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Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod

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The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States, after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri and has about 2.46 million baptized members.

The LCMS is a conservative, confessional Lutheran Christian denomination with German immigrant roots. It is divided into 35 districts – 33 geographic districts and two (the English District and SELC) non-geographic. (See: Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod districts)

Contents

History

The Missouri Synod emerged from several communities of German Lutheran immigrants during the 1830s and 1840s. In Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, isolated Germans in the dense forests of the American frontier were brought together and cared for by missionary F.C.D. Wyneken. A movement of Confessional Saxon Lutherans under Martin Stephan created a community in Perry County, Missouri and St. Louis, Missouri. In Michigan and Ohio, Missionaries sent by Wilhelm Löhe cared for scattered congregations and founded German Lutheran communities in Frankenmuth, Michigan and the Saginaw Valley of Michigan.

The Saxon immigration

In the 19th-century German Kingdom of Saxony, Lutheran pastor Martin Stephan and many of his followers found themselves increasingly at odds with the rationalism and unionism of the state-sponsored Lutheranism in Saxony. The Prussian Union of 1817 forced Lutherans to, among other changes, embrace non-Lutheran services of Holy Communion and Holy Baptism. In order to freely practice what they saw as pure Lutheranism, Stephan and 750 other Saxon Lutherans left for the United States in November 1838.

Their ship arrived January 5, 1839 in New Orleans, and most of the immigrants settled in Perry County, Missouri and in and around St. Louis. Stephan was initially the bishop of the new settlement, but he soon became embroiled in charges of corruption and sexual misconduct with members of the congregation, and was expelled from the settlement, leaving C.F.W. Walther as the leader of the colony.

During this period there was considerable debate within the settlement over the proper role of the church in the New World: whether it was a new church, or remained within the German Lutheran hierarchy. Walther's view that they could consider themselves a new church prevailed.

Organization of the Missouri Synod

Corporate seal of the LCMS
Enlarge
Corporate seal of the LCMS

On April 26, 1847, twelve pastors representing 15 German Lutheran congregations met in Chicago, Illinois and founded a new church body, "The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States." Walther became the fledgling denomination's first president.

In its early days the synod was conservative on a number of issues. Following Walther's lead, the church strongly opposed humanism and religious syncretism. It opposed abolitionism based on Biblical passages which it taught neither approved of nor condemned slavery.

Under the leadership of its second President, F.C.D. Wyneken, the Missouri Synod poured much effort into caring for German immigrants, helping them find a home among other Germans, building churches and parochial schools and providing pastors and teachers to serve in them.

As a result, the new synod grew quickly during the 19th century, reaching 685,000 members by 1897.

Transition to English

As one scholar has explained, "The overwhelming evidence from internal documents of these [Missouri Synod] churches, and particularly their schools...indicates that the German-American school was a bilingual one much (perhaps a whole generation or more) earlier than 1917, and that the majority of the pupils may have been English-dominant bilinguals from the early 1880's on."[link]

Until the United States' involvement in the First World War, the older members of the synod remained overwhelmingly German in its language, but younger members had long switched to English. The anti-German sentiment during the war enabled the younger generation to "Americanize" the church's image and switch the remaining German services to English. As a result over the next half-century the synod's membership doubled.

In 1947, the church body shortened its name from "The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States," to the present one, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.

Consensus and division

Since the last half of the 20th century, the Missouri Synod has struggled through a number of internal disputes over its doctrinal, theological, and social positions. In the early and mid-1970s, a dispute over scriptural interpretation led the vast majority of the students and faculty at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis to leave that institution. The faculty and students formed a rival institution known as Seminex, or Concordia Seminary in Exile. Prompted by this walkout, about 250 congregations left the Missouri Synod in 1976 to form the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC), one of the predecessor bodies to the ELCA.

