LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 97

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CONVENTION ESSAYS AND REACTIONS
maybe sometimes in our heart of hearts we just don’t believe
anymore that false teaching can really be so dangerous.
But when truth is lost, souls are lost.3 Any error, even
among our sincere brothers and sisters in Christ, works
against fulfilling the Great Commission. The Great Commission, “Telling the Good News about Jesus,” requires
“teaching them to observe all things.”

II.
That is precisely what our Synod’s fellowship practice is
designed to do. Our fellowship practice is vital to fulfilling
the Great Commission because it serves—and in fact is
necessary—to “teach all things.” Let’s talk first about how
that’s true for the unbeliever we hope to evangelize. Then
we’ll see how it’s also true for our own members doing the
evangelizing.
At first blush, this may not seem true at all. We all want
to be out there, sharing Christ, seizing every opportunity
to proclaim the Gospel to as wide an audience as possible.
You get an invitation to preach at a high school baccalaureate; you want to do it. The community has a Thanksgiving service; you want to participate. A son of your congregation is getting married in his fiancée’s church; you want
to get the young couple off on the right foot with God’s
Word and, even more, preach Christ crucified to their
friends who may not be in church another day in their lives.
Your own church is packed on Friendship Sunday or Confirmation Day, and you don’t really want to burst the bubble by having to say no about the Communion table. These
are all opportunities, it would seem, to do precisely what
we need to do, “teach them.” But there’s that troublesome
fellowship practice of ours getting in the way.
The truth is, it doesn’t always get in the way as much as
we think. Our understanding of unionism is caricatured
when people suggest we can’t do any of the things I just mentioned. Not only should we always be eager to cooperate with
others in externals, activities in which the sacred, God’s
Word and Sacraments, are not involved.4 But, what’s more,
there are many sacred activities outside our church walls in
which, for example, an LCMS pastor as the sole functionary
can freely proclaim the Gospel without compromise.
A couple of months ago, we had a terrible tragedy in our
seminary family. The teenage son of one of our students
was killed in an automobile accident while picking up his
sister—right out in front of her middle school, as dozens of
her friends watched. I welcomed the invitation to preach
for the memorial service in chapel at the sem, but I was
tremendously surprised and even more pleased to be invited by the young man’s public high school to preach for a
memorial service there the same afternoon. I asked some
questions, was assured there would be no clergy of other
denominations involved, and went for it. A fabulous opportunity to declare to a thousand-plus young people the faith
in which this young saint had died! Afterward, the principal said to me, “You never thought you’d be able to do that
in a public school, did you?” Then he whispered in my ear,
“It’ll just be our little secret.” Oops. I guess it’s out.
Not only, though, is our fellowship practice not the hindrance we may think. More importantly, our understand-

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ing of fellowship, properly practiced, actually enhances our
teaching all things. Yes, it’s even necessary.
Perhaps you’d agree: for me as a pastor, evangelism was
not primarily Friendship Sundays and flashy ads and hot
programs that got people in the door. For the most part, it
wasn’t even those special settings for proclamation. An
awful lot of evangelism was sitting down in the homes,
talking, asking and answering questions. Teaching—adult
instruction class two hours a week for nearly four months,
teaching about the Trinity and creation, the Ten Commandments, the redeeming work of the Son, the Holy
Spirit, the sacraments, prayer, liturgy. Then there was
Baptism or confirmation. That was evangelism. Teaching
them to observe all things.
As many times as I did that, like 32 classes in 15 years,
I would often have loved to shorten the process. But I
wanted my adult converts to take very seriously the Third
Commandment and justification and their prayer life. I was
trying to convey that this mattered. It wasn’t optional.
Remember, I believed all of this was important to the salvation of their souls. You didn’t teach the Third Commandment and then say, “But, of course, worship isn’t really that
big a deal. You can still get to heaven without it.”
Now, then, a new visitor comes to worship and presents
himself for Communion. He’s Baptist or Methodist or
ELCA. If, knowingly, I let him commune, how will I answer
my adult class members this week when they ask, “What
do Baptists or Methodists or ELCA Lutherans believe?
Does infant Baptism really matter? How about the real
presence? Is homosexuality still wrong? Oh, and how about
the Third Commandment and justification and prayer?”
This is just one example. But in your church, like mine,
it’s an example that comes up week after week after week.
The same could be said if I stand with pastors of those
other denominations for a joint wedding or funeral or Reformation festival. In order to teach all things to the unbelievers we hope to evangelize, it’s necessary that we continue and follow our Synod’s practice of fellowship.
By the way, you notice that I said “unbelievers.” The waters become very muddied if we forget we’re trying to win
unbelievers for Christ. See, we’re often afraid that our fellowship practices will offend people. But whom would we
offend? And with whom might we commune and lead worship? Very few among us would consider communing or
leading worship with open unbelievers. The issue is
whether we admit other Christians to our altars and pulpits. They’re the ones some might bend the policy to avoid
offending. But what we’ve just said is that they’re already
Christians. They’re not the souls we’re hoping to win for
Christ. We don’t want to confuse LCMS evangelism with
simply increasing our numbers at the expense of another
Christian church’s. Of course, we always welcome Christians who come to us from other denominations, but for
only one reason. Not for numbers, but that they may now
share in the pure preaching of the Gospel and administration of the sacraments, “all things Christ commanded.”
That is, if we believe we have the pure preaching and sacraments, and if we believe false teaching matters. And if we
do, then we surely cannot give those inquirers from other
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