The Right of the Congregation
 to Interview Confessing First Call Candidates

Many of this year's confessing seminary graduates are depending upon Lutheran churches without pastors to resist the mandatory implementation of CCM and extend them a call. The right of a congregation to do this can be traced back to the Reformation and the Bible. In 1523, Martin Luther wrote that the Christian church, which is known as the assembly in which the pure gospel is preached and heard, has the scripturally established right and power to judge all teaching and to call, appoint, and dismiss teachers. Luther rejected the episcopacy of his day (the papacy), equating it with the human traditions that had driven the gospel far away from the people (Luther, Martin. LW 39, "That A Christian Assembly or Congregation has the Right and Power to Judge all Teaching and to Call, Appoint, and Dismiss Teachers, Established and Proven by Scripture," 306). However, Luther fought a two-front battle, also rejecting the disruptive practices of the "schwärmer" (enthusiasts—the spiritualistic fanatics of his day; see Luther, Martin. LW 35, "Preface to the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians," 1530, 380-3. Passsim). As is well known, the Evangelical congregations maintained "good order" in the practice of calling and ordaining as shown by CA 14 and other historic documents.

In 1523, however, the "tyrant" that Luther argued against was the episcopate of the Roman Church, which makes his treatise relevant to our situation today. For almost five hundred years Lutheran church bodies have adhered to Luther's teaching with respect to the calling and ordaining of pastors. With the passage and implementation of Called to Common Mission (CCM), the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) is circumventing this teaching by forbidding its congregations from setting up interviews directly with pastoral candidates who oppose "episcopal ordination." Candidates who have been approved by their ELCA candidacy committee are denied open access to interview with congregations who may call them. Candidates whose approval has been delayed because they are opposed to the ELCA's adoption of the Anglican Episcopate are in worse straits—they are left to "die on the vine" if they do not submit.

Over the past decade ELCA congregations have come to look upon the synod office as their human resources department or the employment agency for pastors. Just a dozen or so years ago, however, the ELCA did not even exist and ALC congregations had the option of getting the names of potential pastors from their District President, or calling a pastor that they found on their own by directly mailing the pastor a letter of call. The office of district president, later called "bishop," existed to be an assistant to congregations in exercising their divine right to call a pastor.

With the formation of the ELCA and its implementation of CCM, however, the assistant has become the overlord. According to the ELCA constitution congregations must use the bishop's office to identify all pastoral candidates. Congregations are not allowed to interview or call a pastor who has been approved by a candidacy committee unless that person is assigned to their bishop's synod. They cannot interview a pastor who is a member of the ELCA clergy roster unless his Mobility Papers are on file with their bishop.

Using the bishops' office to identify pastoral candidates was supposed to be a helpful way to link pastors and congregations. Making its use a requirement now has become a device to prevent seminary graduates who oppose CCM from getting calls. If candidates are not allowed to interview with congregations who are sympathetic to their plight or oppose CCM, they will never get a call. If they never receive a call, they will never be ordained because receiving a call is the basic requirement for ordination. Even if a "wiggle room" amendment were to be passed at the Church-Wide Assembly in Indianapolis this August, it will not be of any use if the bishops do not allow candidates opposed to CCM to interview directly with a congregation. If congregations cannot interview them, they cannot call them. Consequently, congregations are denied their divine right to call and ordain. The ultimate effect of CCM and the ELCA constitution's tyranny over the call process is that the proclamation of the gospel is prevented. Thus, the gospel is obscured as it was in Luther's day.

In this situation congregations have a responsibility to "test the spirits" both with respect to the ELCA constitution and those who seek to impose it in violation of Scripture and the Lutheran confessions (1 Jn 4:1-3). Congregations and pastors must dare to be the opponents of false teaching, ecclesiastical tyranny, and episcopal totalitarianism. It does not take a theologian to answer the question: Does this provision of the constitution promote the gospel of Jesus Christ or something else? Are the people who seek to impose it promoting Christ or themselves?

While tensions between allegiance to the ELCA constitution/bishops and faithfulness to the Lord of the church will always exist, open violations of scriptural and confessional teaching must be acknowledged and refuted. When the truth of the gospel is at stake, Lutherans must confess and resist. When a bishop tells a congregation that it does not have the divine right to interview, call, and ordain approved candidates to the ministry, or when a bishop says that a candidate must be ordained by an ELCA bishop or a bishop in apostolic succession for the ordination to be proper, then it is that congregation's right and duty to reject the bishop's false teaching and confess the gospel in its purity (Gal 1:8,9; 2:11-14).

The gospel itself compels all believers to discern and confess the truth, which in turn compels us to "stand and deliver" in the aftermath of CCM. This is not merely the small matter of choosing between one rite or another, as some have said. This is a confessional crisis that strikes at the very heart of Lutheran teaching on justification by faith alone, the priesthood of all believers, and the church. Hearing the word of God proclaimed and receiving it in faith is the very union of God's word and his people that creates the priesthood of all believers. This union of hearing and believing is what makes a congregation an assembly of God's holy people. The church is the place where the "justifying event happens." It is where God's pure gospel is proclaimed to his people and where his people receive the word of God in faith (LW 41:150). If this proclamation does not take place (and something else is taught in its place) the people of God will not be able to receive it and the gift of faith and salvation it brings. Calling and ordaining pastors who proclaim the gospel in its purity to God's people is essential to the life of the congregation.

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery" (Gal 5:1). Congregational call committees cannot abdicate their right and duty to the gospel when calling a pastor today; neither can anyone take it from them— it has been given them by Christ, who is the Lord of his Church. In this time of confessional crisis they are not only called to protest against constitutional provisions that are contrary to scripture and confession, they are called by God to discern the truth of the gospel, and interview, call, and ordain confessing Lutheran pastors who discern the truth as well. Indeed, in testing what they are being taught against their confession of faith, and calling and ordaining pastors who will teach and preach the gospel in its purity, congregations and their call committees are God's very instruments to sustain the priesthood of all believers. In this way they glorify God until Christ comes again.

Lenae Rasmussen Clarksville, Tennessee

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