After a period of relative calm in the 1980s, disputes arose in the 1990s. Although the LCMS is united on many doctrinal and practical issues, nevertheless, it has become polarized into several informal camps or wings, each comprised of a number of more-or-less formally organized groups. Some of the formalized groups on both sides include “confessionalist” groups such as [Reclaiming Walther], [Christian News], and [Consensus], and “evangelical”[[Citing sources citation needed]] groups such as [Jesus First], [Day Star], [Pastoral Leadership Institute (PLI)] and [Voices/Vision].

Tensions in the Synod emerged in the months following September 11, 2001, after Atlantic District President David Benke took part in an event titled "A Prayer for America" at Yankee Stadium to commemorate the victims of the terrorist attack on New York City. In this event he offered a prayer that began with an invitation to worshipers of various gods to join him in prayer, though it concluded with the words “…in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.” Benke had previously apologized to the Synod for participating in precisely such syncretistic worship activities as the "confessionalists" see the event- which consisted entirely of prayers, homilies, hymns, and scripture readings, and was publicly promoted as a worship service- as being. "Evangelicals". . , (UTC)}. see it as a civil event, which allowed prayer (effectively arguing that the common elements which define a "worship service" were missing, without specifying what those might be). The issue really revolves around the definition of a worship service and understanding of various Synodic writings regarding civil events.

Many in the confessionalist camp argued that Benke, by participating in an event alongside non-Lutheran clergy and leaders of non-Christian faiths, had engaged in practices that the Synod condemns as "syncretism" and "unionism." They typically define the event as a religious worship service (and must do so for the argument of syncretism/unionism to hold). People within the traditional camp brought a series of formal charges against Pres. Benke and actively sought his expulsion from the Synod. A Dispute Resolution Panel, however, cleared of these charges and overturned Dr. Benke's suspension. A July 2001 CTCR (Commission on Theology and Church Relations) Statement addressing the issue of syncretism can be found [here].

Teachings of the LCMS

Doctrinal sources and standards ( One of the signature teachings of the Lutheran Reformation is the teaching named Sola scriptura – "Scripture alone." The Missouri Synod believes that the Bible is the only standard by which church teachings can be judged. It also holds that the Holy Scripture is explained and interpreted by the Book of Concord – a series of Confessions of faith composed by Lutherans in the 16th century. Missouri Synod pastors and congregations agree to teach in harmony with the Book of Concord because it teaches and faithfully explains the Word of God. The Missouri Synod also teaches Biblical inerrancy[link], the teaching that Bible is inspired by God and is without error. For this reason, they reject much of modern liberal scholarship.

Major

Salvation

The Missouri Synod believes that justification comes from God "by divine grace alone, through faith alone, for Christ's sake alone." It teaches that Jesus is the focus of the entire Bible and that faith in him alone is the way to eternal salvation. The church rejects any attempt to attribute salvation to anything other than Christ's death and resurrection.

The means of grace

The Synod teaches that the Word of God, both written and preached, and the Sacraments are means of grace through which the Holy Spirit gives the gift of God's grace, creates faith in hearts of individuals, forgives sins for the sake of Christ's death on the cross, and grant eternal life and salvation. For Missouri Synod Lutherans, sacraments are actions instituted by Jesus and combine a promise in God's Word with a physical element. All agree that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are sacraments. [link] Confession and absolution are considered by some to be a sacrament, because they were instituted by Christ and have His promise of grace, even though they are not tied to a physical element.

Unlike Calvinists, Lutherans agree that the means of grace are resistible; this belief is based on numerous biblical references as discussed in the Book of Concord.

Sacramental Union and the Lord's Supper

Regarding the Eucharist, the LCMS rejects the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and the Reformed teaching that the Lord's Supper is merely a symbolic act. Rather, it believes in the doctrine of the Sacramental Union, that the Body and Blood of Christ are truly present "in, with, and under" the elements of bread and wine. It is occasionally reported by some non-Lutherans that the LCMS and other Lutherans teach the doctrine of consubstantiation which the LCMS rejects.

