adapt itself
possibly to a revised structure to meet the needs and
opportunities of a new day. It needs an opportunity to
develop its beautiful youth program, its evangelism
program, its multiethnic ministries, the foreign mission
operations, the work in Canada, the development of
more parochial schools, the outreach into the untouched
areas of North America with new congregations and
new methods of ministry, an increased ministry to the
underprivileged and the handicapped, work in the
military, on campuses, in institutions, the richer nurture
of congregations, the improvement in preaching and
pastoral concern, the care of our professional church
workers, the work of health and healing among people
throughout the world, the expansion of the ministry of
the printed Word and of the audiovisual proclamation of
the Gospel, the strengthening of our great auxiliary
organizations, the strengthening of our excellent
colleges and seminaries, the strengthening of our
stewardship of life and of money, and countless other

ministries and challenges which face the church in
these exciting closing years of the 20th century.

All of these matters and many more need our care
and our attention, our prayers and our financial support.
We cannot and must not devote the years ahead to
extremism, fadism, cronyism, infighting, incessant
bickering among ourselves, an irresponsible ecumen-
ism, or hiding our light under a bushel, backbiting, and
all of those other vices of which the Scripture speaks
with which we are all too familiar from our own daily
lives. On the contrary, ““‘Whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are
just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be
any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these
things” (Phil. 4:8-9).

And thus as we look into the future, I have to say that
I think one of the major decisions to be made at this -
convention, and one which will probably cast its shadow
into the closing years of this century is the matter ofthe |
election of the President and other officers of our .
church. Far-reaching and important decisions face us at -
this convention. This calls for responsible churchman.
ship rather than cronyism.

As we look into the future also, we need to ask the *%

question, ‘““Where are we going to expand geographic-
ally?” Our Board for Missions and its staff are doing an
excellent job in pointing out and helping to open new
areas of the world for expansion and also in areas in ©
present partner churches where the work could b
greatly strengthened.

It is an acknowledged fact that in Canada, for
example, Western Canada, which has long been neg:
lected, is becoming one of the fastest-growing and
burgeoning areas of the world. Our Canadian brethren
particularly, need to give full attention to this situation “
and make plans that will not simply enhance one |
Circuit or one congregation but that will enhance the :
work of one entire nation and the spreading of God’s
kingdom in that nation.

When we look at Latin America, it does not take
anybody with a Ph.D. in Latin American affairs to
recognize that the two major nations in Latin America
are Mexico and Brazil. In Brazil there is a going
operation and a church body with tremendously fine +
leadership, with a great depth of talent, with increasing
financial resources, and with the vision to make great
things happen. I think we also need to give our brethren
in Brazil a much greater feeling of responsibility toward
those Spanish nations of that great continent which :
directly touch the nation of Brazil and to whom the
Brazilians, even the Portuguese speaking, can bring the
Gospel with much greater ease and with much less
expense than North American gringos. There is no
question that much work needs to be done in Brazil and
by the Lutheran Church of Brazil in bringing the Gospel ©
to that entire continent.

As we come close to home, Mexico is becoming 4:
world power. It now has over 67 million people and *
enormous resources. For us to sit up herein the U.S. and :