STAND FIRM !!!

Over the years, the LCMS has adopted numerous resolutions offering support and encouragement to congregations faced with unique ministry challenges and opportunities. Special attention has been given, for example, to the needs of rural and small town congregations (1998 Res. 2-14; cf. 1995 Res. 2-12A), urban congregations (2001 Res. 1-05 and 1-07; 1998 Res. 2-13A), congregations in close proximity to sizeable immigrant communities (1995 Res. 1-04A), congregations in highly diverse cross-cultural settings (1998 1-03A; 1995 Res. 1-03A; 1992 Res. 1-06), congregations with opportunity to minister to specific ethnic and/or religious groups such as African-Americans (1992 Res. 1-09) or Muslims (1992 Res. 1-08), congregations with special needs in such areas as family ministry (1992 Res. 1-10) or ministry to students (2001 Res. 1-04; 1995 Res. 1-05A and 1-06A).

From one perspective, this focus on certain “types” of congregations and/or congregational ministries, as well as the “targeting” of specific mission and ministry fields, may seem unnecessary or even inappropriate. There is, after all, only “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4:5). There is one Gospel and one Gospel mission. As the CTCR says in its report A Theological Statement of Mission: “The church announces the good news that God cares for all people without making any distinction based on race, class, or any other earthly criteria. It proclaims the message of Christ’s reconciling work to young and old, rich and poor, male and female, powerful and oppressed, healthy and sick, well-fed and hungry, friend and stranger, countryman and alien” (21). And yet the very Gospel that supercedes and overcomes all such distinctions moves the church to focus its ministry in specific ways in particular contexts, as it “strive[s] to remove every human or sinful barrier that would keep others from hearing and taking seriously the Gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 6:3)” (21). As the richly varied letters of the apostle Paul illustrate, different congregations in different settings face different challenges and opportunities, and they need to be encouraged and challenged in ways that take these factors into account.

Congregations that are experiencing significant numerical growth in one or more of a variety of areas (e.g., adult accessions, worship attendance, youth participation, church planting opportunities, etc.) share in common many similar concerns, needs, characteristics, opportunities, blessings and challenges. They need encouragement from each other and from the Synod as a whole to maintain their zeal and “spiritual fervor, serving the Lord” (Romans 12:11). They need to be challenged not to be satisfied with past or present accomplishments, but to “press on” and even multiply their efforts in the Lord’s name and in behalf of his Gospel, knowing that “to whom much is given…much will be required” (Luke 12:48). 

They need to be cautioned against specific temptations that may result from signs of outward growth and success, such as the temptation to take credit for blessings that come only by God’s work and grace. Motivated by the Gospel alone, they need to seek new and creative ways to invest the abundant gifts God has given them in the hope and expectation that their faithful efforts will be rewarded with his rich and undeserved blessings (Matthew 25:14-29; 2 Cor. 9:6-15). They need to be given the opportunity to share with other congregations the insights they have gained, by God’s grace, in those areas of service where God has richly blessed them (Romans 12:12-13). In this way the entire body of Christ can be built up, as the members of the body share with one another, in all humility, their own divinely-given burdens and blessings (Romans 12:3-8).

Every resolution adopted at the 2001 convention of the LCMS ends with the same “Resolved,” with this determined pledge: “Resolved, That all action taken in this resolution shall be used to help carry out ‘The Great Commission’ and shall not in any way detract or distract from the primary mission of God’s kingdom here on earth. We will remember 1-02!” (i.e., 2001 Res. 1-02, “To Be Passionate for Great Commission.”). In the Great Commission Jesus gives his church a twofold mandate and mission: “Go—and guard!” The church is to go boldly into all the world with the saving message of the Gospel (“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations”), and at the same time it is to guard carefully the truth of God’s Word through which alone the saving Gospel is given and preserved (“teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”). All congregations of the Synod need to be challenged and encouraged continually to remain faithful to and passionate about this twofold task, including those congregations whose passion for the Great Commission has resulted (under God’s blessing) in significant numerical growth in particular areas of ministry.

In this connection, congregations may find helpful a report prepared by the CTCR in 1991 and commended for use by the 1992 convention “as a tool to aid the various units of the Synod for the development and/or evaluation of their own mission statements” and mission endeavors (1992 Res. 3-01). The eight affirmations of this report, A Theological Statement of Mission, are presented and summarized below, along with specific cautions (“guard!”) and encouragements (“go!”) that may be especially applicable to congregations experiencing significant numerical growth. As they participate in God’s mission, all congregations are urged to take to heart the precious promise of Jesus that serves as the “capstone” of the Great Commission: “And lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

God’s mission does not begin with us. The church’s mission does not begin with the church. Mission begins, continues and culminates in the heart and hands of a just and merciful God: “For GOD so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). First, last and foremost, the church’s mission consists of “the Lord’s gracious initiative and ongoing activity to save a world incapable of saving itself” (7). As it seeks to carry out God’s mission, therefore:

--The church needs to guard against any understanding of or approach to God’s mission that centers in what “we” are striving to do and accomplish rather than in what God has done and is doing for, in, and through his church. At the same time,

--The church should be emboldened and encouraged to devote itself wholeheartedly to the pursuit of God’s mission, knowing that the success and fulfillment of this mission does not depend on human efforts or initiative but on God’s own presence, power and promises in Jesus Christ.

