LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 430

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430 THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS—-COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

God’s pleasure, but believe the gospel. ... A vocation is a “station”
which is by nature helpful to others if it be followed."

{I]t is the station itself which is the ethical agent, for it is God who is
active through the law on earth.”

In these vocations God’s creative work moves on, coming to its des-
tination only with the neighbor who needs the clothing. ... Devotion to
office is devotion to love, because it is by God’s own ordering that the
work of the office is always dedicated to the well-being of one’s neigh-
bor. Care for one’s office is, in its very frame of reference on earth, par-
ticipation in God’s very own care for human beings.”

Clearly, many uses of the word “ministry” may more appropri-
ately (and accurately) be described in terms of “‘vocation,” “‘office,”
“station,” or simply “gift of service.” Overuse of the term “min-
istry” may reflect a monastic or pietistic temptation to earn credit
with God for our works of service to our neighbors.*? The Christian
secure in her salvation by grace through faith has no need to endow
her service to her neighbors with the term “ministry” in order to
find favor with God.”

Those who are-called to do the work of a pastor should do the
work of a pastor. Those who are not should not. God calls us to
fulfill our own vocations, not another’s. We shall each find we have
more than enough “good work” to do. Similarly, the pastor need
not deeply involve himself in work outside Word and Sacrament
that others are able, willing, and ready to perform as part of their
vocations rather than his own. This vocational perspective will help
him avoid the temptation to become “domineering” (asserting his
own will in matters of adiaphora).”

To clearly understand the theology and practice of the Divine
Call, it is necessary to avoid confusing “a ministry” with the one
office of the Holy Ministry. Appreciation for that office suffers
from the careless practice in our day of labeling almost any activity
associated in any way with the church as a “ministry” (e.g.,
Stephen Ministry®, the Baptist bus ministry, St. Mark’s car wash
ministry, etc.).

Ministry as Christian service certainly goes far beyond that per-
formed by full-time, financially compensated pastors and church
workers alone (see Appendix B). If congregational members (and
their pastors) understood that every person has a holy calling from
God to serve others in their vocations, and that the pastoral min-
istry as the common possession of the whole church, this might re-
duce everyone’s “felt need” to identify and flaunt their “spiritual
gifts”** and to publicize their involvement in “ministry” (freely de-
fined). Love always keeps service of the other in view.

Appendix B
The One Office of the Holy Ministry and Auxiliary Offices”

Thesis VIII of Walther’s Kirche und Amt reads: “The pastoral
ministry [Predigtamt] is the highest office in the church, and from
it stem al] other offices in the church.”

Walther explains the relationship between this one office and
all others:

When the Lord instituted the apostolate, He instituted only one of-
fice in the church, which embraces all others and by which the church of
God should be provided for in every respect. Hence the highest office is
that of the ministry of the Word, with which all other offices are con-
ferred at the same time. Every other public office in the church is part of
the ministry of the Word or an auxiliary office that supports the min-
istry, whether it be the elders who do not labor in the Word and doctrine
(1 Tim 5:17) or the rulers (Rom. 12:8) or the deacons (the office of ser-
vice in a narrow sense) or whatever other offices the church may en-
trust to particular persons for special administration. Therefore, the of-
fices of Christian day school teachers, almoners, sextons, precentors at
public worship, and others are all to be regarded as ecclesiastical and
sacred, for they take over a part of the one ministry of the Word and
support the pastoral office.*’ (emphasis added)

The fact that God established only one office of the Holy Min-
istry requires a necessary corollary: all other churchly offices have
been established by men. Offices that do not “labor in the word and

2004 Convention Workbook

doctrine,” offices that rule, and offices of other forms of service
outside of Word and Sacrament are considered auxiliary offices.

Noted Lutheran scholar Herman Sasse explains how and why
the church created auxiliary offices:

The ministerium ecclesiasticum may also be unburdened of periph-
eral tasks through the establishment of new offices. This happened al-
ready in the ancient church through the creation of the deaconate, or in
more recent times by the creation of the office of church counselor,
church elder [kirchenvorseber, Kircheniltesten], or whatever else those
who lead the congregation may be called. The essence and task of the
ministerium ecclesiasticum is in no way impinged upon by these of-
fices. Preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments
belong neither to the deacons nor to him whom we today call a pres-
byter. The former have the duty of the work of love in caring for the
poor. The latter has the duty of helping in the administration of the
parish. According to Lutheran doctrine, they do not have a part in
church government [Kirchenregiment]. For Luther and with him the
confessions of our church (AC XIV and XXVIII) mean by church gov-
ernment the exercise of the functions peculiar to the office of the min-
istry: “an authority and command of God to preach the Gospel, to for-
give and retain sins, and to dispense and administer the Sacraments”
[AC XXVIII 5].*

Centuries of Lutheran theology and practice have considered
these offices auxiliary (that is, supporting, secondary, or supple-
mentary) to that one office. The auxiliary offices exist to assist the
pastor in performing the unique work he is called to do.

All the functions “peculiar” to the Holy Ministry—preaching,
teaching, administering the Sacraments, and binding or loosing
sins”’—are assigned by God to the one divinely instituted office.
Other and various works of service (see Appendix A) are entrusted
to the auxiliary offices which were established by human decisions.

Those serving in auxiliary offices, be they elected or appointed
ecclesial officials, teachers, commissioned ministers, directors of
Christian education, deacons, deaconesses, musicians, or staff,
ought never seek to displace or undermine the one office of the
Holy Ministry. They fulfill their own offices by supporting and aid-
ing the man divinely called into that one office, enabling the pastor
to fulfill God’s intentions for the good of His people.

Appendix C
Chemnitz on Calling Procedure

In his Enchiridion, Chemnitz demonstrated how calling proce-
dures should emerge from the theological points he had established
previously and from following the example of the apostles and the
early church:

Ought then the whole multitude (especially where it is very large)
indiscriminately and without order handle the matter of election and
call?

God is not a God of confusion; He rather wants all things to be done
and administered decently and in order in the church, 1 Cor 14:40.
Therefore to avoid confusion, at the time of the apostles and also after
their time in the ancient and pure church, the matter of the election and
call of ministers of the Word was always handled according to a cer-
tain order by the chief members of the church in the name and with the

- consent of the whole church. Thus the apostles first set forth a directive
as to what kind of persons are to be chosen for the ministries of the
church, Acts 1:15ff. Then the church, according to that rule of the di-
rective, chose and set forth some. But since the caJl belongs not only to
the multitude or the common people in the church, therefore they sub-
mitted those who were chosen and nominated to the judgment of the
apostles, whether they be fit for that ministry according to the rule of the
divine Word. And so the election of the multitude was confirmed by
the approval of the apostles.

And thus finally the ministries are committed to those nominated,
elected, and called, with the solemn prayer of the whole church and
public testimony, namely laying on of hands. Acts 6:5—6. But since the
multitude of the church is not always such that it can search out and
propose for election those that are fit, the apostles themselves often
nominated suitable persons and proposed them to the churches. Titus
1:5; 1 Tim 1:3; 2 Tim 2:2.