LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1995, Page 59

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

Part |

Introduction

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from Him who is, who
was, and who is to come, even Jesus Christ our righteous-
ness.

I consider it a great privilege to present the first part of
my report to The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. The
second part of my report will be shared with the Synod as it
gathers i in convention this summer in St. Louis. I encourage
you to join me in a prayer to our good and gracious God
that He would bless our Synod richly as we once more find
ourselves gathering together to make important decisions
that will guide the work of our Synod over the next three
years. —

In‘the first part of 1 my report, I want to accomplish two
things. First, I want to set before our Synod what I believe
to-be a very important understanding of ourselves as we
move into the future. Simply put, it is this: We are a family.
I will comment on various aspects of this important reality.
Second, I want to share with you my activities within this
family of believers we know as The Lutheran ¢ Church—Mis-
souri Synod.

I. We Are a Family

The Holy Scriptures use many word pictures to describe
the people of God. The image I want to use as I present this
first part of my report is that of the family. We need to un-
derstand very clearly that we are a family, a very special
family.

As we take a look at our culture, we notice more and
more often a tendency toward individualism, putting “me,
myself, and I” before anything else. The self-centeredness of
our culture cannot help but impact the church. We need
more than ever to recover the scriptural vision of the
church as the family of God. We are family in three very
special ways.

First, and most important, we are members of the family
which we confess in the Creed when we say, “I believe in
one holy Christian, and apostolic church.” In Galatians, St.
Paul writes about the “household of faith” (Gal. 6:10). This
is a beautiful truth revealed'in God’s Word. We are mem-
bers of God’s family—the holy Christian church. Martin
Luther wrote in his Large Catechism, “The Holy Spirit ef-
fects our sanctification through the following: the commu-
nion of saints or Christian church, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. In
other words, He first leads us into His holy community,
placing us into the bosom of the church, where He preaches
to us and brings us to Christ” (Tappert, p. 415). Luther de-
scribes our spiritual household, the church, in this way, “It
- is the mother that begets and bears every Christian
through the Word of God” (Tappert, p. 416).

Second, we are.members of the family of Christian be-
lievers called Lutherans. Why is it that we should count it a

59

special blessing from. the Lord to be called Lutheran? We
call ourselves Lutheran and consider it a special blessing
to be in the Lutheran family because, as C. F. W. Walther
once wrote, “We allow ourselves to be called Lutherans not
because we want this name to separate us from other or-
thodox believers ... using the name Lutheran indicates
nothing else than that we are Christians who believe that
the doctrine which was brought to light in these last times
from God’s Word through Luther, is the true doctrine.” And
so we count it a special blessing to be numbered among the
family of believers called Lutheran. But there is another
aspect of our family that we need to recognize.

Third, we are members of the family called The
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. And it is as members
of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod that we gather
in convention this summer. It is as members of The
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod that we say before the
world, “This we believe, teach, confess, and practice.” With
love and great concern for all, we wish as a synodical family
to witness to what we believe about God’s Word and about
our commitment to that pure Word of God explained cor-.
rectly in the Lutheran Confessions, the Book of Concord.
And so, we are members of this special family called The
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

Our synodical family can trace its origin back to the im-
migration of Germans from the territory of Saxony, Ger-
many, in the mid-1800s. But it was not for ethnic reasons
that these Germans came to America. Far from it. These
German Lutherans came to America in order to confess the
Christian faith in accord with the Scriptures and the
Lutheran Confessions. They desired to maintain and pre-

serve a strong confessional ‘Lutheran theology and practice, ©
not watered down by rationalism or pietism or any other

“ism” of their time. They were a family of Lutherans. that

joined together to preserve'a strong confessional Lutheran _
theology and to share the Gospel with those around them |

who had not yet come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
These are the two great strengths of our synodical fam-
ily: a commitment to the pure teachings of the Word of God

and an equal commitment to reaching -out with the Word

of God. These two factors, pure confession and strong out-
reach, are what will keep our Synod strong, vibrant, and
healthy in the years ahead. Let us take a closer look at this
twofold commitment of our synodical family.

Down through the years our Synod has been known as a

church body strongly committed to confessing the truth of
God’s Word. We are known for a strong commitment to
pure doctrine and proper teaching of God’s Word. We have
been known for an insistence on agreement in the teach-
ings of the Bible before we can practice church fellowship
with others. I do not believe we fully realize the tremen-
dous blessing it is for us to remain solidly committed to the
truth of God’s Word as that truth is explained in the