The “Good News” of the Gospel has no meaning, necessity or urgency apart from the “Bad News” of the Law: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God” (Romans 3:10). “Since the fall of Adam all men who are born according to the course of nature…are full of evil lust and inclinations from their mothers’ wombs and are unable by nature to have true fear of God and true faith in God” (AC II, 1). Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions “tell it like it is.” They also testify soberly to the dreadful consequences of bondage to sin and Satan: spiritual, physical, and eternal death. The message of a Savior from sin makes no sense and can have no impact apart from the message that we are sinners, totally incapable of helping or saving ourselves. As it seeks to carry out God’s mission, therefore:

--The church needs to guard against any and all temptations or tendencies to “soften” or “tone down” the Scriptural message of God’s law for fear of offending modern sensibilities or in hope of attracting people with a self-centered message of “affirmation” that avoids God’s uncompromising condemnation of sin. At the same time,

--The church should be emboldened and encouraged by the conviction that it alone has been entrusted by God with the message that can give hope, peace, joy and life to a world of sinners. It is because of sin that God’s mission is so crucial and so urgent. It is because of sin that the church must work while it is day, before the night comes when no one can work (John 9:4). As it proclaims God’s law (and Gospel!) to others, the church soberly confesses its own sins and shortcomings—including the sin of not caring nearly enough about a world of lost sinners to give God’s mission the attention and priority it deserves.

Lutheran theology is a “theology of the cross.” It recognizes and confesses that, according to Scripture, the incarnation, humiliation, suffering and death of Jesus are—despite all outward appearances—“the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). By living a perfect life, Jesus fulfilled all the demands of God’s Law. By suffering and dying in our place on the cross, Jesus atoned for the sin of the whole world. By rising from the dead, he sealed his victory over sin, death and the devil. Jesus has done it all—for us, in our place. The message of his saving work is the deceptively simple yet miraculously powerful tool with which, through which, and on the basis of which the church goes about its God-given work. As it seeks to carry out God’s mission, therefore:

--The church needs to guard against any and all “theologies of glory,” which center in human reason or action or experience rather than in Jesus Christ and his work and his cross. It needs to remember that neither faith in Christ nor membership in the body of Christ can be determined or “measured” on the basis of outward evidence alone. The church does not “glory in numbers” as an infallible sign of God’s blessing, nor does it glory in suffering or persecution as an infallible sign of faithfulness to God’s will. The church glories in the cross of Christ alone (Galatians 6:14), and “amidst the bewildering array of false ‘gospels’ being trumpeted in our world today, the church steadfastly confesses that there is salvation in no other name under heaven (Acts 4:12)” (15). At the same time,

--The church should be emboldened and encouraged to share the Good News about Jesus with all who will listen, trusting that God himself works faith—when and where he pleases—in the hearts of those who hear the saving message of Christ (AC V, 1-2). It should not hesitate to acknowledge and praise God for his work in increasing the number of those who confess the precious name of Jesus, joining in the joyous refrain of the book of Acts: “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).

“No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). God’s mission depends on the work of God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Spirit creates and sustains the faith through which sinners claim and appropriate for themselves the benefits of Christ’s saving work. According to Scripture, the Holy Spirit works through ordinary means ordained by God—water, words, bread and wine—to deliver God’s marvelous, heavenly gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation. Faith in Christ, which receives this gifts, is not a human decision. Rather, through baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the proclamation of the Gospel the Holy Spirit “calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith” (SC). As it seeks to carry out God’s mission, therefore:

--The church needs to guard against any and all confusion of the divinely-instituted and solely-efficacious means of grace with humanly-devised methods, programs, strategies or techniques for carrying out the mission of the church. It must keep in mind at all times that although God graciously chooses to use human instruments (together with humanly devised “plans” and “strategies”) to plant and water the seeds of his Word, it is always God—and God alone—who gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:5-6). “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:7). At the same time,

--The church should be emboldened and encouraged to use all available and appropriate resources at its disposal to extend and expand the use and distribution of the means of grace, so that as many people as possible can be exposed to these precious and powerful means through which God’s Spirit works to create and sustain faith in the Gospel. The church should also rejoice in the many and various gifts of creation—including the gift and blessing of human reason itself—which can be brought into the service of the Gospel in “ministerial” ways. Knowing that it is God who causes his church to grow, the church should not hesitate to set lofty goals and dream “impossible” dreams in its outreach efforts, since “with God, nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37).

