Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1975 · 51st Convention › Page 32
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Page 32

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

32 MISSIONS

2-08

To Commend Board for Missions
for Faithful Adherence to God’s Word

WHEREAS, The present Board for Missions has faithfully
held to Christ-centered Scriptural principles in mission policy:
and

WHEREAS. The present Board for Missions has recognized
the different situations in mission fields that make it imperative
for our missionaries and sister churches to follow practices that
take into consideration the context in which they carry out their
ministry; and

WHEREAS, The present Board for Missions has utilized the
Mission Affirmations as under the Scriptures, not above them:
and

WHEREAS, The present Board for Missions has recognized
spiritual forces that continue to be detrimental to the Christian
faith, warning us against unionism: and

WHEREAS, The present Board for Missions has held to
Scriptural and confessional principles of fellowship which are
to be honored by us all: therefore be it

Resolved. That we commend the present Board for Missions
for its faithful adherence to God’s Word and a Christ-centered
mission program for the Synod: and be it further

Resolved. That we commend the present Board for Missions
for adhering wholeheartedly to the Synod's official position in
doctrine and practice according to the Scriptures and the
Lutheran Confessions.

Zion Lutheran Church
New Orleans, La.
S. Ponseti, Pastor

A. Macke. President

2-094
To Thank Synod’'s Board for Missions

WHEREAS, The Synod’s Board for Missions has faced diffi-
culties in the past years as it has sought to serve its Lord Jesus:
and

WHEREAS, It has remained faithful and firm to the principles
of mission .work laid out in God’s Word, rejecting, for example,
any thoughts or tendency toward the teaching of universalism:
and

WHEREAS, We need to stand as a church body behind the
dedicated. faithful work of our church servants: therefore be it

Resolved. That we express a strong thank-you to the Synod's
Board for Missions for its service to the church, wishing its
members the Savior's blessings for the future and encouraging
them to stay faithful in the days to come.

St. Thomas Lutheran Church
Rocky River, Ohio

Edgar H. Krause, President
James P. Walker, Secretary
Phillip B. Giessler, Pastor

Identical or similar:

2-09B

Zion, New Orleans, La. S. Ponseti

2-10

To Maintain Confessional Integrity
on Mission Fields and Commend
and Support Present Mission Board
and Chairman

WHEREAS, The Constitution of The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod in Article I States:

The Synod, and every member of the Synod,
accepts without reservation:

1. The Scriptures of the Old and the New Testa-
ment as the written Word of God and the only rule
and norm of faith and of practice:

2. All the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church as a true and unadulterated state-
ment and exposition of the Word of God, to wit: the
three Ecumenical Creeds (the Apostles’ Creed, the
Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed), the Unaltered
Augsburg Confession. the Apology of the Augsburg
Confession, the Smalcald Articles, the Large Cate-
chism of Luther, the Small Catechism of Luther, and
the Formula of Concord.

WHEREAS. Article VI of the Constitution of The Lutheran
Church ~ Missouri Synod in part states:

Conditions for acquiring and holding membership
in the Synod are:

1. Acceptance of the confessional basis of Article II

2. Renunciation of unionism and syncretism of
every description... ,

WHEREAS, Article XIII of the Constitution of The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod in part states:

1. Members who act contrary to the confession laid
down in Article II and to the conditions of membership
laid down in Article VI Or persist in an offensive con-
duct. shall. after previous futile admonition, be ex-
pelled from Synod;

WHEREAS, Furthermore every missionary of The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod ona foreign mission field, no less than
every other pastor and teacher of Synod, has freely, without
coercion, pledged himself without reservation to uphold the
Constitution of the Synod: and

WHEREAS. Because of our Synod’s declaration of altar and
pulpit fellowship with The American Lutheran Church — which

churches and the rest of Protestantism—and because of a
pervading worldwide “ecumenical spirit” that consistently puts
doctrinal concerns aside in order to achieve unity, our Synod’s
missionaries on foreign fields are under enormous pressures to
practice unionistic fellowship with other Lutheran and Protes-
tant missionaries with whom we are not one in doctrine: and

WHEREAS, We fully acknowledge that our former missions in
foreign lands, which, though still dependent on Synod for finan-
cial and manpower aids. are now autonomous sister churches of
our Synod and have the right and freedom to practice rites,
traditions, ceremonies, church polity, etc.. of their own choosing
(AC VII 3) so long as they do not conflict with Biblical doctrine:
and

or outward harmony and the furtherance of the unionistic
“ecumenical spirit” of our age (FC XI 95): be it therefore

Resolved. That we petition The Lutheran Church ~ Missouri
Synod to do its utmost, through its appropriate boards and
agencies, to cultivate, foster, nurture, strengthen, support,
and maintain complete doctrinal unity between itself and the

Resolved. That the Synod do its utmost to maintain and
support the confessional integrity of its missionaries on foreign
fields and, should it become necessary, to give fraternal admoni-
tion and warning, where needed, that anyone violating the
mutually agreed upon conditions of membership in the LCMS
(Constitution, Art. XIII) endangers his status as a missionary
of the LCMS: and be it finally

Resolved. That the Synod commend and support its present
Board for Missions and its chairman, Waldo J. Werning, for