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Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
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The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), founded in 1847 in Chicago, is the eighth largest Protestant denomination in the United States, and the second-largest Lutheran body in the U.S. after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It is a moderate conservative, Confessional Lutheran denomination with German immigrant roots.
The LCMS is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, and has about 2.4 million baptized members, approximately half of whom are located in the Upper Midwest, although it is represented in all 50 U.S. states, and is affiliated with other Lutheran sister churches worldwide.
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The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), founded in 1847 in Chicago, is the eighth largest Protestant denomination in the United States, and the second-largest Lutheran body in the U.S. after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It is a moderate conservative, Confessional Lutheran denomination with German immigrant roots.
The LCMS is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, and has about 2.4 million baptized members, approximately half of whom are located in the Upper Midwest, although it is represented in all 50 U.S. states, and is affiliated with other Lutheran sister churches worldwide. It also has several congregations in Ontario (and one in Quebec) that remained with the LCMS after most Canadian congregations in the Synod formed the autonomous Lutheran Church–Canada in 1988. The LCMS is divided into 35 districts — 33 geographic districts, and two (the English District and SELC) non-geographic. The current president is the Rev. Dr. Gerald B. Kieschnick.
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 ministered to 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 ministered to 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 the neighbouring Kingdom of Prussia, 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 their Christian faith in accordance with the Lutheran confessions outlined in the Book of Concord, Stephan and nearly 1100 other Saxon Lutherans left for the United States in November 1838.
Their ships arrived January 5 1839 in New Orleans, with one ship lost at sea. After spending some time waiting for that last ship, most of the remaining 750 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
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, it 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 1880s on."
Until the United States' involvement in the First World War, the older members of the synod remained overwhelmingly German in their 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.
On January 1 1964, the National Evangelical Lutheran Church, a historically Finnish-American Lutheran church, merged with the LCMS. In 1971 the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, an historically Slovak-American church, also merged with the LCMS.
Teachings of the LCMS
Doctrinal Sources and Standards (Formal Principle)
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, the teaching that Bible is inspired by God and is without error. For this reason, they reject much--if not all--of modern liberal scholarship.
Major doctrine (Material Principle)
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 synod 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 grants 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. Confession and absolution is called a Sacrament in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession and so is also considered by many Lutherans to be a sacrament, because it was instituted by Christ and has His promise of grace, even though it is 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 Holy Communion, the LCMS rejects the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and the Reformed teaching that the true body and blood of Christ are not consumed with the consecrated bread and wine in the Lord's Supper. 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. Or, as the Smalcald Articles express this mystery: "Of the Sacrament of the Altar, we hold that the bread and wine in the Supper are Christ's true body and blood." It is occasionally reported that the LCMS and other Lutherans teach the doctrine of consubstantiation. Consubstantiation is rejected by Lutherans and is explicitly rejected by the LCMS.
Eschatology
The Missouri Synod flatly rejects millennialism and the teaching of any "secret rapture." They believe that all believers will be caught up (raptured) on the Last Day (i.e., the end of time). This belief system is formally referred to as "Historical Amillennialism." The synod's focus tends to be on immediate salvation rather than on the end of times.
Creation
The LCMS is officially creationist. 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 through this stated relationship with God, implies an inevitable consequence of God's wrath, judgment, 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 (draw) 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.
St. Louis radio station AM 850 KFUO airs a program called "Law and Gospel" and is hosted by an LCMS pastor-the Rev. Dr. Tom Baker. The program runs Monday-Friday and is live from 1:00PM to 3:00PM CST. The show can also be heard world wide via www.kfuo.org.