Eschatology

The Missouri Synod flatly rejects millenialism[link] and the teaching of any "secret rapture." They believe that all will be caught up (raptured for lack of a better term) on the Last Day, the end of time. The belief system is formally referred to as "Historical Amillennialism". The church's focus tends to be on immediate salvation rather than on the end times.

Creation

The LCMS is officially creationist.[link] According to the recent 2004 LCMS synodical resolution 2-08A “To Commend Preaching and Teaching Creation” all LCMS churches and educational institutions - including preschool through 12th grade, universities, and seminaries - are "to teach creation from the Biblical perspective."

Law and Gospel

The LCMS, along with certain other Lutheran Church Bodies, also teaches the doctrine of the distinction between God's "Law" and God's "Gospel." The Missouri Synod believes that the Holy Scriptures contain only two teachings – the Law and the Gospel. The Law is all those parts of the Bible that provide commands and instructions, which the LCMS believes are impossible to completely obey. Therefore, the Law is a statement of God's wrath, judgement, and damnation. The Gospel, on the other hand, is the portions of Scripture that promise free salvation from God, even to sinners. The law condemns, the Gospel saves. Both the Law and the Gospel are gifts from God; both are necessary. The function of the law is to show a person their sinful nature and drive them to the Gospel, where the forgiveness of sin is promised for the sake of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The LCMS insists that both the Old and the New Testament teach both Law and Gospel. The Old Testament, therefore, is valuable to Christians. Its teachings point forward in time to the Cross of Christ in the same way that the New Testament points backward in time to the Cross. This vital LCMS doctrine was most famously summarized by C. F. W. Walther in his book, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel.

The doctrine of Law and Gospel is unique to some Lutheran denominations, however not all Lutheran denominations teach this doctrine. Those that teach the doctrine of Law and Gospel believe that it answers all questions raised by Liberal Christianity.

Practices

The Missouri Synod is also conservative in its worship practices. The LCMS endorses the doctrine of close or closed communion – the policy of sharing the Lord's Supper only with Christians who believe that everything it teaches about the Christian faith is true. There is a variety of ways in which Missouri Synod congregations put close communion into practice, most often asking visitors to speak with the Pastor before coming to that congregation's altar for the first time.

The Missouri Synod's Constitution indicates that one of its purposes is to strive toward uniformity in practice, while also encouraging responsible and doctrinally-sound diversity. The synod requires that hymns, songs, rituals and practices be in harmony with the teachings of the synod. Historically, worship in Missouri Synod congregations is traditional and liturgical, utilizing a printed order of service, a Hymnal and traditional hymns, accompanied by a pipe organ or other classical instruments. In recent years, many congregations have adopted a variety of less formal worship styles, employing contemporary Christian music, pianos, guitars and other instruments.

The Missouri Synod teaches that the ordination of women as clergy is contrary to scripture. The issue of women's roles in the church body has continued to be a subject of great debate within the Synod. Women received the right to suffrage within Missouri Synod congregations in 1969, and it was affirmed at the Synod's 2004 convention that women may also "serve in humanly established offices" as long as those offices do not include any of the functions of the pastoral office. Thus in many congregations of the LCMS, women now serve as congregation president or chairperson, readers, ushers, etc.

A [Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod] provides a summary of the major beliefs of the LCMS.

Church structure

The Synodical structure is congregational (run by congregations) instead of episcopal (run by bishops), although, unlike some other Protestant denominations, this is not considered to be a point of doctrine, as the Synod is in fellowship with some Lutheran church bodies in Europe that have an episcopal structure. Congregations are served by a full-time professional clergy.

The corporate LCMS is formally constituted of two types of members: autonomous local congregations that qualify for membership by mutual agreement to adhere to stated principles, and clergymen who qualify by similar means. Congregations hold legal title to their church buildings and other property, and call and dismiss their own clergy. Much of the practical work of the LCMS structure is as a free employment brokerage to bring the two together; it also allows the congregations to work together on projects far too large for even a local consortium of congregations to accomplish, such as foreign mission work.

