Missouri Synod Confesses 150 Year Old Doctrine of Church and Ministry
By Rev. Jack Cascione

 

As of July 18, 2001, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has the oldest and most consistent doctrine of Church and Ministry in the history of American Lutheranism.

In an historic vote of 73.1% to 26.9%, the LCMS voted "To Affirm Synod's Official Position on Church and Ministry." In other words, they voted by more than 3 to 1 to keep the entire edition of C. F. W. Walther's foundational work, "The Voice of Our Church on the Question of Church and Ministry," commissioned by the LCMS Convention in 1851, as the official position of the Synod.

Without changing one word, they voted that the entire book, not just the theses, was their official position.

"Church and Ministry" is the doctrine that blew the doors off LCMS congregations and opened them up to the world. When lay people joined they automatically became equal owners of the congregation.

The LCMS's teaching that the lay people establish, run, operate, own, and judge the doctrine of their own congregations helped lead the LCMS to become the single fastest growing Lutheran Church body in American history. In recent decades the loss, neglect, confusion, and misunderstanding of this doctrine among LCMS lay people has led to a malaise and decline of this congregational church body. No other church body in the world has developed such a layman-friendly doctrine of the church.

This vote comes one year after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America gave up its virtually non-existent doctrine of church and ministry to adopt the Episcopal Church's doctrine of Apostolic Succession. This means that the location of the church is identified through the clergy instead of the local congregation. On the other hand, Missouri is saying that the congregation is the church and not the pastor.

The Floor Committee 7 Chairman, Montana District President Doctor George Wollenburg directed the entire adoption process through two stormy 45-minute sessions, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. No one in the Synod is more knowledgeable on the subject and more capable of defending Walther's teaching. During the heated debate Wollenburg repeatedly held up a copy of "Church and Ministry" and recommended to the delegates who had never read it that they could buy a copy from CPH down the hall.

This was Wollenburg's magnum opus and may be his last opportunity to chair another LCMS floor committee.

Concordia Publishing House emptied out their warehouse and delivered hundreds of copies of Walther's "Church and Ministry" for sale to the Convention. They have also ordered a new printing that will not be ready for four to six weeks.

Outgoing President, Robert Kuhn, did a masterful job as chairman during the deliberations. Long lines of delegates, opposed to Walther's book, offered numerous amendments, challenges, and substitute motions from the floor, which were all defeated in vote after vote.

Those who spoke in opposition ran the spectrum from highly educated orthodox pastors, who believe that the congregation is not above to pastor; to contemporary Church Growth advocates, who view Walther's teaching as irrelevant; to lay people, who had no idea what this doctrine was all about.

In a dramatic moment, Wollenburg was asked to read all of Walther's theses from the microphone, perhaps the first time this has occurred in 150 years. Copies were distributed to the delegates. Wollenburg announced this was the LCMS Magna Charta.

An earnest effort to have the LCMS Convention reconsider and define itself on this subject began in the Spring of 1997 when this writer read a quotation from Walther's "Church and Ministry' to a conference of 250 clergy and laity in Chicago and was roundly booed off the microphone. Many clergy in Missouri were teaching that the congregation was no longer above the pastor. All too often pastors and boards are making changes in worship, practice, and administration without a vote of the congregation.

In 1999, at the Fort Wayne Symposium, this writer, after significant resistance from other pastors, asked the sainted LCMS President, A. L. Barry, with some 700 in attendance, what is the Synod's official position on Church and Ministry? When Barry answered that it was Walther's "Church and Ministry" no one applauded as they had for his answers to other questions. It was there that many pastors and students wore their "hyper-euro-Lutheran" stickers in opposition to congregational voter supremacy.

A few months later, a survey was sent to both seminary faculties, asking if they supported Walther's position that the congregational assembly was the final tribunal in the congregation. Only six from Fort Wayne and three from St. Louis agreed.

In three successive Symposium banquets, this writer was the primary subject of derision and humorous ridicule for publicly defending Walther's "Church and Ministry."

The final effort was to send each convention delegate a copy of "How to Start or Keep Your Own LCMS Church." (It is available for $5.00 plus $2.00 for handling and shipping from 573-237-3110.)

We thank God that Committee 7 chose to send our congregation's overture to the Convention floor asking to reaffirm the doctrine of Church and Ministry. To our astonishment, Committee 7 chose to ask the Convention to reaffirm Walther's entire book.

Regrettably, controversy over this subject inadvertently led to the defeat of Dr. Dean Wenthe, President of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, as President of the LCMS. Wenthe became the conservative faction's choice for Synod's President in April of 2001 after the untimely death of A. L. Barry.

Defense of Walther's teaching has cost this writer most of his friends in the Synod. The correct doctrine of Church and Ministry is more important.

We thank God that the Missouri Synod has continued to confess the Biblical teaching of the priesthood of all believers and that it justly deserves the reputation of being "The Layman's Church."


Rev. Jack Cascione is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church (LCMS - MI) in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. He has written numerous articles for Christian News and is the author of Reclaiming the Gospel in the LCMS: How to Keep Your Congregation Lutheran. He has also written a study on the Book of Revelation called In Search of the Biblical Order.
He can be reached by email at pastorcascione@juno.com.

July 21, 2001