LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 206

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206 THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

¢“A church that truly grieves for the lost with the passion of Christ
Himself will certainly endeavor to use any and all appropriate tech-
niques, statistical studies, methods of rhetorical persuasion, and
means of promoting institutional health and harmony in order to bring
as many lost sinners as possible into contact with God’s saving means
of grace” (p. 6).

¢ “fIt] is also important to recognize that such reason-based “principles,
prescriptions, programs, and human actions” can often be used in
ways that are not “opposed to” the work of the Holy Spint through
the means of grace, but rather serve the Gospel and the advancement
of Christ’s kingdom (see, e.g., ECG, 40-41; SG, pp. 55-70)” (p. 10).

6. The CTCR is wrong to interpret this passage of Scripture (Acts
17:10-12) as suggesting that the Bereans were “especially re-
ceptive” to God’s Word. Luther wrote:

What are those people in Acts 17 doing, who after hearing
Paul were reading the Scriptures day and night to see if these
things were so? Do not all these things prove that the apostles,
like Christ Himself, point us to the Scriptures as the very clear-
est witnesses to what they themselves say? What right have we,
then, to make them obscure? (Luther's Works 33:93)

And again:

They at Thessalonica examined the Scriptures daily to see
if these things were so that Paul was teaching. The ground and
proof of the New Testament is surely not to be despised, and
therefore the Old Testament is to be highly regarded. And what
is the New Testament but a public preaching and proclamation
of Christ, set forth through the sayings of the Old Testament and
fulfilled through Christ? (LW 35:236)

In other words, this passage testifies not to the Bereans’ “re-
ceptivity” but to their exercise of the “sola Scriptura” principle
restored in the Reformation. They were “more noble” than the
Thessalonians only because they tested Paul’s preaching by
scrutinizing Scripture.

7. CPH recently (2002) published an excellent book Testing the
Claims of Church Growth by LCMS Pastor Rodney E.
Zwonitzer.

8. George Barna, Boiling Point: It Only Takes One Degree—Mon-
itoring Cultural Shifts in the 21st Century (Ventura, Calif.:
Regal Books, 2001), p. 236.

9. William Chadwick, Stealing Sheep: The Church’s Hidden Prob-
lem with Transfer Growth (Downers Grove Ill.: InterVarsity
Press, 2001), p. 1.

10. C. F. W. Walther, Essays for the Church: Vol. 2, 1877-1886
(St. Louis: CPH, 1992), p. 19.

Appendix

As a matter of record, the Synod authorized the Church Growth
Study Committee and established its foundational points of depar-
ture when it adopted this resolution. Note how the “WHEREAS”
clauses (many derived from a CTCR report) themselves direct po-
tent and trenchant criticism toward Church Growth methods as
generally conceived and practiced.

1995 Res. 3-09
~ “To Address the Church Growth Movement”

Overtures 3-104-106 (CW, pp. 182-83)

WHEREAS, Holy Scripture teaches, “So then faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). And
again, our God says: “As rain and snow come down from heaven ...
so will My word be that I speak. It will not return to Me empty but
it will accomplish what I want and achieve what I had in mind” (Is.
55:10-11). And again, “He saved us, not because of any righteous
works which we have done, but because of His mercy. He saved
us by the washing in which the Holy Spirit gives us a new birth
and a new life” (Titus 3:5). And of the Holy Supper our Lord Jesus
says concerning His own body and blood, “Take, eat, ... My body
given for you. ... Drink ... My blood, poured out for you for the for-
giveness of sins” (Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20;
1 Cor. 11:23-25); and

WHEREAS, Martin Luther, therefore, taught us that there is only
one way in which people are both brought to faith in Christ and
caused to grow in this faith, namely: “the Holy Spirit has called me
by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept
me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens,
and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth” (SC II 6). And,
also in the Augsburg Confession we confess: “In order to obtain
such faith God instituted the office of the ministry [German: das
Predigtamt], that is, provided the Gospel and the Sacraments.
Through these, as through means, He gives the Holy Spirit, who
works faith, when and where He pleases, in those who hear the
Gospel” (V 1, emphasis added); and

WHEREAS, Some Church Growth materials and practices are a
denial of the efficacy of the means of grace, e.g., reliance upon
principles, programs, processes, and contemporary social and be-
havioral sciences to produce numerical growth in the church (1987
CTCR report Evangelism and Church Growth, pp. 40-42); and

WHEREAS, Some Church Growth materials and practices sug-
gest that numerical growth in the church depends upon the proper
discovery, development, and employment of “spiritual gifts”
(Evangelism and Church Growth, pp. 43-44); and

WHEREAS, In much of Church Growth materials, as well as in
actual practice, there is a confusion of the Priesthood of All Be-
lievers with the Office of the Holy Ministry, e.g., the pastor as man-
ager and organizer, a misunderstanding of the Call, and a misun-
derstanding of Christian vocation (Evangelism and Church
Growth, pp. 42-43); and

WHEREAS, The Church Growth Movement often promotes wor-
ship forms and practices that focus the worshiper on his feelings
and experiences as evidence of God’s grace rather than on the ob-
jective and gracious work of God delivering His forgiveness of sins
for Christ’s sake through Word and Sacrament, as found, for ex-
ample, in the historic liturgy of the Lutheran church (Evangelism
and Church Growth, pp. 41-42); therefore be it

Resolved, That Circuit and District pastoral conferences, Dis-
trict staffs, and congregations of the Synod be urged to study the
CTCR report Evangelism and Church Growth, the report from the
Standing Committee for Pastoral Ministry titled Toward a Theo-
logical Basis: Understanding and Use of Church Growth Princi-
ples in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, as well as other re-
sources that critically examine the Church Growth Movement, e.g.,
“Church Growth” as Mission Paradigm: A Lutheran Assessment
by Kurt Marquart, and Dining with the Devil: The Megachurch
Movement Flirts with Modernity by Os Guinness; and be it further

Resolved, That congregations, Districts, and entities of the
Synod that are using Church Growth materials and practices ex-
amine them carefully and use them with proper discernment, and
be it further

Resolved, That The Lutheran Witness, Reporter, and other pub-
lications of the Synod report on the errors in some Church Growth
materials and practices and also in fairness show how some mate-
rials and practices may be used in the service of the Gospel and the
advancement of the Kingdom; and be it further

Resolved, That the President of the Synod consider appointing a
committee to study and address how the truth of the Scriptures and
the Lutheran Confessions might be clearly proclaimed in light of
the Church Growth Movement and the influences of American cul-
ture and pluralism; and be it finally

Resolved, That the findings of this committee, if appointed, be
shared with all of the Synod as soon as possible.
and

WuereaS, The CTCR has not yet forwarded that Opinion for
publication in the Convention Workbook, and

WHEREAS, Convention delegates along with others in our Synod
should have the opportunity to read and consider the points made in
this Opinion in order to draw their own conclusions; therefore be it

Resolved, That those pastors, and laity of The Lutheran
Church-—-Missouri Synod who read the CTCR’s Review of For the
Sake of Christ’s Commission also be reminded to give careful con-
sideration to the Minority Opinion submitted by Mr. Paul Nus.

Grace Lutheran Church
Haven, Wisconsin