The entire synod is divided into districts, usually corresponding to a specific geographic area, as well as two non-geographical districts, the English and the SELC, which were formed when the formerly separate English Missouri Synod and the Slovak Synod, respectively, merged with the formerly German-speaking Missouri Synod. Each district is led by an elected district president, who must be an ordained clergyman. Most district presidencies are full-time positions, but there are a few exceptions in which the district president also serves as a parish pastor. The districts are subdivided into circuits, each of which is led by circuit counselor, who is an ordained pastor from one of the member congregations.

The LCMS as a whole is led by an ordained Synodical President, currently Gerald B. Kieschnick. The President is chosen at a synodical convention, a gathering of the two membership groups (professional clergymen, and lay representatives from the member congregations). The convention is held every three years; discussions of doctrine and policy take place at these events, and elections are held to fill various Synodical positions.

LCMS pastors are generally required to have a four-year bachelor's degree (in any discipline), as well as a four-year Master of Divinity degree which is usually obatained from one of the body's two seminaries: Concordia Seminary in St. Louis or the Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana or at the two seminaries run by the Lutheran Church - Canada. Candidates may earn their Master of Divinity degree at other seminaries but must then take colloquy classes at either St. Louis or Ft. Wayne. Seminary training includes classwork in historical theology, Biblical languages (Biblical Greek and Hebrew), practical application (education, preaching, and mission), and doctrine (the basic teachings and beliefs of the church). It has been noted that the seminaries of the LCMS are some of the most difficult seminaries in the United States as the LCMS has a strong focus on education.

Ordination

Ordination is seen as a public ceremony of recognition that a man has received and accepted a divine call, and hence is considered to be in the office of the ministry. The LCMS does not believe ordination is an extension of apostolic succession but sees the office grounded in the word and sacrament ministry of the Gospel.

Organizations

In addition to its two seminaries, the LCMS operates ten universities known as the Concordia University System. Among the LCMS's other auxiliary organizations are the Lutheran Laymen's League, which conducts outreach ministries including The Lutheran Hour radio program, and the Lutheran Women's Missionary League. The synod also operates a publishing company, Concordia Publishing House.

Relationship with other church bodies

Maintaining its position as a confessional church emphasizing the importance of full agreement in the teachings of the Bible, the LCMS is not associated with ecumenical organizations such as the National Council of Churches, the National Association of Evangelicals, the World Council of Churches or the Lutheran World Federation. However, it is a member of the International Lutheran Council, made up of over 30 Lutheran Churches worldwide that support the confessional doctrines of the Bible and the Book of Concord.

With 2.6 million members, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod is the second largest American Lutheran denomination, after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with 5.1 million members, and followed by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod with 410,000.

The LCMS is distinguished from its closest non-LCMS Lutheran US denomination – the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) – by three main theological beliefs:

  1. The biblical understanding of fellowship – the LCMS believes in a distinction between the altar, pulpit fellowship, and other manifestations of Christian fellowship (i.e., a prayer fellowship). The WELS does not.
  2. The doctrine of the ministry – the LCMS believes that the Pastoral office is divinely established, but all other offices are human institutions and hence are not divinely established. The WELS believes that other offices, such as teachers, are also divinely established.
  3. The role of women in the church – Both the LCMS and WELS agree that Scriptures reserve the pastoral office for men. However, the WELS also believes that the Scriptures forbid women's suffrage in the congregation.

Presidents

Basic Facts
most
recent: 		President
Dr. Gerald B. Kieschnick
Membership: International Lutheran Council
Districts: 35
congregations: over 6000
members: ca. 2,34 Mio
Address: International Center, 1333 Kirkwood Road
St. Louis, Mo 63122-7295 USA
Official Website: [Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod]
E-Mail-Address: [mailto:InfoCenter@lcms.org Mail to LC-MS]

See also

External links

Print resources

History

Historical documents and accounts

The

Missions

General

 

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