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from the district pastor ...

Rev. Mark Jamison

The next section of "Our Declaration" is entitled Mission and Church: God's Action in the World. Since God has made us beings who also use the senses as well as the mind to comprehend things, it's not shocking that God would use physical elements that we can taste, touch, and see to bring us His word of the cross. Preaching, water, bread, and wine are vehicles for the word of the cross to get through to us. It is also no surprise that we as earthly creatures are led by the Gospel into earthly life to bear witness to Christ to humankind. How could it be otherwise? If we have been made the people of God by the word of the cross, that will be how others will come to faith as well. The Gospel then creates both the church as the people of God and its mission to make all nations people of God.

In order to carry out this mission, God did not command one particular structure or form for the church. The reason for that is that in this life we do not become sinless. A few Roman Catholic priests have sexually abused children. The televangelist scandals of the late Eighties are not yet a distant memory. A few pastors resign from a clergy roster because of sexual boundary violations. It stands to reason then, the historic episcopate, synods, the presbytery, district presidents, and any other church structures can neither be trusted to safeguard the Gospel nor be a mandated sign of Christian unity because of sin. To trust in these structures and/or forcibly impose them not only goes against Article VII of the Augsburg Confession it also breaks the First Commandment. If a structure is not free from sin there is no possible way it can safeguard the church from the sinfulness of the world. That would be like asking the fox to guard the henhouse.

Trusting in the word of the cross alone gives us a freedom to use structures that best fit a particular place and time. Some Christian writers are telling us the era of big centralized denominations is over. While only time will confirm or deny their predictions, they do remind us that the Lord of the church is not captive to any one structure, and it is unwise for us, the body of Christ, to give up the freedom of the Gospel to do ministry in many forms. The same also is also true for those who insist that specific liturgical forms and practices such as weekly communion must be rigidly observed to have unity in the church and to safeguard the faith. The visible word of the Sacraments should not be elevated above or played off against the preached word. And ordination is not a sacrament that gives clergy some special power to make Christ present in the Lord's Supper. All of God's people are ministers of the word of the cross. Any restrictions in a congregation as to who preaches and who administers the sacraments are to be made for the sake of good order and for effectiveness in mission.

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