LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 405

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS 405

of any other person or group in the Synod) must not in any way un-
dermine the authority of God’s Word as the sole rule and norm of
faith and practice in the Synod in matters of doctrine. On this point,
however, the CTCR does not believe that the dissenters have pro-
vided evidence to show that the Synod, with the adoption of 2004
Res. 8-01A and/or 2004 Res. 7-02A, has contradicted or compro-
mised this scriptural authority.

3. Service of Women in Congregational and
Synodical Offices (2004 Res. 3-08A)

Background

At its 2004 convention, the Synod adopted Res. 3-08A “To Af-
firm the Conclusions of the 1994 CTCR Report: The Service of
Women in Congregational and Synodical Offices.” This resolution
also cites an April 2004 opinion of the CTCR given in response to
a request of the Minnesota South District dealing with the issue of
women serving in certain congregational offices. Drawing on the
conclusions of both of these documents, the Synod in Res. 3-08A:

Resolved, That the CTCR be commended for its work in this area; and
be it further
Resolved, That the Synod affirm that women on the basis of the clear
teaching of Scripture may not serve in the office of pastor nor exercise
any of its distinctive functions, and that women may serve in humanly
established offices.in the church as long as the functions of these offices
do not make them eligible to carry out “official functions [that] would
involve public accountability for the function of the pastoral office”; and
be it further

Resolved, That the Synod urge the members of the Synod, in making de-

cisions regarding which offices women may hold, to bear in mind the

CTCR’s counsel that congregations organize “themselves in ways that

complement and reinforce the family, for the church is the ‘household

of God’ (1 Tim. 3:15)”; and be it further

Resolved, That the Synod encourage men not to neglect their leadership

responsibilities in their congregations; and be it finally

Resolved, That the members of the Synod considering changes regard-

ing the service of women in congregational offices consult with neigh-

boring LCMS congregations, recognizing that in matters of Christian
liberty, Christians are called, above all, to do what edifies the church,
respecting the consciences of others.

Concerns and Arguments of Dissenters

Several pastors and congregations have submitted expressions
of dissent from the position of the Synod as set forth above in 2004
Res. 3-08A. These expressions of dissent vary greatly in length, but
in each case their central theological concern is the same. Each of
them objects to the adoption and implementation of Res. 3-08A be-
cause (in the words of the briefest dissent) “it does not apply the
Scriptural teaching on the Order of Creation (1 Timothy 2:11-12,
1 Corinthians 14:34-35) to both the pastoral office and all humanly
established offices and thus allows women to hold positions in the
church in which they would have authority over a man.” Another
dissenter points to what he sees as a developing “erosion” over the
years “of our understanding and application of the ‘Order of Cre-
ation’ in the area of women’s service in the church.” He writes:
Our official synodical position from before and up thru 1969 still re-
flected this application of the Order of Creation within the Church, that
women were not to serve in positions that would either place them in the
Office of the Ministry or put them in authority over men. The way
women’s suffrage was accepted in 1969 was by asserting that suffrage
is to be seen as an opportunity of service rather than the prerogative of
power (1969 CTCR Report “Woman Suffrage in the Church”). That re-
definition itself could be challenged like any re-definition of terms like
“elder” today. For example, does this mean that the majority vote of the
voter’s assembly is not binding and authoritative?
“The ‘order of creation,’” he argues, “needs to be applied again” to
the issue of the service of women in the church. “This having not
been done, I find the position of synod to be in error, freeing con-
gregations to violate Scripture in how they understand and apply

the role of women, in violation of the Scriptural ‘Order of Cre-
ation.’”

After a lengthy and detailed historical review of the previous
synodical resolutions and CTCR reports on the service of women
in the church, another dissenter sums up his argument as follows:

Previously we in the Synod employed two criteria to determine whether
women could serve in various lay congregational offices. But officially
now we use one and only one of these: the question of whether a woman
serving in a given office would be doing what only pastors should do
and thus, among other things, violating the order of creation. When we
do not even broach the second question—whether a woman is violating
the order of creation by serving in certain capacities where she does not
carry out functions of the pastoral office—we run the risk of failing to
bring all the relevant biblical material to bear on the subject at hand. This
is certainly not the way we should listen to our Lord.

CTCR Response

Both the CTCR and the dissenters agree that the Scriptural teach-
ing regarding the order of creation applies to the pastoral office and
its distinctive functions. Both agree that Scripture itself teaches that
“the creational pattern of male headship requires that women not
hold the formal position of the authoritative public teaching office
in the church, that is, the office of pastor.”> However, the dissenters
object that 2004 Res. 3-08A does not also apply the scriptural teach-
ing on the order of creation to humanly established congregational
offices.

Scripture itself clearly identifies the existence of an order or
structure of creation that reflects God’s good and gracious will for
His creatures and belongs “to the very structure of created exis-
tence’ (see, e.g., 1 Cor. 11:7-9; 14:34; 1 Tim. 2:13-14). The order
of creation is not the result of humankind’s fall into sin, nor is it
“undone” or set aside by the redemptive work of Christ and the “new
creation” resulting from it (Gal. 6:15; 2 Cor. 5:17). We are there-
fore bound by Scripture to affirm this order of creation. As those
who believe, teach, and confess that the Bible is “the only rule and
norm for faith and practice,” however, we are also bound by what
Scripture alone teaches about the doctrinal implications and appli-
cations of the order of creation for the service of women in the
church. We are not free to take the scriptural principle of the order
of creation and apply it however we think it can or should be ap-
plied, thereby claiming scriptural authority for our personal or ec-
clesial applications. While affirming the order of creation, we must
also ask: What does Scripture alone teach about the doctrinal im-
plications and applications of the order of creation for the service
of women in the church?

The LCMS holds that women may not serve as pastors or carry
out the distinctive functions of the pastoral office because Scripture
itself applies the order of creation to the question of service in the
pastoral office. When the Bible says that. women, because of the
creational order, are not to “teach,” “speak,” or “exercise authority
over men” (see 1 Cor. 14:33b-35 and 1 Tim. 2:11-15), this does
not mean that women are bound by the very structure of God’s cre-
ation to refrain from any and every kind of teaching, speaking, or
exercising authority over men—in society or in the church. How-
ever, these passages do require women to refrain from the teaching,
speaking, and exercising of authority that have been entrusted by
God specifically to one who holds the pastoral office—an office
which God has made it clear should be held only by qualified men.
It is Scripture alone that tells us that “the creational pattern of male
headship requires that women not hold the formal position of the
authoritative public teaching office in the church, that is, the office
of pastor.”’

At the same time, the Synod has concluded in 2004 Res. 3-08A
that women may hold all humanly instituted offices in the church
because we have no express “thus says the Lord” about the impli-
cations of the order of creation for service in these offices. If the po-
sition descriptions for these offices call upon women to carry out

2007 Convention Workbook