Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1975 · 51st Convention › Page 119
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Page 119

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

THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS 119

a possible reconciliation within the Synod by its refusal to
cooperate with the Synod’s Board of Directors, when it denied
the board’s request for a financial accounting of the funds it
had asked of and taken from the Synod’s members; therefore
be it

Resolved. That The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod meet-
ing in convention at Anaheim, request the immediate dissolution
of ELIM; and be it further

Resolved. That the Synod authorize, empower, and instruct
its officials, synodical and District, to proceed against members
of ELIM with disciplinary actions should ELIM defy the Synod’s
request for dissolution after this synodical convention has ad-
journed: and be it further

Resolved. That the Synod urgently request its member con-
gregations to proceed with disciplinary actions against the con-
gregation’s own members and pastors who persist in continuing
their membership in and support of ELIM; and be it further

Resolred. That the Synod express its deep disapproval of
all such actions, inactions, and policies of those District Presi-
dents who used their official positions and personal influence to
further ELIM’s divisive and harmful tactics: and be it finally

Resolved. That the Synod’s Praesidium be authorized and
empowered to remove from office those District Presidents
who fail and refuse to deal with ELIM members in their District.

Trinity Lutheran Church
Republic, Wash.

Adolph Suhr, President
Fred O. Heckly, Secretary

Identical or similar:

3-194B to 3-1940

Zion, Auburn, Wash.
Immanuel, Albany, Oreg.
Peace, Garland, Tex.

St. John’s, Covina, Calif.
Triumphant King, Lake Oswego, Oreg.
Zion, Maywood, Calif.

St. Mark’s, Youngstown, Ohio
St. Paul’s, Truman, Minn.
Peace, Waverly, Nebr.

St. Peter’s, Elk Creek, Nebr.
St. Paul’s, Falls City, Nebr.
Hope, Springfield, Oreg.
Zion, Lincoln, III.

St. John’s, Kildare, Okla.

John Werth
Herbert Boehne
Harold Schroeter
Lloyd Strehlow
C. Stockamp

E. Boxdorfer

T. Glammeyer
Rich. Markworth
Justin Burns
Harold Stelzer
G. Heimlich
Harold Bauder
A. Goldberger
Theo. Knepper

3-195A
To Take Actions re ELIM

WHEREAS. ELIM is the chief source of financial support for
the operation of Seminex in opposition to the theological train-
ing program of The Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod: and

WHEREAS, ELIM and the Lutheran Church in Mission are
divisive and contrary to the purposes and interests of the Synod:
and

WHEREAS, ELIM and the Lutheran Church in Mission con-
tinued to function in spite of repeated requests from responsible
officials that they cease their divisive activities: therefore be it

Resolved. That the Synod in convention assembled cal] upon
all those associated with ELIM and/or the Lutheran Church in
Mission to cease their divisive activities and publicly repent;
and be it further

Resolved. That those members of the Synod who continue
to serve as officers, members of the Board of Directors of ELIM,
and/or the Lutheran Church in Mission and district representa-
tives of ELIM and/or the Lutheran Church in Mission after Oct.
1, 1975, be held to have persisted in offensive conduct and be
expelled from the Synod; and be it finally

Resolved. That any member of ELIM and/or the Lutheran

Church in Mission be declared ineligible for election or appoint-
ment to any synodical or District office. board, or commission.

Board of Control

Concordia Seminary

St. Louis, Mo.

Ralph Bohlmann, Acting President

Identical or similar:

3-195B to 3-195F

St. James, University City, Mo. Tom Baker
Emmaus, Fort Wayne, Ind. Carl Schlutz
St. John’s, Brule, Nebr. F. K. Kwirant
Our Redeemer, North Platte, Nebr. H. Harnapp
Hope, Saint Ann, Mo. Robt. Baum

3-196A

To Declare ELIM Supporters
Ineligible for Office and Call

Wuereas. The preamble of the Synod’s Constitution has the
subheading: ‘Reason for the Forming of a Synodical Union,”
and union was the major concern in effecting the organization
of the Synod, and the concepts of fellowship, togetherness,
brotherhood, and ‘walking together” express the basic purpose
of the Synod’s existence: and

WHEREAS, The Synod’s Handbook (Art. XI, 1 & 2) states:
“The officers of the Synod must assume only such rights as
have been expressly conferred upon them by the Synod, and
in everything pertaining to their rights and the performance
of their duties they are responsible to the Synod”; and: ‘The
Synod at all times has the right to call its officers to account
and, if circumstances require it, to remove them from office in
accordance with Christian procedure”: and

WHEREAS. A number of pastors, teachers, and lay communi-
cants of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod have united
into an organization known as ELIM (Evangelical Lutherans in
Mission) with a given set of goals, objectives, and programs
(spiritual and political): and

WHEREAS. A number of these stated principles of ELIM
taken by themselves are valid expressions of the love of the
Gospel, yet a number of them are in opposition to the work of
fellowship of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod and imply
that the Synod does not love the Gospel: and

WHEREAS. ELIM has described itself as follows: “ELIM
today wants to be that place of refreshments in a legalistic
LCMS, the avenue through which concerned persons and
groups can witness to their Church and to each other under the
Gospel”; and

WHEREAS. Such a description implies that The Lutheran
Church— Missouri Synod denies the Gospel and that spiritual
refreshment and fellowship in Christ is available only through
ELIM’s fellowship, but not in the “bitter’’ and ‘legalistic’
Missouri Synod: and

WHEREAS, Numerous articles written in Missouri in Per-
spective use terms describing the Synod and its officials as
“legalistic,” “‘unscriptural,” “‘un-Christian,” ete., even though
no formal charges have been lodged against those officials: and

WHEREAS. ELIM has begun an ingathering of funds, the pur-
poses of which are to support a seminary in exile, to fund an
independent mission society, to issue publications such as
Missouri in Perspective. and to fund an organizational structure
to support those purposes: and

WHEREAS. The Synod’s Board of Directors state: “The an-
nounced purposes of Evangelical Lutherans in Mission (ELIM)
to solicit support within the Synod of congregations and indi-
viduals alike, which solicitation is announced as an ‘alternative’
to the support of the Synod are contrary to the Handbook provi-
sions 2.85 c and 9.173 b”: and

WHEREAS. The following stated “Specific Objectives” of
ELIM seem to describe a church within a church: