LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 83

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REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT
Christ. For, as Jesus said, “No one who puts his hand to the
plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God”
(Luke 9:62).
But to be readied for such a future, we must first kneel
before our merciful God in repentance and pray that He
will cleanse us from the iniquity that separates us from
Him. And then pray further that He will lead us to do the
“good works he has prepared in advance for us to do.” In
his 1941 address, President Behnken summarized this so
clearly when he wrote:
Must not God look with disfavor upon us! Indeed, we, too,
have added to the guilt which provoked God to scourge the
world with cruel war. We need to repent. Like David of old,
we must plead with God, “Purge me with hyssop”; “wash me”;
“cast me not away from Thy presence”; “deliver me from bloodguiltiness.” God grant that such a fervent, heartfelt, penitent
plea may characterize our present synodical convention. . . .
. . . From the deepest depths of penitence we may rise to
the most glorious heights of divine assurance, and such a note
of positive assurance should dominate our hearts . . . David
prayed for forgiveness. He was confident and assured that,
though his sins were great and though he deserved only God’s
righteous wrath and punishment, yet the Lord would show
mercy. He stated: “I shall be cleansed”; “I shall be whiter than
snow”; “make me to hear joy and gladness”; “restore unto me
the joy of Thy salvation.”
David was assured of new courage and willingness to carry
on the work of the Lord. Great eagerness to serve his Lord
characterized his restoration to the joy of salvation. Even so,
you and I should realize even better that it is our privilege to
serve in the kingdom of God, yes, that this is the paramount
purpose and objective of our life. We must permit nothing
whatsoever to remove this goal from our view. In the world
today, so terribly upset and out of joint, it requires special
willingness and courage to serve Christ.

My appeal today as we begin our time together echoes the
words of President Behnken, as I ask with you that the Lord
will grant us “special willingness and courage to serve
Christ.” I pray that He will make us courageous leaders for
His Church, like the apostles and the prophets, being assured
that He will give success for the good of His Church and the
glory of His kingdom.
This is Part III of the President’s Report to the 63rd Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. In
other parts of the President’s Report, printed in the Convention Workbook and in the first issue of Today’s Business, I
have addressed a number of matters that I will not repeat in
great detail in this report. I share with you here a few brief
but important perspectives on some of these matters:

Holy Scripture, the Lutheran
Confessions, and
Our LCMS Covenants of Love
For 160 years, by God’s grace, our Synod has firmly and
faithfully expressed our individual and collective confession:
The Synod, and every member of the Synod, accepts without reservation:
The Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament as the
written Word of God and the only rule and norm of faith and
of practice and all the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church as a true and unadulterated statement and
exposition of the Word of God . . .

83

That is your confession. It is my confession. It is our
Synod’s confession. I thank God for it and, along with you,
live my life and conduct my ministry in accord with this
confession.
In addition to Holy Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions, members of the LCMS voluntarily agree to honor and
uphold our “covenants of love”—the Synod’s Constitution,
Bylaws, doctrinal statements, doctrinal resolutions, and
opinions of the Commission on Constitutional Matters. I
am aware of no one in this Synod who wants to elevate
these or any other documents to the level of Scripture and
the Confessions.
The main purpose served by these subservient documents is to determine whether or to what degree we in the
Synod agree on what the Scriptures teach concerning matters of doctrine or practice. We have agreed together to
honor and uphold these “covenants of love.” We have agreed
that “The Synod, in seeking to clarify its witness or to settle
doctrinal controversy, so that all who seek to participate in
the relationships that exist within and through the Synod
may benefit and may act to benefit others, shall have the
right to adopt doctrinal resolutions and statements which
are in harmony with Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions” (Bylaw 1.6.2). And we have agreed to authorize
elected and appointed officials to interpret these “covenants
of love” between Synod conventions.
Synods and councils can and do err. Where such error is
believed to be the case, the Synod has provided a process
whereby individual or congregational members may express
their dissent from a stated position of the Synod. In those
cases, it is the responsibility of the dissenter to persuade the
Synod, on the basis of Holy Scripture, that the stated position
of the Synod is in error. While every member of the Synod is
entitled to his or her personal opinion or interpretation of
what the Scriptures teach, a major strength of our Synod is to
provide a common confession of faith, thus avoiding what occurred in the period of the judges, where everyone did what
was right in his own eyes. We have agreed together that
“while retaining the right of brotherly dissent, members of
the Synod are expected as part of the life together within the
fellowship of the Synod to honor and uphold the resolutions of
the Synod” (Bylaw 1.8.1).

Doctrinal Solidarity
From time to time, we read or hear concerns about doctrinal division in the LCMS. On many occasions, I have spoken
and written about the blessing in our Synod of doctrinal solidarity, including my report to the 62nd Regular Convention of
the Synod. I thank God that the members of our Synod agree,
with very few exceptions, on the major doctrines of our faith.
In the 160 year history of The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod there have been times of major doctrinal controversy
concerning, among other matters:
• The doctrine of the church and ministry
• The nature and authority of the pastoral office
• The doctrine of election
• The role and function of extra-confessional doctrinal
statements in the life of the church
• The authority of Holy Scripture
2007 Convention Proceedings