Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1975 · 51st Convention › Page 116
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Page 116

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

116 THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

WHEREAS, ELIM, by soliciting funds from congregations.
Districts, and members of the Synod for its own purposes,
diverts funds from the Synod and harms the program of the
Synod; and

WHEREAS. ELIM actively encourages members and congre-
gations of the Synod to disregard the Constitution and Bylaws
of the Synod and in many instances actively promotes disobedi-
ence to the Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod: and

WHEREAS. ELIM actively recruits students for their seminary
from among students who are already attending approved
schools of the Synod. and this in active disobedience to the
directives of the Board for Higher Education; and

WHEREAS, The Board of Directors of the Synod have termed
ELIM to be divisive within the church: therefore be it

Resolved. That this convention declare ELIM to be divisive
and destructive of the Synod: and be it further

Resolved. That this convention declare that membership in
ELIM disrupts the fellowship within the Synod; and be it further

Resolved. That this convention call upon all members of
ELIM to repent of their divisive ways, to cease and desist from
their wrongful activities, and to disband this church within a
church: and finally be it

Resolved. That members of ELIM who will not repent of their
divisive activities be requested to resign from the LCMS and to
leave the LCMS in peace.

Board of Directors

Ontario District

Albin J. Stanfel, President
Harold R. Patzer, Secretary

Identical or similar:

3-185B and 3-185C

St. Paul’s, Lusk, Wyo.
Holy Cross, La Puente, Calif.

B. L. Anderson
Paul Rosnau

3-186

To Reject ELIM for Divisive
Activities

WHEREAS. The organization known as Evangelical Lutherans
in Mission (ELIM) is supporting an extrasynodical seminary
(Seminex): and

WHEREAS. ELIM supports Seminex, which openly encour-
ages and recruits young men who might otherwise enroll at
one of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s seminaries
and thereby become eligible for the pastoral ministry in The
Lutheran Church -— Missouri Synod; and

WHEREAS, ELIM supports graduates from this seminary as
pastoral candidates to synodical congregations and further
defends their call and ordination contrary to the Constitution
and Bylaws of the Synod: and

WHEREAS, ELIM is supporting its own mission agency (Part-
ners in Mission) and missionaries sent abroad by this agency:
and

WHEREAS. ELIM underwrites its own organizational news-
paper (Missouri in Perspective): and

WHEREAS. ELIM openly solicits funds from congregations,
asking that ELIM be included in congregational budgets: and

WHEREAS, The Board of Directors of the Synod has con-
sidered these and other matters concerning ELIM and has de-
clared ELIM to be a “church within a church”: and

WHEREAS. The Board of Directors of the Synod-has also de-
clared ELIM to be ‘‘divisive’’: therefore be it

Resolved. That the Synod in convention declare ELIM
to be divisive and disruptive of the programs and operations
of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod: and be it further

Resolved. That the Synod in convention declare ELIM to
be a separate church body outside The Lutheran Church — Mis-
souri Synod; and be it further

Resolved. That all synodical and District officials and all

synodical pastors and teachers who hold membership in ELIM
be required to terminate such membership and to announce
this action publicly: and be it further

Resolved. That all synodical and District officials and all
synodical pastors and teachers who refuse to terminate their
membership in ELIM within one month from date of passage of
this resolution thereby immediately forfeit their membership
in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod: and be it finally

Resolved. That congregations who retain or call pastors or
teachers who have been excluded from The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod be advised that they have thereby placed them-
selves in violation of Article III of the Synod's Constitution.

St. John’s Lutheran Church
Ellisville, Mo.

Kenneth Smith. President
Eugene Rusert, Chairman
Paul V. Schnelle, Pastor

3-187A

To Support Synodical Officials and
Repudiate Seminex and ELIM

WHEREAS. Our synodical President and other responsible
leaders are under heavy personal criticism and have been
subjected to abusive publicity in their efforts to resolve the
matters troubling our church body: and

WHEREAS. The position and actions of these leaders are, in
the judgment of a significant number of the members of the
Synod, correct and necessary for restoring erring brethren and
for maintaining sound doctrine in our church body and are
also in compliance with recent synodical convention decisions:
and

WHEREAS, The unauthorized establishment and continued
existence of such organizations as the Seminary-in-Exile
(Seminex) and Evangelical Lutherans in Mission (ELIM) have
shown themselves to be divisive of synodical unity and an
obstacle to reconciliation: therefore be it

Resolved. That the Synod in convention indicate its con-
tinued support of the synodical President and other responsible
officials involved in the efforts to resolve the matters troubling
our church body; and be it further

Resolved. That the Synod in convention officially repudiate
the organizations known as Seminex and ELIM and instruct
the appropriate officials to do all that is necessary to bring about
the disbanding of those organizations and an end to participa-
tion in and support of them by members of the Synod.

Peace Lutheran Church
Cincinnati, Ohio

Edward A. Gessner, President
Steven Lipez, Secretary

Eric J. Schuk, Pastor

Identical or similar:

3-187B

Zion, Plainfield, Ill. Raymond Weber

3-188
To Call ELIM to Account

WHEREAS. On May 31, 1974, the Board of Directors of The
Lutheran Church-— Missouri Synod adopted a resolution which
states, in part, that it ‘tencourages all who feel the need to ex-
press their convictions, especially by means of said publications
[unofficial publications being circulated in the church], to speak
to issues only, refraining from judgments of motives and defama-
tion of character’; and

WHEREAS. The publications of Evangelical Lutherans in
Mission (ELIM) have continued to call leaders of the Synod
“enemies of the Gospel,” ‘legalistic,’ “immoral,” ‘morally