LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 82

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82

SYNOD REPORTS
and funeral services should be carried out by those who hold the office
of public ministry. However, in exceptional circumstances or in emergencies (as when a pastor is incapacitated), members of the auxiliary
offices or other qualified individuals may temporarily be called upon
to perform, under proper supervision, functions that are otherwise performed by the pastor and that are not for other reasons precluded (e.g.,
women teachers or deaconesses preaching in the public service).
In this matter there needs to be a concern for order in the church.
The indiscriminate assignment of functions of the office of the public
ministry breeds confusion and disorder in the church. A disregard of
uniformity of practice is contrary to the very reason for the existence
of the Synod.12

Two matters require clarification regarding the second question.
First, the CTCR understands the phrase “proclaiming the Word” to
refer to public preaching and teaching within this “house church”
setting. Second, the CTCR understands that “administering the
Sacraments” is not speaking of any exceptional circumstance, such
as the Baptism of someone who is dying. Rather, it is understood to
refer to the regular, public administration of Baptism and the Lord’s
Supper in and on behalf of this “house church.” According to these
understandings, the Commission’s answer to the second question
is that this refers to public preaching and public administration of
the Sacraments by a lay person and is not theologically appropriate.
Article XIV would forbid such a practice because it is a denial of the
public ministry. Moreover, a lay woman exercising these responsibilities would also violate the scriptural teaching that women are not
publicly to teach and preach on behalf of the church and are ineligible to be candidates for the public ministry (see 1 Cor. 14:33–34
and 1 Tim. 2:12).
Background

Only when the Word of Christ’s forgiving Gospel is being proclaimed and His Sacraments (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper) are
being administered can people come to faith and become part of His
Body, the church. Therefore Christ sends His people, the church,
to preach His Gospel and to administer His Sacraments (Matt.
28:18–20). It is clear that the church itself possesses the Word and
Sacraments of forgiveness (the Keys of Christ, see Matt. 18:18, note
the plural). By virtue of Baptism, each Christian is a member of the
priesthood of believers (1 Pet. 2:9). It is therefore appropriate for
individual Christians in their daily vocations to witness to Christ,
confessing Him before men (Matt 10:32–33) and, in cases of necessity, to baptize and to absolve.
The scriptural foundation for a public “office of ministry,”13
distinct from the priesthood of believers, is also clear. Paul asks rhetorically in 1 Corinthians 12:29, “Are all apostles … prophets …
teachers?” to make the point that not all are called into public ministry in the church. The public office of the ministry is not a matter of
pragmatism, a mere human arrangement to “get things done” which
is adjusted or established however and wherever a group of Christians
wills it. Rather, the office of the ministry is instituted by God. Christ
Himself ordained the preaching and sacramental ministry by calling
the twelve apostles and giving specific responsibilities to them, apart
from the rest of His followers (Mark 3:14–15; Luke 6:13–16; see also
John 4:2). While the original apostles were distinctive from all others in the public office of ministry by virtue of being eyewitnesses of
our Lord, the call into public ministry did not end with them. As Peter
indicates by calling himself a “fellow elder” (1 Pet. 5:1), both apostles and later pastors or preachers (often called “elders” in the NT)
were equally holders of the office of the public ministry.
The New Testament indicates that as the church moved into the
future, it continued this divine institution of calling men to serve
the church by preaching the Word and publicly administering the
2013 Convention Workbook

Sacraments (see Acts 14:23; 20:28; 1 Cor. 4:1; 2 Cor. 5:19–20; 1 Tim.
3:1–7; 5:17; 2 Tim. 2:2).
This is the understanding of the “office of preaching” that is
affirmed explicitly in the Confessions. Augsburg Confession (AC)
Article V (par. 1) says that “God has instituted the office of preaching, giving the gospel and the sacraments” (Kolb-Wengert [KW] 40).
The Apology of the Augsburg Confession (AAC) Article XIII (par.
11), referring to the ordained ministry simply states that “the ministry
of the Word has the command of God and has magnificent promises like Romans 1[:16]” (KW 220). AC XIV then asserts that “[C]
oncerning church government it is taught that no one should publicly
teach, preach, or administer the sacraments without a proper [public] call” (KW 46). The office of the ministry, then, is understood as
a divinely mandated office with the responsibility to preach, teach,
and administer the sacraments publicly for the church. It is the public responsibility which is essential to this understanding so that the
office of the ministry is viewed in opposition to the sharing of the
Gospel that takes place in the “private” lives of individuals—at home,
at work, with friends, etc. The latter is the responsibility of the priesthood of all believers. The public teaching and preaching done in and
on behalf of the church, however, is the responsibility only of those
who have been rightly and publicly called to that work.
It is worthwhile to note that the Lutheran Confessions were written
without any desire to introduce anything “new” into Christian teaching (see for e.g., AC XX, par. 12–13; KW 54). Rather, the Reformers
wished to show that the same biblical teachings they were emphasizing were also consistently present in church history and in previous
generations of teachers. That includes its teaching on the necessity of
the ministry. The church has always set aside (“called and ordained”)
men to carry out the ministry of Word and Sacrament. Melanchthon
defends the AC’s view of the ministry by indicating that the Reformers
fully recognized the legitimacy of the ordained ministry but could not
recognize the Roman Catholic claim that only Roman Catholic bishops could authorize that ministry (AAC XIV).
This same understanding carried through in the heritage of the
LCMS. C. F. W. Walther, in Church and Ministry, carefully distinguishes between the church as priesthood of all believers and the
divinely instituted ministry of the Word and Sacraments, just as
Luther and Melanchthon did before him. Thesis II on the Ministry
says: “The ministry of the Word or the pastoral office is not a human
institution but an office that God Himself has established” (St. Louis,
1987, p. 21 and pp. 177ff.). CTCR reports have consistently affirmed
the same understanding.14 The Synod in 2001 (Res 7-17A) emphatically reaffirmed this understanding. And as recently as 2003, the
CTCR report Theology and Practice of “the Divine Call” (Divine
Call) observed “that the church could no more be deprived of pastors than it could be deprived of preaching, Baptism, and the Lord’s
Supper, or any other gift that the Lord intended for the church (pastors and means of grace go together).”15
It is very clear, then, that Lutheran Christians believe that there
is both a priesthood of all believers, which includes all the baptized,
and also a particular, dedicated office of the ministry, which includes
only those men who are rightly called into that office. Both priesthood and public ministry exist by divine mandate and are not mere
human arrangements. They are not in competition with one another
and neither may be used to negate the other. Lutheran congregations therefore, by virtue of their subscription to the Scriptures and
Confessions, do not view the pastoral ministry as an option. Rather,
they take care that a pastor who is rightly called preaches, teaches,
and administers the Sacraments.
What is perhaps less clear, however, is how a pastor is “rightly
called.” In Divine Call the CTCR addresses the matter of how to
understand the stipulation of AC Article XIV that only those who