LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 56

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56

REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

and all that He means for us. Our Lord told us that by
continuing in His Word we are truly His disciples (John
8:31–32).
This is precisely why our Synod accepts without reservation the Old and New Testament Scriptures as the written Word of God and the only rule and norm of our faith
and practice. Because we do, we also accept without reservation the confessional books of the Lutheran church,
namely, those documents gathered together into the Book
of Concord of 1580. Concord means “harmony.” It is this
God-given doctrinal harmony, or unity, that marks our
Synod as a genuine and authentic Lutheran church.
United in the truths of God’s Holy Word, we join hands
in the great mission task our Lord has given to us.
Moving Together into a New Millennium … Strengthening
and Supporting One Another to Give Bold Witness

As we move together into a new millennium, we work
to support and encourage one another to give witness to
our faith—bold witness. Witness that comes not from fear,
but that is born of faith. Witness that is not given grudgingly or out of a sense of obligation to some rules or law,
but joyful witness to the alone-saving Lord and Savior
Jesus. Our witness is bold because of the great and glorious work of our saving Lord, Jesus. I will be elaborating
further on this in the next section, but it is this bold witness that the Synod’s “Tell the Good News about Jesus”
effort is all about.
It is this bold witness that we share in our homes, with
families, with friends, with neighbors. It is this bold witness that is the purpose of our congregations. Our pastors
give bold witness to the faith in their preaching and teaching and leading. Our teachers give bold witness in the
classrooms of our schools. This bold witness is the reason
why congregations and schools exist. It is this bold witness to the faith that is the foundation of all that the
Synod does. It must be. May it ever be!
Our bold witness is not telling about ourselves, our accomplishments, our achievements, our feelings, or our perspectives or attitudes. No, we bear bold witness by telling
the Good News that in Christ, God was reconciling the
world to Himself, not counting our trespasses against us
(2 Cor. 5:19). It is this message of reconciliation that our
Lord has entrusted to the church. It is the bold witness
that Jesus Christ, and Him alone, is the Savior of the
world, the only way, the only truth, and the only life. The
only name given under heaven by which we must be
saved. There is no other way to the Father but through
Him. It is the bold witness that every human being alive
on this planet needs to hear. Oh, how desperately needed
is this glorious Good News, this Gospel, in our world
today. What a joy to proclaim that message that has been
the hallmark of the Christian church since its very first
days. In Acts 10:31 we have that bold witness put so
clearly and powerfully: “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him
receives forgiveness of sins.”
Committed to, and united in, the truths of God’s Word,
joined together and supporting one another for the purpose of bold witness, we then move forward together, com200l Convention Proceedings

mitted to providing competent and well-trained church
workers for our Synod.
Moving Together into a New Millennium … Recruiting
and Training Pastors and Other Church Workers

Our Lord’s Word speaks of the need for those who
preach and serve in Romans 10:13–15:
Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be
saved. How then shall they call upon Him in whom they
have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him
whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are
sent?
Indeed, how shall they preach unless they are sent?
And how shall they be sent if we do not join together to
provide the training and support they need? This too is
one of our chief commitments as we move together into a
new millennium: we must continue to emphasize the need
to recruit young men to serve in the congregations of our
Synod as pastors, to devote themselves to lifelong careers
of service in this very special way. We need many men and
women to serve as teachers in our schools: preschools, elementary schools, high schools, and colleges and universities. Through such teaching these dedicated servants support the ministry of the Word. Our schools have been and
continue to be such a tremendous blessing to our Synod
and such an important and vital opportunity for outreach
into the community.
I am greatly concerned by the lack of adequate subsidy
our colleges, universities, and seminaries are receiving
from the unrestricted dollars given to our Synod. I am concerned about how we go about managing those dollars and
the way in which we have chosen to disburse those dollars. We can never afford to simply let this unrestricted
support for our schools slip away. Even as our congregations can never simply permit their schools to become “private schools” supported only by the tuition dollars they receive, so also our Synod cannot and must not permit our
colleges, universities, and seminaries simply to become
private institutions of higher learning or theological education. We already notice disturbing trends in this direction, and we must put a halt to it and reclaim the importance of higher education in our Synod and the importance
of maintaining distinctly Lutheran—Missouri Synod
Lutheran—institutions of higher learning.
Maintaining seminaries and universities for the training of future pastors and other church workers is one of
our highest priorities and must remain as a very high priority in this church body. The “For the Sake of the
Church” campaign is an important effort to support and
sustain the primary purpose of our colleges and universities: the preparation of church workers for service in the
congregations and classrooms of our Synod.
Together we can and must continue to do what none of
us can do alone: provide excellence in education for our
young people, particularly for those who will be serving as
our pastors and teachers and other church workers as we
move together into a new millennium.