LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 452

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452 ADDITIONAL THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS—OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

In the first place, there are some apostles who were elected not by
men, nor through men, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, as were
the prophets and all the apostles. In the second place, there are some
who were elected by God but through men, such as the disciples of the
apostles (the apostolic fathers), as well as all those who till the end of
the world will lawfully enter the ministry in place of the apostles as
bishops and priests. And these cannot be without the first from whom
they have their beginning (Church and Ministry, p. 180).

And again,

With these words (‘As the Father has sent Me, I also send you’
[John 20:21]) the apostles and their successors [in the ministry] are
made teachers [Herren] till the end of the world, and to them, according
to their office, there has been given such great power and authority as
Christ the Son of God, Himself had,... and yet this office neither can
nor shall reach any farther than beyond what before God has called sin
(Church and Ministry, p. 180).

Again Luther,

T hope that all believers and those who desire to be called Christians
well know that the spiritual estate (the ministry) has been established
and instituted by God . . . with the precious blood and bitter death of
His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. For out of His wounds truly flow
(as it was formerly represented in pictures) the Sacraments, which He
certainly earned dearly enough, so that we have in the whole world the
office to preach, baptize, loose, bind, administer the Sacraments, com-
fort, warn, admonish with God's Word, and whatever else belongs to
the office of a pastor. ... But I do not mean the present spiritual estate
in cloisters and convents. . .. | mean the state that has the office of
preaching and the ministry of the Word and Sacraments (Walther,
Church and Ministry, p. 180).

A final quote from Luther:

The witness concerning Christ has been ordained by Christ Himself
so that it must always remain and prevail in the church. For this pur-
pose He sent His Holy Spirit and Himself has called and given the apos-
tles and their successors—pastors, ministers, teachers, as St. Paul wit-
nesses in Eph. 4:11—13—who should be active and let the Gospel
tesound throughout the world... (Church and Ministry, p. 181).

Martin Chemnitz also verifies that the office of the ministry is
an institution that derives from the Son of God Himself,

The fact that the Son of God has instituted ihe ministry of the Word
and Sacraments also in the New Tesiament cannot be doubted. The
church has been commanded to call and appoint ministers, and to this
has been added. in the first place, ihe promise that God approves the
ministry of those who have been called by the voice of the church and
have been set apart for this office . .. In Eph. 4:11 we are told that God
grants as His gifts not only the aposiles but also the pastors and teachers
who are called mediately. ... These gracious promises concerning the
ministry we must, as it were, publicly exhibit in the church in order that
the dignity of the office might be glorified agains! the enthusiasts, that
those entrusted with the ministry may with all the greater alacrity, take
on themselves its hardships and endure its difficulties, and that men
mighi learn to regard the ministry with reverence (Cited by Walther,
Church and Ministry, pp. 183-184).

John Gerhard comments on the apostolic and Trinitarian origins
of the office of the public, pastoral ministry:

In the New Testament the Son of God Himself in His assumed
human nature administered this office. He also chose His apostles,
whom He adequately equipped with the necessary gifts for the preach-
ing of the Gospel and sent them out into the whole world. After His ses-
sion at the right hand of God, He still grants to His church pastors and
teachers in order that His saints may be perfected for the work of the
ministry. .. . The minisiry of the Gospel is also called the ministry of
the Spirit, not only because the Holy Spirit is given by the preaching of
the Gospel, but also because the Holy Spirit has instituted and still pre-
serves the ministry ... when Christ desires to entrust His apostles with
ihe minisiry, He first gave them the Holy Spirit by breathing on them so
that whatever they nghtly and saluiarily did in their capacily as minis-
ters of the church is justly ascribed to the Holy Spirit, who mightily op-
erated in and through them...” (Cited in Walther, Church and Min-
istry, pp. 185-187).

Mentzer notes,

We must hold above all things that Christ Himself instituted the
ministry of the Gospel, and from this fact its authority and dignity
are to be estimated. This institution is described in Matt. 10:1;

2001 Convention Workbook

28:10-18; Mark 3:14; 16:15; Luke 6:13; 21:4-7; John 20:21; Acts
1:8; 1:1, and often elsewhere. Therefore, the apostles and all faith-
ful teachers are called ministers of Christ who serve as ambas-
sadors in His stead and also God’s co-workers. The ministry is also
called a ministry of the Spirit (Cited by Walther, Church and Min-
istry, p. 187).

Finally, to round out these citations, from Walther’s work, we
note this quotation from the Magdeburg Centuries:

From Christ’s words and history it is manifest that both offices
[namely, the present ministry no less than that of the apostles] have their
origin in God, who moves the agencies that bear fruit and desires that
they should administer the office of the public ministry, for which God
will also graciously grant them the gifts and powers (Cited in Walther,
Church and Ministry, p. 355).

Christ’s call into His ministry through the congregation

How does the Lord place a man into the office of the ministry?
The Scriptures teach that this office is to be committed to individ-
uals through the call that Christ today extends through His church,
to which He gave the office of the ministry as a gift. The call of
Christ through the church is essential for the man who would serve
in the office of the public, pastoral ministry. St. Paul writes in Ro-
mans, “How can they preach unless they are sent?” (Rom. 10:15).
The origin of the call to the pastoral office in the call of the Apos-
tles is clearly indicated in how Paul and Barnabas “appointed el-
ders for them in each church” (Acts 14:23) and in Paul’s direction
to St. Titus to appoint elders in every town” (Titus 1:5). The order
of calling and appointing was also used in Christian freedom by
the church to create other offices intended to help in the work of
the ministry, such as the appointment of men to serve as deacons in
the Jerusalem church. We read in Acts that this was done at the
consent of the “whole assembly” (Acts 6:5). Our Lutheran Confes-
sions indicate that the pastoral office is a gift of Christ to the
church—God’s royal priesthood. Therefore, the congregation, the
local, visible assembly of the church, has the duty to call and ap-
point men to fill this divinely mandated office.

Why? Because it is to His bride, the church, that our Lord has
given all things. The Holy Christian Church, the una sancta, is di-
vinely instituted. To this church the Lord has given the keys of the
kingdom of heaven. The marks of the church are the pure preaching
of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments according to
Christ’s institution. In addition to the divine institution of the
church, our Lord has also instituted the office of the holy ministry,
the public, pastoral office of Word and Sacrament. This office is
distinct from the priestly office all believers have. This is not an
optional office, but the church is bound to it until the end of time. It
is an office of service involving the power to preach God’s Word
and administer the Sacraments. Because the holy Christian church
possesses the keys of the kingdom, it is the church’s solemn duty
and high responsibility to entrust the public exercise of these keys
to the pastor through the call. Ordination, though not a divine in-
stitution as the Sacraments are, is nonetheless an apostolic,
churchly ordinance and a public confirmation of the call. The pas-
toral office is the highest office in the church from which al] other
churchly offices flow.

In Article XIV of the Augsburg Confession we read, “Our
churches teach that nobody should preach publicly in the church or
administer the Sacraments unless he is regularly called.” Our con-
fessions indicate that the church must not only see to it that the
Gospel is preached and Sacraments administered, but also that
qualified men are placed into the public, pastoral ministry. In the
Tractate we read, “Wherever the church exists, the right to admin-
ister the Gospel also exists. Wherefore it is necessary for the church
to retain the right of calling, electing, and ordaining ministers”
(Tractate, par. 67).

Those who perform the functions of the pastoral office are to
be called and ordained to the pastoral office. By human arrange-