Other doctrine
The Antichrist
In 1932 the LCMS adopted A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod. Statement 43, Of the Antichrist, as found on the synod website, is as following:
As to the Antichrist we teach that the prophecies of the Holy Scriptures concerning the Antichrist, ; , have been fulfilled in the Pope of Rome and his dominion. All the features of the Antichrist as drawn in these prophecies, including the most abominable and horrible ones, for example, that the Antichrist "as God sitteth in the temple of God," ; that he anathematizes the very heart of the Gospel of Christ, that is, the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins by grace alone, for Christ's sake alone, through faith alone, without any merit or worthiness in man (; ); that he recognizes only those as members of the Christian Church who bow to his authority; and that, like a deluge, he had inundated the whole Church with his antichristian doctrines till God revealed him through the Reformation -- these very features are the outstanding characteristics of the Papacy. (Cf. ) Hence we subscribe to the statement of our Confessions that the Pope is "the very Antichrist." ()
Practices
The LCMS endorses the doctrine of close or closed communion — the policy of sharing the Lord's Supper ordinarily only with those who are baptized and confirmed members of one of the congregations of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod or of a congregation of one of her sister churches with whom she has formally declared altar and pulpit fellowship. There are a variety of ways in which Missouri Synod congregations put close(d) communion into practice, most often asking visitors to speak with the pastor before coming to that congregation's altar for the first time. explains more regarding this practice.
The Missouri Synod's original 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, liturgies, and practices be in harmony with the Bible and Book of Concord. Historically, worship in Missouri Synod congregations is orthodox and liturgical, utilizing a printed order of service and hymnal, accompanied by a pipe organ or other classical instrumentation. In recent years, some congregations have adopted a variety of less-formal worship styles, employing contemporary Christian music, pianos, guitars, and other instruments. This has caused some contention in the church body since it has a decidedly liturgical heritage. The recent publication of Lutheran Service Book and its widespread reception shows the strength of liturgical life in the parishes of the Synod.
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 "distinctive functions of the pastoral office." Thus in many congregations of the LCMS, women now serve as congregation president or chairperson, readers, ushers, etc.
Franz August Otto Pieper's 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 strict "democracy-based" values of a congregation have created severe problems in several churches where local internal problems and stress cannot be addressed (by constitutional laws) by elected officials in St. Louis. Programs such as "Peace in the Parish" can only serve as guidelines to a congregation which can reject the wishes of the Synod.
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 (hire) 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 a 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. The next Synodical convention will be in 2010. Local conventions within each circuit and district are held in the intervening years.
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 obtained from one of these institutions: 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 synod). 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 an episcopal form of apostolic succession but sees the office grounded in the word and sacrament ministry of the Gospel, arguing that Scripture makes no distinction between a presbyter (priest) and a bishop (see Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, paragraphs 63,64, citing St. Jerome). The Apology of the Augsburg Confession (Article XIII) explicitly grants that ordination can be considered a sacrament, only if interpreted in relation to the ministry of the Word. The Augsburg Confession (Article XIV) holds that no one is to preach, teach, or administer the sacraments without a regular call. The Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope holds that ordination takes place by divine right (par. 72).
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 (now known as Lutheran Hour Ministries), 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, through which it publishes the official periodical of the LCMS, The Lutheran Witness.
Relationship with other Lutheran bodies
Maintaining its position as a confessional church body 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. At the 2007 convention, the delegates voted to establish altar and pulpit fellowship with the American Association of Lutheran Churches (AALC).
Although its strongly conservative views on theology and ethics might seem to make the LCMS politically compatible with Protestant evangelicals and fundamentalists in the U.S., the LCMS largely eschews political activity, partly out of concerns to keep the denomination untainted with potential heresies and also because of its strict understanding of the Lutheran distinction between the Two Kingdoms (see above), which repudiates the primarily Calvinist presuppositions about the totalizing rule of God that informs much, if not most, of U.S. evangelical understanding of politics and Christianity. However, there is no doubt that LCMS and Evangelicals share the view that life begins at conception (http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/LCMS/wa_abortion.pdf). This topic has been widely identified as a primary issue in presidential and congressional elections.
With 2.4 million members, the LCMS is the second-largest American Lutheran denomination, after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with 4.8 million members, and followed by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) with 410,000.
