By Rev. Stephen J. Carter

In this issue of the Jesus First Newsletter I am beginning a regular column under the heading, “Hope and a Future,” based on Jeremiah 29: 11. I intend to focus on God’s promises for The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, repentant and reclaiming its character as a faithful, loving and evangelistic church body. This positive future finds tangible shape in the leadership of President Gerald Kieschnick and his “One Mission, One Message, One People” vision as well as in the “Ablaze” mission effort to touch 100 million people with the Gospel by 2017.

Only One Avenue to a Positive Future

But a positive, Christ-centered future for the LCMS can be realized only by dealing honestly with the current realities in our church body. The prophet Jeremiah is our guide. He wrote his letter to exiles in Babylon, exposing their sins that led to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and city walls. He warned against prophets who would bring a message of false comfort or a quick fix. Only in this context did he then offer to a repentant exile community God’s promise of “hope and a future.”

For over 20 years I have been listening carefully and respectfully to those in the LCMS whom I have described in other articles as the Either/Or group. I have attempted to put the best construction on their deeply held convictions and aggressive political actions. However, I have ultimately concluded that their fixation on “purity of doctrine and practice” with a determination to judge and control at every level of the church has brought an alien spirit into our midst. This wrong spirit threatens the very Gospel that we hold dear and that forms the common basis for “walking together” as a Synod.

The “Babylonian Captivity” of the LCMS

After viewing the current film Luther, I was struck by the serious obstacles placed in the way of a clear understanding of the Gospel by the leaders of the Sixteenth Century church. Luther’s 152l treatise on “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church” called to mind both Jeremiah 29:11 and the current situation in the LCMS. All of us want a Gospel-centered church. All of us recognize our need for daily confession of those sins that place obstacles in the way of that Gospel understanding. Nevertheless, God’s plans for “hope and a future” in the LCMS require us to deal firmly and evangelically with the Either/Or group in our church. Otherwise, our Babylonian captivity may extend indefinitely to the detriment of the Gospel.

Rev. Stephen J. Carter is the former President of CPH and lives in St. Louis, MO.