The Crux of the Matter - From the Executive Chair

The Bi-Monthly Newsletter of the Augsburg Lutheran District

Vol. 1, No. 6 (June 2002)

In This Issue:

Top Story:
It's Time to Confess: Shipwrecked

District News

From the
District Pastor

From the Executive Chair

Viewpoint

Main Page

Return to ALD Home Page

from the executive chair ...

Lenae Rasmussen

The Augsburg Lutheran District was formed last year as a lifeboat for those caught on the stormy seas of confessional crisis. Set free in Christ crucified, we continue charting a faithful course for our fellowship this summer. In this transition from a voice crying in the wilderness to building a new fellowship, we are called upon to do more than point out problems and complain. We are called to faithfully witness to God's word and live in his gift of faith in Christ, trusting in God's mercy and plans to give us a future with hope.

This summer we gather at "His Hand on the Tiller" to hear God's word proclaimed, pray, share in fellowship, and chart a faithful course . As we gather around word and sacrament, we trust that God is setting our course–it is his hand on the tiller, not ours.

Those who gather at Resurrection Community Church, July 14-18, 2002, have made a conscious decision to resist heresy and confessional drift rather than "go along to get along" within a church body that is acquiescing to cultural demands. We have been called by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the good news that all may hear and believe the gospel, and join our fellowship. We are confessors, not separatists who seek to withdraw from the world. We gladly engage in discussions to educate and inform, and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

In Elk Horn, we adopted clear, unequivocal scriptural stands in our teaching document, confessional statements, and organizational principles. We are continuing this tradition in Springfield as we work through four challenging topics in three days of consensus building: Liturgy and Worship, Public Ministry, Growing Our Fellowship, and Starting New Churches.

Like the Christians to whom the First Epistle of Peter is written, we are God's elect foreigners living in the diaspora–Christians living in a non-Christian society. We are called to live faithfully and witness to the gospel that is our salvation, knowing that our witness will not be warmly accepted by all. In fact, we know that our witness will stir negative reactions and resistance. As Carroll Hinderlie wrote, "In a fallen world, the gospel lives by controversy." Christ has inaugurated a new age: Now the kingdom of God is at hand. Yet this evil age and the powers and principalities and rulers of this age are not about to throw in the towel without a fight. This cosmic battle takes on concrete form in our daily life and the church struggles we face. As Luther wrote, the beast (man) will be ridden by the devil or by God. This is the true either/or ... and only Christ, the rock, is our salvation. We either turn to him or to something else (sand). In this death and life conflict, we engage as witnesses to the Truth, the Way, and the Light.