In 1922 the LCMS published a 75th anniversary edition titled "Ebenezer 1847-1922."

Every pastor had a copy. It was widely circulated among the lay people. The 536 pages told the story of the Missouri Synod, where we came from, how got here, its struggles, its victories, its mission, and structure.

Most of all, with this book, the Missouri Synod proved its own existence and teaching solely by the Word of God with the Lutheran Confessions as its unalterable and correct witness to the Word of God.

There are 14 pages by Engelder with the marvelous title, "Why Missouri Stood Alone." There is a 16-page detailed account of the battle with Grabau titled, "The Missouri Synod and the Buffalo Synod." The section on Missouri and the Norwegians by Ylvisaker is particularly important. There are sections on Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, New York, Lutheran Teachers, Higher Education, Evangelism, the Predestinarian Controversy, and much more.

The following quotations are from "The Doctrine of the Church and Ministry" by Rev. D.H. Steffens, West Henrietta, N. Y., "Ebenezer, 1847-1922": Reviews of the Word of the Missouri Synod during the Three Quarters of a Century, edited by W. H. T. Dau, CPH, St. Louis 1922.

After reading this book one is quickly convinced that C. F. W. Walther and the founders of the LCMS would no longer be eligible for calls in the LCMS. One doubts how they could possibly graduate from either Seminary.

"With characteristic humility Walther gratefully recognizes his indebtedness to another document, which antedated his sentences, namely, the 'Public Protestation against the false, medieval, papistic, and sectarian Stephanistic System of Church Governments.' It was published by Doctor Carl Eduard Vehse, Heinrick Eduard Fisher, and Gustav Jackel and addressed to Pastors Loeber, Kyel, Buerger, and the two Walthers. Briefly stated, it is an attempt on the part of Christian laymen to define and state the true Lutheran doctrine of church organizations and governments, together with the correct and proper relations of pastor and congregation. It is a compilation of quotes from Luther and the Confessions as well as from other recognized teachers of the Church. The authors justify their protest by urging that it 'was the chief purpose of the whole emigration to make truly free on this free soil the Evangelical Lutheran Church which had indeed been oppressed. Walther says 'Without this writing we, perhaps, would still have gone many a false way, which we now have happily avoided'" (page 145)

"Walther and his congregation spent two whole years on this matter [the correct application of Church and Ministry in the Constitution of the LCMS], trying every paragraph by the rule of the inspired Word and testimonies of the Church. A summary of these discussions may be found in Walther's 'Pastoral-Theologie,' published in 1872 (page 355-375). This constitution was finally approved and adopted in the spring of 1843, two years after the Altenburg Debate. IT ESTABLISHED THE FORM AND MODEL FOR GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION IN ALL CONGREGATIONS OF THE MISSOURI SYNOD. It did more. It established the form and model of the organization, government, and administration of the Synod itself."

"After the draft of Synod's constitution was prepared at the Cleveland meeting of 1845, and the St. Louis and Fort Wayne meetings of 1846, Trinity Congregation devoted ten meetings to its consideration, finally approving it at a meeting held February 22, 1847, a few months before the formal organization of the Synod by its adoption at Chicago on May 26, 1847. Trinity Congregation added the important paragraph which declared Synod to be only an advisory body, the resolutions of which are to become effective only after their approval by the congregations composing the body." (Page 147-148)

We are encouraged by the January, 2000 quotation from the Chairman of the Board of Regents of Fort Wayne, Rev. David Anderson who writes, "I talked with a number of our professors at CTS this past week and found no one who teaches or who knows anyone who teaches that the congregational voters' assembly is not supreme..Having thus done all I can to run down the basis for your rumors, I asked Dr. Weinrich [Academic Dean and LCMS Third Vice President] to reply of your questions.

The questions to which Anderson refers as published in the letter to which he is responding.

"The following are three quotations on Voters' Assemblies. Do these quotations represent the position of the Faculty and Board at Fort Wayne?

"Finally the congregation is represented as the SUPREME TRIBUNAL, Matt.18:15-18.... Passage quoted" Note 7 on p 29 refers to this using the term 'highest jurisdiction' and referring in turn to the "Power and Primacy Of Pope," 'highest and final jurisdiction to the church..." (Form of the Christian Congregation, C.F.W Walther, CPH, St. Louis, 1989, p.24)

"In public church affairs nothing should be concluded without a vote and consent of the congregation." (Form of the Christian Congregation, C.F.W Walther, CPH, St. Louis, 1989, p.48)

"A. The Voters' Meeting: If the congregation is to function and fully exercise its DIVINELY IMPOSED RIGHTS AND DUTIES in a conscientious, profitable, and God-pleasing manner, IT MUST, in the first place, hold public church assemblies in which it considers and determines all things THAT ARE NECESSARY for its special church management. Such public executive church assemblies Christ presupposes when He commands Matt. 18:17-18 'Tell it unto the church.' Such executive assemblies were generally maintained in the first Christian congregation, as the Book of Acts records, 1:15. 23-25, Acts 15:5: 23. We call these assembly's voters' meetings, for we admit to them as authorized to vote only the adult male members of the church. Since the final authority in all matters is vested in the congregation and not in a few members of the congregation, it would seem evident that all of the members of the congregation are responsible for what the congregation does. But God Himself has made certain restricts." ("The Abiding Word" CPH, 1947,Vol. II, page 460 "The Lutheran Congregation" by G. Perlich)

"Again I ask: 'Why doesn't Fort Wayne simply say it supports the only agreed upon polity for all LCMS congregations, namely, Voter Supremacy? God's Word is always supreme. I am speaking about congregational government of which Marquart, and indeed the entire faculty at Fort Wayne, treats as nonexistent.'"

We eagerly await the response from Dr. Weinrich promised by the Chairman of the Fort Wayne Board of Regents.