The LCMS is distinguished from the closest non-LCMS Lutheran US denomination — the Wisconsin Synod — by three main theological beliefs:
- 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.
- 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.
- The role of women in the church — Although both the LCMS and WELS agree that Scripture reserves the pastoral office for men, the WELS also believes that Scripture forbids women's suffrage in the congregation.
Presidents
See also
External links
Official LCMS websites
- - LCMS Archives
- - LCMS Publishing
- - LCMS Seminary Fort Wayne, Indiana
- - LCMS Radio
-
Additional resource websites
- - The Lutheran Confessions
- ; A collection of synodical documents from the 1950s to the 1960s.
Print resources
History
Historical documents and accounts
- . St. Louis: Lutherischer Concordia-Verlag, 1879.
- . St. Louis: Luth. Concordia-Verlag, 1888.
- . St. Louis: Verlag der ev.-luth. Synode von Missouri, Ohio u.a. Staaten, 1868.
- Dau, W.T.H. . St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1922.
- Forster, Walter O. Zion on the Mississippi: The Settlement of the Saxon Lutherans in Missouri 1839-1841. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953.
- Graebner, August Lawrence. . St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1893.
- Janzow, W. Theophil. Thy Kingdom Come: A History of the Nebraska District of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Seward, NE: The Nebraska District of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, 1983.
- Meyer, Carl S. Moving Frontiers: Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1964. LOC 63-21161
- Rudnick, Milton L. Fundamentalism and the Missouri Synod: A historical study of their interaction and mutual influence. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1966. LOC 66-28229
- Schiffman, Harold. "Language loyalty in the German-American Church: the Case of an Over-confident Minority" (1987)
- Suelflow, August R. Heritage in Motion: Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod 1962-1995. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1998. ISBN 0-570-04266-6
- Todd, Mary. Authority Vested: A Story of Identity and Change in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2000. ISBN 0-8028-4457-X
- Vehse, Carl Eduard. . Dresden: Verlagsexpedition des Dresdner Wochenblattes, 1840.
- Wolf, Edmund Jacob. New York: J.A. Hill, 1889.
The Seminex controversy
- Adams, James E. Preus of Missouri and the Great Lutheran Civil War. New York: Harper and Row, 1977.
- Board of Control, Concordia Seminary. Exodus From Concordia: A Report on the 1974 Walkout. St. Louis: Concordia Seminary, 1977.
- Danker, Frederick W. No Room in the Brotherhood: The Preus-Otten Purge of Missouri. St. Louis: Clayton Publishing House, 1977. ISBN 0-915644-10-X
- Marquart, Kurt E. Anatomy of an Explosion: Missouri in Lutheran Perspective. Fort Wayne, IN: Concordia Theological Seminary Press, 1977.
- Tietjen, John. Memoirs in Exile: Confessional Hope and Institutional Conflict. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1990.
- Zimmerman, Paul. A Seminary in Crisis. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2006. ISBN 0758611021
Missions
- Gieseler, Carl A. The Wide-Open Island City: Home Mission Work in a Big City. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1927.
- Kretzmann, Paul E. Glimpses of the Lives of Great Missionary Women. Men and Missions IX. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1930.
- Krueger, Ottomar. "Unto the Uttermost Part of the Earth": The Life of Pastor Louis Harms. Men and Missions VIII. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1930.
- Our China Mission. Men and Missions IV. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1926.
General
- Cimino, Richard. Lutherans Today: American Lutheran Identity in the Twenty-First Century. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2003. ISBN 0-8028-1365-8
- Nelson, E. Clifford et al. The Lutherans in North America. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975. ISBN 0-8006-0409-1
- Strommen, Merton P., Milo L. Brekke, Ralph C. Underwager, and Arthur L. Johnson. A Study of Generations: Report of a Two-Year Study of 5,000 Lutherans Between the Ages of 15-65: Their Beliefs, Values, Attitudes, Behavior. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1972. ISBN 0-8066-1207-X
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