The LCA at the Crossroads

In the last decade the Lutheran Church of Australia has, according to many observers, undergone tremendous change. Some changes are undoubtedly for the good; some efforts to change the LCA have taken her down paths she should not tread if she is to remain faithful to her confession.

There seems to be growing confusion as to who we Lutherans are in the wider scheme of things. Are we Romans but without a pope, or are we Baptists but with the sacraments? Further, is there any need to maintain our Lutheran distinctives today or are we better served by becoming generic Protestants, and simply uniting with the other churches in order to join forces in the battle against the encroaching secularism and paganism of today and to help ‘the church’ survive?

The weakening of the LCA

We see a weakening of Lutheran identity in a number of developments in the LCA:

1. Commitment to the Lutheran Church is today often referred to as an example of denominational loyalty rather than being confessional. Of course, it is very much easier to renounce one’s connection to a denomination for reasons of loyalty than for reasons of confessional conviction.

2. In Lutheran churches there is an increasing unease with the crucifix, the symbol of the real presence of Christ in the sacrament as well as the most natural symbol of ‘Christ and him crucified’. Many appear to have embraced the Reformed empty cross as the symbol suitable for the church today.

3. Congregations of the church are encouraged to use forms of worship and hymns that are supposedly more acceptable to the general community, whether they reflect Lutheran theology or not. I refer, for example, to services without confession and absolution, or without gospel readings and the creed, to the prominence of bands performing to the congregation and to the use of ‘Hill Songs’ in services in Lutheran Churches and schools.

4. There is a tendency to preach the law in its third use in a way which induces guilt and emphasises grim duty, while stifling joyful gratitude as the motivation for obedience (in other words, following Calvin’s third use rather than that of the Formula of Concord). Much ‘how to’ preaching, which is common today, leads down this path and confuses law and gospel.

5. Much of the agenda of pastors’ conferences in the recent past has been devoted to the promotion of Church Growth principles and methodologies, with little or no regard for a Lutheran theology of mission.

6. The public presentation of the pastor on formal occasions, specifically in leading the divine service, suggests a generic Protestant rather than a liturgical Lutheran connection. The clerical shirt is often rejected. Liturgical vestments are increasingly dispensed with in favour of the suit and tie or even an open neck shirt.

7. Congregations are happy to put on public notice boards the title ‘Community Church’, a term favoured by Reformed Evangelicals. Often the name ‘Lutheran’ is missing altogether from the title of the congregation.

8. Pastors of the church are most often regarded as leaders and visionaries rather than Servants of the Word. So Pastors’ Conferences are now for leaders rather than for those who have been ordained to The Office Of The Holy Ministry. The Office Of The Holy Ministry, as understood in the Lutheran Confessions and the Theses of Agreement, is under serious threat.

9. There is much readiness to talk about accepting Christ, submitting to the Lordship of Jesus and deciding for Christ when talking about conversion. People are threatened with hell if they die with ‘a single unrepented sin’ on their conscience — as if the good work of repentance saves rather than faith in Christ.

10. There is the misapplication of the Great Commission in an emphasis on evangelism through ‘personal testimony’, with inadequate attention given to faith creation through the means of grace offered through the pastoral office.

11. There is the use of the name ‘Jesus’, most often without including his title ‘Christ’. The impression is given that it is through the historic person Jesus, his presence and his power in the individual’s life that blessing is given, rather than through the work of the Christ of the cross and the empty tomb, the ‘extra nos’ of the work of Christ. If you have Jesus as your friend, all is well.

12. The emphasis in the church appears to be on ‘focusing leaders’ and congregations for mission. So, much of the money raised by the congregations going to the wider church is used to support so-called ‘mission and ministry’ with little money available to subsidise the pastoral ministry of word and sacraments in congregations.

13. The emphasis in mission is now placed now on ‘church planting’. The stress is on the harvest – on the growing of the congregation, which is finally the Lord’s prerogative — rather than on God’s people bearing witness to Christ and on the encounter with Christ at the font, in the word, and in holy communion. That is where the real task of planting takes place, according to Lutheran theology.

14. The recommended use of Reformed teaching materials like Christianity Explained and the Alpha Course reveals a lack of commitment to and appreciation of the Lutheran Confessions, with their unique proclamation of both law and gospel and their proper distinction. Likewise, the promotion of such books as Evangelical Style, Lutheran Substance and, more recently, Power Surge, reveals the preferred direction for congregations.

15. There appears to be a lessening of respect for the authority of the Synod and its officials, and for the public doctrine of the Church. For example, our Confessions say that ‘no one shall publicly teach or preach in the church without a regular call’, and our practice is, to this point in our history, that only male Lutheran Pastors in good standing may publicly preach. Yet a woman has been invited to preach in a service conducted in Lutheran circles, and one Lutheran school has invited, on more than one occasion, a person from the charismatic tradition to take a regular devotion. Also so called ‘lay preachers are encouraged, even where the full-time ministry of the Pastor is present. In this and other subtle ways the public teaching of the Church is undermined or simply ignored.

