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Lutherans have a confessional convention

Conservatives/confessionals feel very good about the triennial convention of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, which concluded last week in Milwaukee. They passed virtually all of their resolutions by big margins, elected virtually all of their candidates, and won some big victories.

The convention voted to ensure that everyone engaged in Word and Sacrament ministry be ordained. (Lay ministers may still serve in various church functions, but not they may not function as pastors, preaching and administering the sacraments, as many have been doing. The convention also approved a path for getting lay ministers ordained.) This lines up the 2.5 million member synod with the Augsburg Confession, Article 14. For other actions, go here.

After the jump, Aaron Wolf, an editor with Chronicles Magazine, rhapsodizes about the LCMS, of which he is a member, saying that with the convention, “the LCMS officially embraced a conservative ethos.”

From Aaron D. Wolf, The LCMS: A Triumph for Conservatism | Chronicles Magazine:

Conservatives may be tempted to wonder whether it’s worth fighting. In this soundbite, instant-dislike, tl;dr, flashsnipe, banal, fractious, impressionistic, politicized culture of ours, our instinct can be to retreat, to separate fully, to disengage. I’ve been there, and when I have, I’ve been wrong. So long as we are alive, there is ground to be gained in the battle for truth.

Yesterday’s results from the 2016 Synodical Convention of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod are such a gain. In three key resolutions, which passed with remarkable success, delegates to the convention voted to affirm that only pastors may do what only pastors may do; that our daughters should not be forced by our overweening government to play the role of men in combat; and that churches should not confuse people by placing ladies in roles that belong to men in congregational affairs. . . .

By rejecting “lay pastors,” the conscription of women, and female communion assistants and “elders,” the Missouri Synod didn’t just bear witness to particular points of doctrine or to the truths contained in certain Bible verses (worthy though those actions are). The LCMS officially embraced a conservative ethos.

Now the real work continues. The LCMS must articulate these truths and that approach to Truth clearly, winsomely, and uncompromisingly—to other church bodies, to a snarky, skeptical media, and most importantly, to itself. I am confident that the Rev. President Matthew Harrison, again reelected, will continue this work. But for tradition to be traditioned, the entire church—pastors and laity—must work and walk together.

[Keep reading. . .]

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