LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Page 56

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56

REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

Part II
Speech to the Floor Committees
Grace, mercy, and peace to each of you from Him who
was, who is, and who is to come, even Jesus Christ our
Righteousness. Amen.
I need to begin this evening by thanking each of you for
volunteering your time to be here in St. Louis over Memorial Day weekend to serve your Lord and His redeemed people as a member of a convention floor committee. The work
you are doing this weekend, and your willingness to do it,
are deeply appreciated. On behalf of our beloved Synod, I
thank you for serving in this way.
Tonight I would like to share with you the second part of
my report as synodical President. As my predecessors in office have done, I will share with you my observations on
what I believe to be some of the key issues that will come
before your committees as you do your work. Your floor
committee chairmen have already received my detailed observations on the overtures before you. I hope you find
these remarks useful as you prepare the resolutions that
will be proposed to the Synod as it gathers in convention in
July.
Obviously, the final decision in all of these matters is
yours. I am confident that you will do a very fine job for our
Synod. Now let me begin walking through the various committees and what I view as the key issues before them.

Committee 1 Missions
I would encourage you not to let the fact that there are
relatively few overtures before you give you the impression
that this is not a highly significant and important area of
concern for our Synod. In fact, our Synod is a church body
very much dedicated to mission outreach.
The need is so vast! Some 3.6 billion people in our world
today have no affiliation with the Christian faith. There are
3,700 languages in the world that do not have a copy of the
Holy Scriptures. Eleven thousand distinct cultural groups
in our world have yet to hear the Gospel preached. There
are 35 countries in the world that are absolutely closed to
organized mission work. In the lands of the former Soviet
Union, non-Christian religions and New Age spirituality is
thriving. Even here in our own country, as immigrants
move in among us, approximately 250 different languages
are spoken here.
Our Synod’s world mission program has once again been
genuinely blessed during the last three years. But there is
still much that needs to be done and more opportunities to
take advantage of. Presently our Synod has 163 career missionaries and more than 130 long-term volunteers serving
in 29 different countries. In addition, there are another 130
short-term volunteers who serve from two weeks to six
months in various locations. There is a great need for more
workers for the Lord’s harvest fields. A church of our size
could easily support double, and even triple, the number of
people we presently have around the world.
As you do your work, you will notice a few overtures
(Overtures 1-02–1-05) concerning changing the name of our
Synod. I would advise that no action be taken on these
overtures, other than to refer them back to the Synod’s

Board of Directors, which has established a process by
which a name change will be considered. It is important for
our Synod that, should a name change take place, it be proposed only after careful planning, study, and, most important, education. In my opinion, a hasty decision to change
the name of the Synod would be, in my opinion, unwise and
possibly even quite harmful to the Synod.
I would support the emphasis of Overture 1-01, reaffirming the Synod’s vision statement adopted at our last
convention. Time and again, as I move about our Synod, I
hear strong words of support from pastors and laity alike
for the clear, simple, Gospel-centered, and mission-oriented
statements of the fivefold vision statement. I believe it can
continue to be a helpful tool for our Synod as we move into
the days ahead. Therefore, a reemphasis of this fivefold vision statement by our Synod in convention would be most
appropriate.

Committee 2 Congregational Services
Your committee will be dealing with many overtures
concerning worship and liturgy. Needless to say, this issue
is one of the most pressing concerns before our church body.
Across the Synod, there are many congregations wrestling
with how best to conduct their worship services. There are
significant pressures on our congregations to water down
and compromise good, solid Lutheran doctrine and practice
when it comes to worship issues. On the other hand, we
have some congregations that conduct their worship services for no other reason than is reflected in the comment,
“we have always done it this way.” This too is an unhealthy
trend in our Synod.
Christ-centered, Word-and-Sacrament-focused, and
Gospel-oriented worship has been the hallmark of
Lutheran worship down through the centuries. Our Synod
recognizes the wisdom of making exclusive use “of doctrinally pure agenda, hymnbooks and catechisms” both in our
congregations and in our schools (see Constitution, Art. VI.
4). I encourage your committee to provide good leadership
for our Synod on this important issue.
Another key emphasis that I see facing your committee
is the whole matter of teaching the faith, that is, catechesis. I continually hear people saying, “Yes, this is a very
pressing issue. Teaching the faith is not something we have
done as well as we should have over the past several
decades.” High-quality catechesis is a key need in our
Synod. Teaching our new members—and continually
reteaching our existing members—what it means to be a
Lutheran Christian is one of our most exciting opportunities and most important challenges.
Also before your committee are overtures concerning the
issue of recognized service organizations (Overtures 2-60–263). This too is a significant issue. The Synod Bylaws are
clear that RSOs are to “respect and ... not act contrary to
the doctrine and practice of the Synod.” Overtures 2-61 and
2-62 point out how, if an RSO is a joint LCMS/ELCA effort,
this must involve cooperation only in externals, that is,
work in matters not touching on Word and Sacrament issues.
I would, therefore, favor the proposal that the synodical
President appoint a special task force to review the status