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Our heavenly Father “desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). To those who have already come to the knowledge of the truth Jesus says: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” baptizing and teaching in accordance with God’s Word and will (Matthew 28:18-20). Scripture is clear: God’s mission is to and for everyone. As it seeks to carry out God’s mission, therefore:

--The church needs to guard against any understanding of or approach to God’s mission that would suggest that God, in bestowing the gift of his grace, is in any way “partial” toward those of a certain race or class or gender (etc.), since Scripture clearly teaches that “God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34). The church itself must take care to avoid all temptations or tendencies toward favoring some or ignoring others in its efforts to reach out to people with the Gospel. At the same time,

--The church should be emboldened and encouraged by the universality of Christ’s work and of the unlimited scope of the Gospel’s call to reach out to all people everywhere with the message of the Gospel, and to “strive to remove every human or sinful barrier that would keep others from hearing and taking seriously the Gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 6:3)” (21). It should not hesitate to use all appropriate tools and methods to identify and seek out individuals and groups who, like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-12), appear to be especially receptive to the truth of God’s Word and the saving message of the Gospel.

God has entrusted his mission not to an assortment of individuals, but to the “one holy Christian and apostolic Church,” the body of Christ.

Faith in Christ is not merely a “personal” matter, a private relationship between “me and Jesus.” In our individualistic age and culture, God’s Word reminds us that each individual believer was born of the Spirit into a family of believers. We are all children of the same heavenly Father through faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:4-6). (23)

 

--The church needs to guard against approaches to God’s mission that focus solely or one-sidedly on an individual’s “personal relationship with Christ,” while ignoring or downplaying the Scriptural reality of the believer’s incorporation into the body of Christ by the Spirit’s work through means of grace. As the church reaches out to individuals with the Gospel, it must also recognize and emphasize the centrality of corporate worship for the life of the church and the crucial importance of ongoing catechesis of its new and existing members. It rejoices in the knowledge that the Lord of the church promises to accomplish his mission in and through his church, however weak or frail it may appear to be, so that even the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). At the same time,

--The church should be emboldened and encouraged both by the God-given unity of Christ’s church and by its God-given diversity, knowing that “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). The church should actively seek to assist all of its members to use the gifts, skills and talents that God has given them for the edification of the whole church and in service to those outside the church.

The mission is God’s, and it is the church’s. It is also “your mission” and “my mission.” Every believer is called to be involved in God’s rescue mission in Christ.

Our personal involvement in God’s mission takes place wherever we are— wherever God has placed us. Each of us, in our “station” or “calling” in life, is called to serve God and bear witness to his grace—whether as child, parent, husband, wife, citizen, employee, employer, government official, soldier, police officer, teacher, construction worker. (27)

 

--The church must guard against any and all tendencies to despise or denigrate the calling or vocation of any Christian, no matter how simple or humble it may be or seem, or to pit “the pastoral office” against “the priesthood of all believers” rather than exalting both as precious and glorious callings of God, each vital in its own way to the fulfillment of God’s mission. At the same time,

--The church should be encouraged and emboldened to make full use of all God’s gifts to the church—pastors, church workers and lay persons in all their diverse vocations—as it strives to make known the name and work of Christ in every corner of our nation and world.

In 2001 Res. 1-02, the Synod in convention—on behalf of the LCMS as a whole—confesses and laments that “an indifference to Christ’s Word and work continues to hinder our ability to tell the Good News about Jesus,” and it implores “God’s forgiveness for our failure to give the Gospel the precedence that it deserves.” This confession is particularly sobering in view of Scripture’s repeated reminders that the end of all things is at hand: “He who is coming will come and will not delay” (Hebrews 10:37). “The love of Christ constrains us to intensify our mission efforts as we see the end drawing nearer, and as we see more and more people living and dying without true knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ” (29). As it seeks to carry out God’s mission, therefore:

--The church must guard against all human and sinful distractions, disputes, divisions or diversions that Satan attempts to use to keep God’s church from doing what God has called it to do. It must guard against sinful pride in past and present “accomplishments” and against faithless despair over apparent failures and weaknesses, both of which militate against the character and calling of God’s militant church in the last days. At the same time,

--The church should be encouraged and emboldened by the sure knowledge that the mission is the Lord’s: mission begins, continues and culminates in the heart and hands of God. “Although he has entrusted it to us, he continues to guide and direct it, sustains it with his presence and promises, and empowers it by providing the divine means through which the mission accomplishes its divine purposes” (29-30).

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11).

 

A Theological Statement of Mission, November 1991 report of the CTCR. This concise report seeks to set forth the theological framework for the church’s participation in God’s mission, and is intentionally designed as a tool and study document to aid congregations and other synodical entities in the development of their mission statements and endeavors.

Evangelism and Church Growth, September 1987 report of the CTCR. This study presents the Scriptural principles of evangelism and offers an evaluation and critique of contemporary “church growth” principles and practices. It also provides recommendations regarding the use of these principles by the members of the Synod.

Spiritual Gifts, September 1994 report of the CTCR. This report examines the subject of “spiritual gifts” from a biblical and creedal perspective and offers considerations and recommendations regarding the use of “spiritual gift inventories.”

Source: http://old.www.lcms.org/president/ministryfocus/efgc_document.asp

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