The Challenge Is To Be Both Faithful and Fruitful

 

By David S. Luecke

 Perhaps the best news out of the 2007 Houston Convention of the LCMS is that the middle is widening.

Votes that win elections or pass resolutions by very thin margins suggest two sides about equally matched.  Votes that win by two thirds or three quarters, as so often happened this past July, don’t necessarily mean that one side has overpowered the other. 

They suggest that the middle has widened.  More delegates are willing to consider the merit of issues.  In July this meant resistance to many efforts to end a discussion early on by calling the question.  Strong majorities mean that the trust level is up.  Delegates had greater confidence in the synodical leadership that shaped the convention agenda and resolutions.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the 40 years of sharp conflict in the LCMS are finally over?  Dare we hope that future LCMS conventions will be boring?

Building Greater Trust

Now the challenge is to continue building trust, especially among pastors. 

Perhaps this is the time for a new vocabulary to identify the underlying issues that have produced so much conflict.  The issues are real and legitimate.  They cannot and should not go away.

One very vocal side calls itself the Confessionalists.  The problem of course is that all in the LCMS would claim that description.  There really have not been sharp issues over how to interpret the Lutheran Confessions.

 Faithfulness

A better description for a cluster of concerns would be faithfulness—faithfulness to Scriptures, the Confessions and historic understandings of doctrine. 

In a time of rapid change, we must recognize that not all change is good.  LCMS leaders and pastors need to be held accountable to what makes this church body distinctively Lutheran.

What, on the other hand, should we call the cluster of concerns that seem at times so threatening to those trying to be faithful?

In the 1970s the other side had a different approach to interpreting Scriptures.  In the intense synodical conflict of that time, a posture of opposition and distrust of leadership became firmly implanted. 

In the 1990s Church Growth and Evangelicalism emerged as the threatening forces to be opposed.  Most recently mission outreach in the form of Synod’s Ablaze! program came under attack.

Fruitfulness

Today the “other side” being opposed out of concern for faithfulness can be seen as a strong emphasis on results in ministry, that is, commitment to mission.  We could name that banner effectiveness.  But let’s use the Biblical mandate: fruitfulness.

The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, and enlightens the whole Christian church on earth, and LCMS congregations in particular, to accomplish something through their life and work together. 

The obvious question is, What?  Trying to reach agreement on answers can be the context for more constructive discussions among pastors.  Our Lutheran heritage has not focused us well on issues of fruitfulness.

Imagine now a writing surface with two columns.  One is headed Faithfulness and the other Fruitfulness.  

Let the discussions begin.  Under the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we can work towards lengthening the list under each banner that pastors and churches can agree on.

As the list of agreements grows, so, too, will trust.  As trust grows, so, too, will the political middle.  So, too, will the resources and energy to be both a more faithful and a more fruitful church body.