The end result of all of this is that the Lutheran Church will find itself in the same camp with the Protestant churches of this country. Already in many cases there is very little to distinguish some of its congregations from the ‘unibapticostal’ church around the corner. Its preaching, worship and witness are increasingly governed by Evangelicalism, Fundamentalism, Church Growth and Pentecostalism, with Lutheranness largely covered over.

Seeking an understanding

It is relatively easy to understand how this state of affairs has come about. The Lutheran Church in Australia is a very tiny minority among the Christians of this land. Even among Protestants — where many think we belong — the Church of the Lutheran Confessions is very small. The general non-Catholic Christian culture is Reformed-Protestant, and the expectation of the general population as to what is Christian is going to be either Roman Catholic or Reformed Protestant. Much of what our pastors read, and which informs their thinking, is going to come from this Reformed stream. What the majority thinks is considered to be right and followed by most. Even many who intend to remain confessionally Lutheran will find that over time they have absorbed many things that belong in the Reformed stream.

To remain strong confessionally in this climate is very difficult. Making our appeal for Christ in this climate is always going to be easier if we downplay the unique features of Lutheran theology and instead point out the similarities. Further, on the mission fields of this country the pan-Protestant ‘theology of glory’ is always going to be more attractive and easier to grasp than the more difficult and complex ‘theology of the cross’. It is evangelical fundamentalism that is proving attractive at present around the world, and it is very tempting to jump on the bandwagon and seek some easier numerical growth.

Reclaiming the Lutheran confessional ground

The following issues as vital if we are going to reclaim confessional Lutheranism in this country.

1. The office of the holy ministry

In the Church Growth paradigm the purpose of pastors as leaders is to activate the people to carry out the Great Commission. Their job is to generate a vision, to inspire, to liberate the energies of the people, to inspire confidence and arouse enthusiasm. The congregation gathers not so that its pastor may pronounce the Holy Absolution, to hear the Word of God or to celebrate the Sacrament, although these things may happen. Its real purpose is to be a staging ground, an equipping area to prepare people for the real work of ministry.

The Lutheran Confessions (and the Theses of Agreement) have a quite different view. Of course, the keys of the kingdom of heaven are given to the whole Christian church (Tractate 24), but through the church God appoints men to be ministers of these keys to the church. Pastors are not simply there to provide inspiration, motivation, or cast visions. Rather, ‘on account of the call of the Church, they represent the person of Christ and not their own persons’ (Ap 8, 28). ‘The Church has the command to appoint ministers’ so that she can hear the voice of her Lord. ‘For we know that God approves this ministry and is present in it’ (Ap 8, 12). The ministry spoken of in the Augsburg Confession is the Ordained Ministry, not one in which ‘every one is a minister’. The very purpose of having called and ordained ministers, according to AC 5, is that we may obtain faith by the preaching of the gospel and administering of the sacraments.

2. The purpose of the divine service

I have deliberately employed the term ‘Divine Service’, for it best highlights the reason for the people of God gathering on the Lord’s Day. Today much emphasis is placed on celebratory worship, using a style that orientates the congregation towards mission, being welcoming, and trying to make the experience as friendly and as inspirational as possible. There is nothing wrong with much of that, but the real question is, What is the Service all about; what is really happening here; why do we come together in Christ’s name?

According to Lutheran theology, the Divine Service is first and foremost God’s gracious action for us, and only then our action in worship. The Divine Service is just that: God serving us. We come to church to be served by no less a one than The Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are reminded of our baptism into union with God, and we are wrapped up in blessing in his name through the Invocation. Through the lips of the pastor God himself speaks his word of forgiveness in the Holy Absolution. Through his called servant, God himself speaks his word of judgment and grace in the reading and preaching of the Word. Christ gives himself to us in the bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar for the forgiveness of sins.

Consultants and diagnosticians may, after a visit or two, conclude that a particular congregation is not ‘thinking like a missionary’, but if it has a minister of the gospel who feeds the sheep with Word and the Sacrament, confessionally minded members will still joyfully praise the Lord for his abundant grace and gifts. They know they are being bestowed through the faithful exercise of The Office Of The Holy Ministry.

3. The nature of Lutheran hymnody

No one will deny the important role of music in the divine service. The nature and the quality of the music and the singing can provide much inspiration and joy to the congregation. Church Growth consultants suggest that music and singing exerts a forty per cent influence on people in the service.

The temptation is to use music and singing as a manipulative tool on God’s People, to pick hymns or songs because they will set a mood or bring on certain feelings and emotions. Lutherans are careful when it comes to hymnody, for we want to be certain that what we sing will reflect the truth of our confessions, and will allow the congregation to proclaim the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to one another. Prosper of Aquitania pronounced a famous saying, lex ordandi, lex credendi — the law of praying or worshipping is the law of believing. In other words, how we worship reflects what we believe. One does not express in worship what one does not believe. The hymns that we sing will always give expression to what we believe, teach and confess.

