LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 408

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408 THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

the course of nature ... are full of evil lust and inclinations from
their mothers’ wombs and are unable by nature to have true fear of
God and true faith in God” (AC II 1). Scripture and the Lutheran
Confessions “tell it like it is.” They also testify soberly to the dread-
ful consequences of bondage to sin and Satan: spiritual, physical,
and eternal death. The message of a Savior from sin makes no
sense and can have no impact apart from the message that we are
sinners, totally incapable of helping or saving ourselves.

As the church carries out God’s mission, therefore, it needs to
guard against any and all temptations or tendencies to “soften” or
“tone down” the scriptural message of God’s law for fear of of-
fending modern sensibilities or in hope of attracting people with a
self-centered message of “affirmation” that avoids God’s uncom-
promising condemnation of sin. FSCC rightly confesses that “all
have sinned and are equally in need of salvation,” and that “God
has given the church a unique and different message, that the sinful
world cannot appreciate” (443). It rightly warns against shaping the
church’s mission mainly “‘by its attractiveness and friendliness to
unbelievers, thus pandering to the old Adam” (443).

At the same time, the very seriousness and helplessness of hu-
mankind’s sinful condition should motivate the church—con-
strained by the love of Christ himself (2 Cor. 5:14}—to make use of
all appropriate strategies and methods for communicating God’s
saving Gospel with a lost and dying world. Even as they proclaim
God’s Law to those outside the church, Christian pastors and con-
gregations also need to be apply God’s Law to themselves. They
need to confess, humbly and honestly, their all-too-frequent lack
of love and concern for the lost—which may manifest itself in such
“commonplace” but critical sins as a lack of “friendliness to unbe-
lievers” and a lack of sensitivity to the real struggles and needs of
those outside the church. It is certainly true that “the decisive crite-
ria for the church’s mission” must never become “techniques of
commercial marketing, rhetorical persuasion, statistical success, or
external appearances of happiness or harmony” (FSCC, 443). But a
church that truly grieves for the lost with the passion of Christ him-
self 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 sav-
ing means of grace.

God’s Mission Centers in Jesus Christ

Lutheran theology is a “theology of the cross.” It recognizes and
confesses that, according to Scripture, the incarnation, humiliation,
suffering and death of Jesus are—despite all outward appear-
ances—“the power of God for the salvation of everyone who be-
lieves” (Rom. 1:16). By living a perfect life, Jesus fulfilled all the
demands of God’s Law. By suffering and dying in our place on the
cross, Jesus atoned for the sin of the whole world. By rising from
the dead, he sealed his victory over sin, death, and the devil. Jesus
has done it all—for us, in our place. The message of his saving
work is the deceptively simple yet miraculously powerful means
with which, through which, and on the basis of which the church
goes about its God-given work.

As the church carries out God’s mission, therefore, it needs to
guard against any and all “theologies of glory,” which center in
human reason or action or experience rather than in Jesus Christ

and his work and his cross. FSCC quite properly emphasizes that ,

“the ‘theology of the cross’ defines the mission and ministry of the
church,” and offers many strong reminders that neither faith in
Christ nor membership in the body of Christ can be determined or
“measured” on the basis of outward evidence alone. ECG also
makes it clear that the church does not “glory in numbers” as an
infallible sign of God’s blessing, nor does it glory in “dwindling
numbers” as an infallible sign of faithfulness to God’s will (see,

e.g., ECG 38-39, 41, 45). The church glories in the cross of Christ

2004 Convention Workbook

alone (Gal. 6:14), and “amidst the bewildering array of false
‘gospels’ being trumpeted in our world today, the church stead-
fastly confesses that there is salvation in no other name under
heaven (Acts 4:12)” (TSM, 15).

At the same time, it is clear from Scripture that God desires his
church to grow numerically—he desires more and more people to
come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ by the power of his
Spirit working through his means of grace (see, e.g., 1 Tim. 2:4;
John 10:16; 17:20-21). This is true despite the fact that God is
surely “building his church” even when there is no external evi-
dence of “growth” or “success.” While lack of numerical growth
is not necessarily a sign of a lack of faithfulness to God’s mission
mandate, it certainly may be such a sign. FSCC’s legitimate warn-
ings against trying to “measure” the growth of God’s church on the
basis of numbers might be strengthened if accompanied by more
frequent and fervent warnings against the all-too-common sins
(also present in the LCMS) of laxity and indifference to God’s mis-
sion. According to ECG, “If...the congregation is lax, indifferent,
and content with being small, the pastor has the responsibility to
apply the Law” (39). “The Law reminds us that a particular con-
gregation may cease to exist because of error in doctrine, laxity and
indifference, or even because of economic and social conditions”
(ECG, 44). Just as God’s law is needed to expose our lack of com-
mitment to and concern for God’s mission, “the Gospel assures
Christians that, resting on the sure promises of God, they can pro-
claim the Word with confidence, hope, and expectation, confident
that the church will always remain (Is. 55:11; Matt. 16:18;
28:19-20)” (ECG, 44-45).

With regard to the question of “measuring” the health or growth
of the church, it may be helpful to keep in mind that the word
“church” is used in Scripture, in the Lutheran Confessions, and in
everyday conversation in a variety of ways to refer to various as-
pects of the church’s existence. The church is defined properly and
theologically in the Lutheran Confessions as “the assembly of all
believers among whom the Gospel is preached in its purity and the
holy sacraments are administered according to the Gospel” (AC
VII 1). The health of the church (understood in this “strict” sense of
the term) can be measured only in terms of its proper and faithful
use of the means of grace (see FSCC, 445 and ECG, 38). But the
church on earth necessarily takes the form of an empirical organi-
zation, with a staff, budget, property, and registry of members. Spe-
cific empirical and organizational aspects of the church’s life or
growth can (and must!) be measured in terms of concrete earthly
realities such as “numbers” and “dollars.” This is part of the stew-
ardship involved in caring for the people and resources that God
has entrusted to the church as it carries out his mission. Even
though these “spiritual” and “empirical” aspects of the church’s life
can never be completely separated, keeping them distinct will help
to guard against misplaced attempts to “measure” the spiritual
health and growth of the church using earthly criteria, and against
misplaced objections to measuring the organizational aspects of the
church’s existence (see, e.g., ECG 31: “the church is a visible entity
made up of countable people. There is nothing particularly spiri-
tual in not counting them’).

God’s Mission Is Empowered by the Holy Spirit

“No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor.
12:3). God’s mission depends on the work of God in three persons:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Spirit creates and sustains the
faith through which sinners claim and appropriate for themselves
the benefits of Christ’s saving work. According to Scripture, the
Holy Spirit works through ordinary means ordained by God—the
water of baptism, the words of Scripture, the bread and wine of the
Lord’s Supper—to deliver God’s marvelous, heavenly gifts of for-
giveness, life, and salvation. Faith in Christ, which receives these
gifts, is not a human decision. Rather, through baptism, the Lord’s