LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 351

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS 351

tian care “social ministry.” This is to emphasize that Christian care
is a part of the church’s ministry and to speak of one ministry that
includes both proclamation of the Gospel and works of love which
result from it. Such language may for some, however, obscure the
distinction between the one divinely established office of Word and
sacrament ministry and other offices of service in the church. For
others the term may wrongly suggest a detached ministry separate
from but equivalent to the office of Word and sacrament ministry.
Talk of “social ministry.” however, rightly suggests the church’s
concern not only for individual or personal deeds of love but also
for organized Christian responses to human need.

In this report we have avoided the language of “‘social ministry”
and, in light of the LCMS terminology (e.g., “Board for Human
Care Ministries”), have spoken simply of the church’s communal
Christian care. We all seek to avoid the cultural captivity that has
beset so many Christian denominations in our time and place. This
cultural captivity easily distracts congregations and church bodies
from their central task of preaching the Gospel. Furthermore, when
under the name of “social ministry” political and economic ideolo-
gies are used to judge the integrity of Christians, the body of Christ
is thereby wrongly judged and divided. In the name of “social min-
istry” the energies and resources of some church bodies have been
increasingly focused on political agendas, while the life of the
church is impoverished and malnourished. Church bodies too often
begin to sound as if the Jesus whom they worship were primarily a
new lawgiver.

Against all such cultural Christianity we affirm the following:
the church lives and is nourished by the Gospel of Christ alone; it is
first and foremost an assembly of believers gathered under the
cross around the Word and sacraments that create faith and sustain
their common life; it calls all people to share in that common life
within the body of Christ; nothing must be allowed to dislodge the
Gospel which makes Christ present from its central place in the
church’s mission.

But faith created by the Gospel is active in love, and love in
turn seeks to respond to human need. Recognizing this, the church
in its communal dimension in society cannot ignore—and indeed
has not ignored—opportunities to organize for Christian care.
Christian care that serves neighbors in need—both the brother or
sister within the Christian community and the stranger, or even the
enemy whom we are called to love and serve—is inevitably pre-
sent in the common life of Christ’s body.

The forms and structures through which the church carries out
its human care will vary from time to time and place to place, but
the task itself is imperative, not optional. Not all Christians will de-
vote themselves to this work in equal measure, but the church as
Christ’s body will seek ways and means to relieve the poor and oth-
ers in need. Among the several gifts that the Spirit gives to the body
will be those needed for the church’s work of human care. “Having
gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them:
if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he
who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he
who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who
does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness” (Rom. 12:6—-8). This service
begins first within the body of Christ, but it naturally extends to
others who are in want. “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do
good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household
of faith” (Gal. 6:10). There is a place for direct and intentional ac-
tion by the church in organizing for Christian care. It is also true
that the specific tasks that are included within the church’s orga-
nized Christian care will vary from place to place. Where others—
for example, through governmental structures or other mediating
structures—provide service, the church may wisely preserve its
resources.

There is always some danger in emphasizing strongly the
church’s organized programs of Christian care, especially when

one considers the enormous scope of human need in our world. The
life of the church may be so overwhelmed by its efforts to orga-
nize and offer care that the proclamation of the Gospel by which
the church lives and is nourished loses its centrality. Against such
danger there is no protection other than self-conscious attention to
the ministry of Word and sacraments. Yet the possibility of abuse
must not be used to deny the place for direct and intentional action
by the church in organizing for Christian care. Faith must be ac-
tive in love, and we may be confident that the Spirit will bestow
the needed gifts upon the church.

CONCLUSION

Our task in this report has been to “reflect on the role of Chris-
tian care in the overall life of the Christian community.” Detailed
reflections have been provided concerning the daily work of all be-
lievers, the central concern of the church, and the church in its com-
munal dimension in society. These reflections provide a basis for
thinking about the contrasting lines of thought concerning orga-
nized Christian care in the congregation and for discussing scenar-
ios such as the ones sketched in the beginning of this document.

The Contrasting Lines of Thought:
Response and Summary

!. One line of thought argues that the church should much
more sysiemalically organize ilself for ihe provision of
Christian care. This thinking urges
a. that Christians be much more systematically

instructed in how to show Christian care as

individuals, and

b. that the corporate life of congregations, Districts, and

the Synod be more energetically organized to provide

Christian care.
Response: This line of thought rightly reminds us that the church’s
full proclamation includes systematic instruction concerning how
Christians live out their faith in their various callings. This ap-
proach also takes into account how often the church in its commu-
nal dimension in society has opportunities to assist its members in
organized expression of Christian care. On the other hand, propo-
nents of this thinking sometimes impose on the church non-biblical
standards for measuring whether individuals are being faithful in
their various callings. And they sometimes give the impression that
their account of how the church might organize for Christian care
captures what every Christian community ought to be doing. They
fail to recognize the wide diversity possible in the ways Christians
individually and corporately express faith active in love. In extreme
forms, not usually found within the LCMS, this line of thought stri-
dently promotes political and economic ideologies rather than faith
active in love.

2. The other line of thought argues that the church acting
corporately has no specific mandate and often lacks the
competence to organize for the provision of Christian care.

This thinking suggests
a. that that the Christian care lived out by Christian
individuals in their diverse callings in home, career,
and community, is often minimized or overlooked by
people who criticize the church for failing to instruct
its members in Christian care, and
b. that pastors—called 1o proclaim the Gospel and
administer the sacraments—and other church leaders
have nol been summoned by God also to organize
institutional efforts to address social concerns.
Indeed, even if pastors have wisdom for such efforts,
they owe to lheir calling devotion “to prayer and to
the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4).
Response: This line of thought rightly reminds us that the central
work of the church is to gather people around the proclamation of
the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments. Without this

2001 Convention Workbook