LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 72

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72

REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

Part III
Introduction
This truly was not the position I had planned on being in
this morning. I had planned on sitting right over there with
the other members of the Council of Presidents and members of the Board of Directors when Dr. Barry was to be delivering the third part of his report to the Synod. I was
planning on being the First Vice-President until the end of
the term, just as at one time I planned to be a parish pastor
during the course of my entire ministry in our Synod. But
the Lord of the church had other plans. When He gives a
direction, the only word His church can use for a response
is, “Amen.” To Him be all praise and glory and honor now
and forevermore.
With that said, I do say thanks to you, the delegates to
this, the 61st regular convention of The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod. Thank you, representatives of the congregations of the Synod, for the privilege you have given to me
to serve you, first as Vice-President and now as President of
the Synod. Thank you for the trust and the confidence you
placed in this “clay pot” and, at the same time, this child of
God. No one could really take the place of Dr. A. L. Barry.
The Lord guided our Synod in convention to choose him as
President three times. The congregations of the Synod overwhelmingly nominated him to serve yet again as President.
The Lord will now provide another leader for our Synod at
this convention, an individual he would have us have as
President. Again, many thanks to you for the honor of serving you, and to this great church, to which you and I have
the privilege of belonging.
What a special privilege blessing it is for us to be together at this, the first Synodical convention in the new
millennium! What enormous opportunities we have as a
Synod and people of God! What a magnificent heritage you
and I have as members of this Synod! Therefore, in this,
the third part of the President’s Report, I want to share
some thoughts with you on the theme:
Moving Together into the New Millennium
with Confidence, Courage, and Conviction.
I. Moving together
into the new millennium with confidence
As we set out on our journey into the new millennium,
we must do so with great confidence. Does that mean that
we begin first by patting ourselves on the back, saying,
“Look at us, world, we are such a wonderful church!” No,
our confidence is not in ourselves, but our confidence is in
our Heavenly Father. We are confident that we can come
to Him and say, “Lord, You know our hearts. You know our
minds. You know our sinfulness, both as individuals and as
a church body. Lord, like Your people of old, we have at
times followed paths that have led us to confusion and
error, to dissension and conflict. Because of our pride, Lord,
we have been tempted to take our eyes off You and Your
Word, and instead focus on our selfish desires and our own
agendas. Father in heaven, make us people who are confident in Your blessings, confident in Your forgiveness, and
confident in Your never-ending love for us, through our
Savior, Jesus Christ.”
200l Convention Proceedings

This is the way that we set out then on our journey. We
have no confidence in ourselves, but we have every confidence
in our Lord and the magnificent heritage He has given us. We
are confident in His great love by which He made us His children. We are confident in His promises. We are confident in
His Word and in His Sacraments. With great confidence
therefore we sing His praises and declare His glory with the
words of the apostle John who wrote, “How great is the love
the Father that He has lavished on us, that we should be
called children of God!” And this truly is what we are! (1 John
3:1). What a magnificent heritage!
Another aspect of our magnificent heritage is that our
Lord has permitted us to be Lutheran Christians. This too
is a wonderful blessing from Him. By the conviction of
God’s Holy Spirit we bear the name Lutheran before the
world. This is the name of the flag under which we journey
together into the new millennium. The name “Lutheran”
stands for confessing the full truth of God’s Holy Word, defending it from all errors, and proclaiming the truth to all
the world! If we care about the Gospel, and I know that we
all do, we will also care deeply about being truly Lutheran!
In the 21st century it is not easy to be a true “Lutheran,”
but we do so with confidence. Here is what Martin Luther
once said about the name “Lutheran”:
“You must say: ‘Whether Luther is a scoundrel or a saint
makes no difference to me. This doctrine is not his, but
Christ’s. Tyrants are not simply trying to bring down
Luther. They want to destroy the doctrine. . . . Here you
must not speak with words that bend with the wind, but
rather freely confess Christ, whether Luther, Sam, or
George has preached him. Let the person go, but you must
confess the doctrine!” (Werke XX, 136).
We are Christians, we are Lutheran Christians, and what
is more, we are also members of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. This also is a magnificent heritage! Some wonder if being a Missouri Synod Lutheran is still relevant. Absolutely! Definitely! Without question! I can tell you this
morning that because of the places I have been and people
with whom I have spoken that the eyes of many Lutheran
churches around the world are on us. They are watching
what we will do as a Synod. There are many smaller, struggling Lutheran churches that look to us for much-needed
theological leadership just as a younger brother or sister
looks to an older one for direction and encouragement. They
know what the heritage of Missouri is. Above all else, it is a
strong heritage of absolute confidence in the truth of God’s
Word and an unrelenting commitment to the Lutheran Confessions. This is not the time for us to make any kind of a
change and betray this confidence and trust.
In our church we are committed, first and foremost, to
retaining the pure teachings of God’s Word and to remaining united in those teachings of God’s Word. We have taken
our stand against the errors of other denominations and
even against the errors of others who claim the name
Lutheran. Why? Is it because we are stubborn, unkind, or
rude? No, and we pray that we will never do that and allow
ourselves to go down that path. We confess our convictions
boldly and assertively because we are confident of God’s
Word. It is our conviction that the Word of God, alone, is
the source of truth, not opinion polls or human speculation.