Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1975 · 51st Convention › Page 86
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Page 86

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

86 THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Herbert Schutte
H. John Malkow
John Ricker
Herbert Wians

Christ, Coos Bay, Oreg.

St. Luke’s, Federal Way, Wash.
Redeemer, Warsaw, Ind.

Hope, Chicago, III.

3-73

To Permit Specified Use
of “A Statement”

WHEREAS, The Commission on Theology and Church Rela-
tions (CTCR) in its ‘‘Guiding Principles for the Use of A State-
ment” states on page 7, section D:

Congregations or agencies of the Synod who are calling pastors,
teachers, or professors to serve them are entitled to know and free to
inquire whether persons under consideration for a call or appoint-
ment do in fact honor and uphold A Statement. or if not, what is the
nature and extent of their disagreement. In the latter case, such
congregations or agencies will want to consider carefully whether
such dissent has been expressed according to established synodical
procedures, and whether such disagreement or dissent deals with
purely formal considerations (such as procedure, terminology,
phraseology, and sequence of topics) or with substantive doctrinal
issues, and

WHEREAS, Some administrators of schools have stated that
only the Synod assembled in convention can direct the above;
therefore be it

Resolved. That The Lutheran Church~— Missouri Synod direct
all its parochial schools, high schools, colleges, and seminaries
to permit congregations, pastors, and laypersons to use A State-
ment in the manner which the Commission on Theology and
Church Relations (CTCR) recommends.

St. James Lutheran Church
University City, Mo.

John Essen, President

Carl Meinecke, Secretary
Tom Baker, Pastor

3-744

To Use “A Statement” Only According
to Intended Use

WHEREAS, It is important for our life together in the Synod
that we do not give our synodically adopted doctrinal state-
ments “more or less status than they deserve’”’ (1969 Resolution
2-27, Proceedings. p. 91); and

WHEREAS, President Jacob Preus himself in submitting A
Statement to congregations in March 1972 indicated that A State-
ment was not intended to serve as a ‘‘new standard of ortho-
doxy”: and

WHEREAS, In July 1973 after the convention President Preus,
together with a committee of several District presidents, further
defined the use of A Statement before the Council of Presidents
in the following manner: “that no special or unusual subscrip-
tions to doctrinal statements adopted by the Synod will be re-
quired of pastors, teachers or congregations of the Synod by
synodical officers constitutionally responsible for doctrine and
life in the church. All doctrinal discipline will be based on
Article II of the synodical constitution, as has been our practice
in the past’; and

WHEREAS, The CTCR document ‘Guiding Principles for the
Use of A Statement” declares: “There should be no effort to
have A Statement formally and individually subscribed by the
members of the Synod”; therefore be it

Resolved. That A Statement be used only according to the
intended use as outlined in the above references.

Missouri District
Arthur H. Strege, Secretary

Identical or similar:
3-74B

Redeemer, Newton, N. J. B. E. Rudolf

3-75

To Urge Proper Use of ‘‘A Statement”

WHEREAS, A Statement of Scriptural and Confessional Prin-
ciples has gone through the process of a study document, been
examined and reexamined by individuals, congregations,
pastoral conferences, faculties, synodical commissions, etc.; and

WHEREAS, As a result of this intensive study the majority
of the Synod in convention assembled at New Orleans in 1973
elevated the document A Statement of Scriptural and Confes-
sional Principles to that of a “more formal statement of belief”
(Res. 3-01); and

WHEREAS, The endless disputations and wranglings will con-
tinue until we come to grips with doctrinal differences and come
to agreement; and

WHEREAS, The Statement concerns itself not with adiaphora
but with the very source of the means of grace, the Word;
therefore be it

Resolved. That we ask all members of the Synod to uphold
and honor the doctrinal content of the document A Statement
of Scriptural and Confessional Principles in their public teach-
ing; and be it further

Resolved. That with patience, love, and care not to disturb
the church, those who suspect doctrinal deficiencies or aberra-
tions in the Statement are urged to use the proper channels
and guidelines for expressing dissent (cf. ‘‘Guiding Principles,”
CTCR, Nov. 1973): and be it further

Resolved. That the South Wisconsin District urge all members
of the Synod not to go beyond the stated purpose and intent of
Res. 3-01 of the 1973 New Orleans synodical convention (the
Statement is not a new standard of orthodoxy) and especially
to avoid using the Statement as a “legalistic club’; and be it
finally

Resolved. That we ask all members, especially those not
acquainted with the contents, to study A Statement of Scriptural
and Confessional Principles in the light of what the Holy Scrip-
tures say, comparing it also with the Lutheran Confessions,
in the hope that thereby we may be able to resolve our doctrinal
confusion and reestablish our unity of faith.

South Wisconsin District
Robert A. Schmidt, Secretary

* * *

3-764

To Declare New Orleans Resolution
3-09 Null and Void

WHEREAS, Resolution 3-09 of New Orleans (To Declare Fac-
ulty Majority Position in Violation of Article II of the Constitu-
tion) makes charges of un-Lutheran, un-Scriptural theology
against the former faculty of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis,
declaring them guilty of opinions which ‘‘cannot be tolerated in
the church of God”; and

WHEREAS, The charges included:

a. abolishing the principle of sola Scriptura:

b. subverting the authority of Holy Scripture;

c. reducing to a minimum the content of Christian belief and
discarding whatever does not seem to serve the Gospel directly:

d. questioning Scripture’s accuracy and historicity in
a ruthless manner;

e. removing from the Gospel the clear vertical dimension
of God being reconciled with sinners through the vicarious
atonement of Jesus Christ;

f. failing to attest that the Gospel is ours as a result of the
Holy Spirit’s working through the normative and causative
authority of the Scripture;

g. denying the third use of the Law; and

WHEREAS, The faculty representatives at the convention
testified publicly that the resolution was a complete distortion

of their position, but the assembly proceeded with the vote
regardless; and