LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — September 3-4, 2011, Page 30

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To be sure, there are genuine instances when conscience is involved. It may be a conscience instructed by the Word of God
or it may be an erring one. Lutherans are sensitive to the plea of conscience. Lutherans sometimes forget, however, that
Martin Luther placed his great emphasis on the conscience which is informed and instructed by the Word of God. We need
to guard against using conscience as a misnomer for personal desire and opinion.
The Synod has always made provision to respect the genuine demands of conscience. However, the individual who is
troubled in his conscience must also respect the conscience of those who do not agree with him and be prepared to support
his position from the Word of God.
As our teachers have so long pointed out, one must distinguish carefully between the giving of offense and the taking of
offense. If the Synod were to halt its operations whenever someone takes offense at its action, the Synod would be
paralyzed. To be sure, the Synod must be on its guard never to give offense. But the individual, over against the Synod, must
also exercise great care that he is truly governed by love and not by self-interest or self-will.
To bring all this down to the issue with which we are dealing: It is a breach of Christian love to place self-will above the
mutually agreed upon will of the Synod as it has stated it in its Constitution and Bylaws.
II. "People are more important than rules."
Of course. Our Lord's death on the cross has made that clear for all time. And yet, we need to guard against wrong
conclusions. Even in the matter of our redemption God, in spite of His love for sinners, did not simply set His Law aside.
The Law needed to be fulfilled and the penalty for its transgression needed to be paid. God's grace did not come cheap. It
cost Him the best that He had. It cost Him the lifeblood of His Son. All too often "people are more important than rules"
becomes a rationalistic slogan.
Rules seem to be fine as long as they operate in our favor; but when we find ourselves in disagreement with the rules we
easily resort to the role of "justifying ourselves." Furthermore, the slogan is fallacious if it is meant to imply that any person
is exempt from or above commonly agreed upon rules or laws. In our own nation we have established once again that not
even the highest officials are above the law.
We have already indicated above the place of law, rule, covenant, contract in our life together in the Synod. These rules
which we have adopted are not in opposition to the welfare of people; on the contrary, they are designed to protect and to
foster the welfare of people. When a few rebel against the "rules" and resort to arguments such as "people are more
important than rules" to justify their action, one needs to ask which is the more important: the self-will of the few or the
welfare of the many? If certain "rules" are really injurious to the many, then the many - not just the few - have the right and
the means to change the rules. But until the many have reached that decision, the few are obligated to respect the "rules" as
well as are the "many" who, too, are "people." The "rules" which the Synod has adopted for its self-government are
primarily its Constitution and its Bylaws.
III. "But the Bylaws are not applicable to our present situation."
This assertion is made especially with reference to the establishment of Seminex and to the certification, placement, calling,
ordination, and installation of Seminex graduates. The Commission holds that the argument is invalid. To say that "no one
ever anticipated such a situation" does not mean that the Constitution and Bylaws do not apply. On the contrary, the bylaws
do indeed speak directly and clearly to the issue confronting us today.
The question is not: "How may Seminex students be qualified for the ministry in The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod?"
The question rather is: "How has the Synod decided that it wishes to have pastors trained, qualified, called, ordained, and
installed in its congregations?"
In answer to that question the Synod has spoken again and again. Perhaps no other subject receives as much attention in the
bylaws. The Synod has stated in great detail that it will train its own pastors, set its own requirements, do its own certifying,
etc. In short, the Synod has made it plain that it will not permit a small group within the Synod to usurp these functions
which the Synod has reserved to itself.
Furthermore, it is not correct to say that bylaws apply only to ordinary but not to extraordinary situations. Such an assertion
forgets that one of the principal reasons that an organization drafts a Constitution and Bylaws is to set forth already in
advance the guidelines for its conduct in the future, so that it will not find it necessary to make basic decisions in an ad hoc
and emotionally charged situation.

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