wfn.org | LCMS affirms historical position on church and ministry doctrine

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Board for Communication Services
1333 S. Kirkwood Road St. Louis, MO 63122-7295

61st Regular Convention St. Louis, Mo. July 14-20, 2001

July 19, 2001 #46

Contact: Bruce Kueck (314) 342-5715

LCMS affirms historical position on church and ministry doctrine

ST. LOUIS Delegates to the 61st Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church 
Missouri Synod on July 18 reaffirmed the church body s doctrinal position 
on "church and ministry."

That position is based on the writings of the Rev. Dr. C.F.W. Walther, the 
Synod's first president, who served two terms 1847-50 and 1864-78. Walther 
s "Theses on Church and Ministry" and his subsequent book, "The Voice of 
Our Church on the Question of Church and Ministry," were declared by the 
Synod in the early 1850s as its official doctrinal position on the church 
and ministry.

The writings detail the purposes, responsibilities and limitations of the 
church body s congregations and pastors, and prohibits them from 
"tyrannizing" one another. Recent "discussions and problems" among Lutheran 
clergy have indicated that some "pastors did not understand this position 
of the church," said the Rev. Dr. George Wollenburg, chairman of the 
convention standing committee that prepared the resolution.

"We are not adopting a new doctrinal statement," Wollenburg told delegates. 
"We are reaffirming our current doctrinal position."

The resolution, adopted by a wide margin of 791 to 291, affirms Walther s 
writings as "the definitive statement under Holy Scriptures and the 
Lutheran Confessions" on church and ministry, and calls on all LCMS 
pastors, professors, teachers of the church and congregations to "honor and 
uphold" the position and "teach in accordance" with it.

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