LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Page 57

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REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT
of all current RSOs to make sure that this criterion is being
respected and maintained. (I do not believe it would be
practical to assign the President’s Office the task of initial
granting and renewing of RSO status, a function that now
is carried out by four of our Synod’s boards and their staffs,
that is, Missions, Higher Education, Human Care, and
Congregational Services).
Your committee also has before it an overture concerning the Concordia Historical Institute. The CHI is one of
our Synod’s hidden blessings. I do not believe we always
recognize it as such. We do need to give adequate support to
the Institute so that it can continue to carry out its important work of preserving our Synod’s history.
Finally, since evangelism outreach is a programmatic
emphasis assigned by our Synod to Congregational Services, I would hope that your floor committee could also
give attention to the 3/10 evangelism outreach that I will
propose to our Synod in part 3 of my report. I am sharing
with the members of your committee additional information about this emphasis and would welcome the opportunity to come to your committee meeting and discuss it with
you briefly, describing what I will suggest at the convention. As far as that goes, I need to make it clear that I am
willing to visit with any of our floor committees at any point
during this weekend.

Committee 3 Theology
and Church Relations
To me it is a sign of a healthy church when so many
overtures are received regarding the critical issues of theology and church relations. As I review the overtures before your committee, I would see the following issues as
particularly important.
First, the matter of fellowship with the Ingrian Lutheran Church. Before your committee is an overture regarding fellowship with them. I would see this as one of the
highlights of our 1998 convention and would encourage you
to act favorably on this overture.
Another key issue is the subject of close Communion. In
general, it is clear to me that we as a church body once
again need to affirm this practice—something we have continued to do now for nearly 40 years by previous convention action. The many overtures before you on this subject
(Overtures 3-02–3-31) all speak to various concerns in regard to altar fellowship and related issues. There are three
things that need to be said.
First, at our last convention, the Synod adopted a magnificent resolution concerning close(d) Communion, Res. 308. I believe this resolution needs once again to be affirmed.
Your committee will find excellent materials for its work in
the overtures you have on this issue.
Second, there are a number of overtures before you commenting on a resolution adopted by our Florida-Georgia
District which is clearly at odds with the position of our
church body. The resolution quotes approvingly from a document titled, “A Declaration of Eucharistic Understanding
and Practice.” The resolution that the District adopted departs from the position of our church body. It will be very
important for our Synod at its 1998 convention to state fraternally and clearly that the Florida-Georgia District’s de-

57

cision in this matter is not in keeping with the biblical and
confessional position of our Synod, and is, therefore, null
and void.
Another very significant issue before your committee is
the whole subject of the status of the ELCA in light of its
decision to enter into church fellowship with three Reformed church bodies: the United Church of Christ, the Reformed Church in America, and the Presbyterian Church
USA. I believe it will be important and necessary for our
Synod to speak very clearly in convention about these developments. We need to do so, first, for the important reason that we are called by our Lord to witness faithfully to
the truth. But secondly, we also need to do so for the sake of
those people within our own Synod who are confused and
troubled by the ELCA’s decisions.
I favor a number of the proposals that are found in the
overtures concerning the ELCA (Overtures 3-37–3-47). We
do need to strengthen our own confessional identity and
practice and that of our sister churches. We also need to express our Synod’s willingness to continue theological discussions with the ELCA as an important opportunity to
bear witness to our convictions. We need to redouble our efforts to make sure that any work we are doing with the
ELCA is truly only work in matters external to the Word
and Sacraments; efforts that include feeding the hungry,
caring for the poor, helping refugees, etc. While expressing
our deep sadness and disagreement with the ELCA, we
must keep in mind the fact that many of our own members
have family and friends who belong to the ELCA. They
need to be encouraged in gently bearing witness to their
convictions.
Your committee will have before it a number of overtures regarding the service of women in various capacities
in our congregations. I believe it will be wise to encourage
the CTCR to carry out the assignment it received at the last
convention, namely, to finish their work on their study of
the service of women in congregational offices. I think it
best to permit them to complete their assignment, sharing
their completed study with the church well in advance of
the 2001 convention.
The matter of women serving as pastors is the subject
of a number of overtures as well (Overtures 3-63–3-67). I
believe it is necessary for our Synod to once more go on
record as a church body clearly declaring that it is contrary
to Holy Scripture for a church to call and ordain women to
serve the church as pastors. A simple declaration like the
one found in Overture 3-65 will be an important statement
for our Synod to make at this convention.
I believe your committee also needs to propose some sort
of final resolution to the matter of the Renewal in Missouri
movement. As I noted in the first part of my report to the
Synod, I believe it is time for our Synod to address this situation and bring it to a God-pleasing resolution for the sake
of unity in doctrine and practice among us. Overtures 7-98
and 7-99 offer helpful thoughts your committee might use
as resources in establishing the criteria for decisive and loving action in the days ahead. I would only note that the
synodical President should not be asked to directly supervise individual members of the Synod.