LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 451

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ADDITIONAL THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS-——OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT 45]

Pastor and Congregation

A. L. Barry
President, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Introduction

Grace, mercy and peace to you from Him who was, who is and
who is to come, even Jesus Christ our righteousness. !

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has a long history of
interest in relationship between the doctrine of the public pastoral
ministry and the doctrine of the royal priesthood of believers. Our
Synod has been especially concerned about these two doctrines as
they relate to the work of the local congregation. We need to be
honest enough to admit that our Synod has experienced tension
points on these issues. Therefore, in this essay I would like to re-
view the doctrine of the public, pastoral ministry with a special em-
phasis on the relationship of the pastor to his congregation. I also
want discuss the duties, obligations and responsibilities of the
priesthood of all believers, both to the pastor and to their Lord. I
will present my remarks under four main points:

I. The Nature and Authority of the Pastoral Office
I]. The Pastor’s Care for Christ’s People
II. The Royal Priesthood’s Relationship to the Pastoral Office
IV. The Royal Priesthood’s Duties and Opportunities

It is my intention in this study to address both pastors and laity,
so throughout this paper at times the comments are geared specifi-
cally for pastors and at other times intended only for the laity.

I. The Nature and Authority of the Pastoral Office

Let us review the doctrine of the public, pastoral ministry with a
focus on its nature and authority. While we could spend a consid-
erable amount of time on the history of this doctrine, analyzing the
way it was handled in the days of Luther, and then during the age
of Lutheran orthodoxy, and finally down through our own Missouri
Synod’s history, we really do not have the space in this essay to do
this. It would also be good, of course, to spend more time on the
doctrine as it is explained in excellent resources such as Luther’s
works, Chemnitz’ excellent doctrinal works, Pieper’s Christian
Dogmatics, and so forth. What we will do briefly is discuss the
doctrine from the standpoint of the Scriptures, with a specific look
at the fact that the pastoral office is the divinely established office
of ministry in the church, established by Christ Himself, flowing
from Christ’s call of the Apostles.

The Apostolic office of the public, pastoral ministry

Christ our Lord gave this office to His church as a gift, and what
a tremendous blessing this gift is! Through His Apostle, St. Paul,
our Lord has commanded that “reliable men” be appointed in every
congregation “who will . . . be qualified to teach others” (1 Tim.
2:2). The office of the public, pastoral ministry was established by
Christ precisely for the sake of distributing the forgiveness of sins
that was won for the entire world by our Lord Jesus Christ. In-
cluded among the texts of Holy Scripture that teach us Christ has
established this pastoral office in His church is John 20:21-23, in
which our Lord said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the
sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are
retained.” Acts 20:28 also indicates the divine origin of this office
in the church: “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, of
which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the
church of God.” The reason it is necessary to stress the divine ori-
gin of the public, pastoral ministry today is because some are
tempted to view it as litthe more than a job in which an employer
contracts for services of an employee.

We read in 2 Cor. 5:20, “We are therefore Christ’s ambas-
sadors, as though God were making his appeal through us” and in

the same chapter, verse 19, “God was reconciling the world to him-
self in Christ... and he has committed to us the message of recon-
ciliation” and in 2 Cor. 3:6 we read, “He has made us competent as
ministers of a new covenant. ...”” The divine origin of the office of
pastor is clearly indicated in Eph. 4:11-12 where the Apostle
writes, “It was He [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to
be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and
teachers” (Ephesians 4:1 ]—12).? Some view the pastoral office as
something that arises out of the congregation’s desire for good
order. The office of the pastor does not have its origin in the deci-
sion or desire of the local congregation, but in the mandate and will
of the Holy Trinity, and by the call of the Apostles by our Lord
Jesus Christ.

The Apostolic ministry is continued today through the ministry
of our pastors, who shepherd the flock of God. We will say more of
how the mandate and will of Almighty God is accomplished
through the congregation’s call to the office, but for now it is im-
portant to underscore the divine origin of the pastoral office. This is
the clear and consistent position of the Lutheran church from the
time of Luther and the Reformation, through the years of Lutheran
orthodoxy, down to our own history in The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod. The pastoral office is not simply a pragmatic
human response to a need for leadership on the part of a group of
Christians who gather themselves together and then, merely for the
sake of good order, appoint one from among them to “do the min-
istry.” While it is true that the ministry is necessary for practical
reasons, it is also true that the ministry has its origin not in the will
of men, but in the will of God for His church. It is not an office
“greater” than the royal priesthood, it is the God-ordained office of
serving the royal priesthood with God’s Word and Sacrament.

Article V of the Augsburg Confession states, “To obtain such
faith, God instituted the preaching office to give Gospel and Sacra-
ments. Through these, as through means, he gives the Holy Spirit.
who works faith, when and where He pleases, in those who hear
the Gospel” (Tappert, p. 31). While the Augsburg Confession in
Article V is not discussing the office of the ministry as concretely
as it is discussed in AC XIV, it surely does have in mind the ac-
tual office of preaching. AC V emphasizes the means the Holy
Spirit uses to create faith: the Word and Sacraments—the preach-
ing and administration of the Sacraments. This preaching and ad-
ministration of the Sacraments does not happen in the abstract, nor
is it merely a set of disembodied functions in the church.

AC XIV speaks more specifically of the concrete office of the
ministry, pointing out that nobody is to carry out publicly the func-
tions of the ministry unless he has been regularly called to this of-
fice. Article XX VIII of the Augsburg Confession states:

Our teachers assert Ihat according 10 the Gospel the power of keys
or the power of bishops is a power and command of God 1o preach the
Gospel, 10 forgive and retain sins, and to administer and disiribute the
Sacraments. For Christ sent out the apostles with this command, ‘As
the Father has sent me, even so | send you...’ John 20). This power
of keys or of bishops is used and exercised only by teaching and preach-
ing the Word of God and by administering the Sacraments to many per-
sons or lo individuals, depending on one’s calling (Tappert, p. 83-84).
Note particularly the German translation of the Tractate on the

Power and Primacy of the Pope which states, “. . . the office of the
ministry proceeds from the general call of the apostles...”
(Triglotta, p. 507).. It is interesting to note that the first article in the
very first issue of Leltre und Wehre was an article titled The Doc-
trine of the Holy Preaching Office. On the first page is this state-
ment: “The public preaching office in the Church of God, until the
day of judgment, is a divine institution and is not essentially dif-
ferent from the holy office of the Apostles.”

Further quotations which establish the fact that the pastoral of-
fice finds its origins in Christ and the call of the apostles are found
in Walther’s theses on the ministry. From a sermon by Luther for
St. Anthony's day we read:

2001 Convention Workbook