I have heard it said by colleagues that it is OK to sing other than Lutheran songs in the service because one can always correct errors later. But if we feed our congregations a regular diet of Hills Songs, for example, music that reflects the charismatic tradition and the ‘theology of glory’, we will inevitable sing that theology into the hearts of the people. The end result will be a congregation that reflects another theology than that of the Lutheran Church and we will have, in a very real sense, nominal Lutherans.

Prosper of Aquitania’s proposition also works the other way: what we believe is how we will worship. Everything we do on Sunday morning in the Divine Service — hymns, prayers and sermon and the rest— all will reflect what we believe and confess to be true. Anyone entering the service should be left in no doubt as to what this congregation believes and confesses. As the pastor carefully prepares the service in his selection of hymns, prayers, and in his preparation of the sermon, the confessional position of the church will be paramount.

4. The restoration of the theology of the cross

The Lutheran Church is the church of the ‘theology of the cross’. This is the foundation for the way it expresses itself in worship, in its proclamation, in its mission endeavours and in its service to others. The central doctrine of justification by faith, the doctrine by which the church stands or falls, underscores this truth. Reformed Churches essentially operate with the theology of glory, the undergirding doctrine being ‘the sovereignty of God’. If we are going to maintain our Lutheran identity, we have to ensure that it is the ‘theology of the cross’ that directs our thinking, our speaking and our doing.

For example, we will carefully assess our mission strategy not by some visible criteria but on the basis of our confession. We will conduct our worship not on the basis of some marketable style that we hope will bring in the numbers, but on the basis of our confession. This includes the assurance that our Lord is true to his promises and will not let his Word return to him empty. All policy and action must be based on sound theology. Otherwise we are being hypocritical and playing games with people, seeking to manipulate them for our personal aggrandisement and pride.

5. The role of the district

In recent times the role of the District has often been to move pastors into leadership roles and congregations into mission according to Church Growth models. The result has been that much of the money given by congregations to the wider church is needed to support the full-time officials based in the district office. The amount of money that is currently provided to support small congregation and their pastors out in the field by direct subsidy has shrunk significantly.

Our Confessions declare that the Holy Spirit works through the word and the sacraments to bring people to faith in Christ. It would seem to follow that direct financial support for the preaching of the gospel and the celebration of the sacraments by pastors in the local congregations is a preferable use of our limited resources. We need to use our resources as close to the action as possible so that our witness to Christ is clear and the Holy Spirit is active through the means of his choosing. The support of pastors in the field rather than of officials in the office seems to be more in keeping with our theology.

6. Small group ministry

The value of small groups is unquestioned. I would simply make the point that the essential reason for small groups to get together should be the study of the Word of God. Groups can offer of fellowship, care and support, and can strengthen the church community thereby. But if this is the main reason for their existence, God’s people are being shortchanged. It is the study and discussion of the great truths of the Christian faith revealed in the Scriptures and formulated in the Confessions of the church that should paramount in the small Group Ministry of a congregation. Of course let’s work at both: good study and good fellowship. The pastor should spend significant time leading his people in the study of the Word.

7. Lutheran mission

Many in the LCA have adopted Church Growth principles. We need to devote time and energy to understanding the mission of the Church from a Lutheran perspective. Here, too, we seem to have lost confidence in our theology. Statistically, there is nothing to persuade us that Church Growth and its models of church planting and growing have, from a human point of view, succeeded any better. We need to do the hard work of seeking to understand anew our Lutheran theology of mission and its practical implications, and then do it, rather than drawing on what is alien to our theology and trying to make it fit. It doesn’t and it won’t.

8. Encouragement to Lutheranism.

At the present time, those who seek to maintain the liturgical traditions and theological emphases of the Lutheran Church sometimes feel that they are in the minority, people who are deemed ‘difficult to help’. It is difficult to be a minority at any time, and it is particularly hard to be in the theological minority in your own church, as some pastors feel at present. It is difficult to find oneself characterised as unloving and unfriendly if one takes a stand against certain theological trends. This is the time to support, defend, speak well of, and pray for pastors and people who seek to remain faithful to our historic, confessional, liturgical traditions. If, at present, that has to take place within a smaller group than would otherwise be available, so be it. The truth is paramount.

Conclusion

For many today the central article of the faith, the article that gives definition for everything in the church, is the Great Commission. The prime purpose of the church is ‘to grow’. The ‘mission paradigm’ replaces the doctrine of justification as the central article — not deliberately and overtly, but in effect. The results are devastating.

Lutherans, of course, seek to obey the Great Commission but they do not make it the central article of their faith. They consider the doctrine of the justification of the sinner before God by grace for Christ’s sake through faith as the article by which the Church stands or falls. It is central because it alone can give true consolation to the sinner. It is central also because it is against this doctrine that all other doctrines must be evaluated. If any other article of faith replaces justification by grace through faith as the chief article, the entire system of theology will ultimately be corrupted.

ROBERT HAMANN

Reid ACT

2002