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It wasn’t planned that way, but the Fifth National Free Conference on C.
F. W. Walther, to be held on Nov. 7-8 suddenly finds itself at the
crossroads of the LCMS.
Recent national calamities and political upheaval in
the LCMS, ELCA, and Episcopal Church have focused unexpected attention on
the very issues that the Walther Conference will address.
The Conference will be located on the LCMS’s most historic
realestate, the campus of Concordia Seminary in
St. Louis
.
Walther’s work is so basic and current because he
had to address the issues confronting the birth and maintenance of a new
Lutheran
Church
body in 1847
America
, many of the same issues facing the church today.
He didn’t have time to be experimental or make himself look
intelligent.
The Walther Conference is one of the few, if only
theological conferences promoted by LCMS conservatives that is directed
toward lay people. Liberals
don’t promote theology.
This year there will be speakers from Wisconsin
Synod, Church of the Lutheran Confession, the Missouri Synod, and
Evangelical
Lutheran
Church
in
America
.
The craving for experimentation, entertainment,
diversity, and sensitivity in the ELCA, LCMS, and the Episcopal Church has
resulted in chaos, financial loss, declining membership and has raised
serious questions about the need for Synods.
Why should lay people support ever-expanding,
unresponsive, nationwide church bureaucracies?
Walther was the genius of congregational
self-government and Synodical structure.
He convinced millions of American Lutherans why it was better to
work together instead of separately. However,
today’s Lutheran “leaders” are convincing millions of lay-people why
they would be better off without District Offices and Synods.
LCMS budget cuts mean firing missionaries and hiring more staff.
At the Walther Conference, Al Quie, Past Minnesota
Congressman and Governor will speak for tens of thousands of ELCA lay
people who want to be Lutheran, regain control of their church property,
and be free from Episcopal Bishops and hierarchy.
Reverend Eigenfeld, pastor of the largest
ELCA
Church
in
Minnesota
, is a model for ELCA pastors who want to break away from the ELCA.
All eyes will be on Dr. Kurt Marquart, a candidate
for the LCMS Presidency. In
many respects, Quie, Eigenfeld, and Marquart have to address the same
issues confronted by Walther.
Quie and Igenfeld represent WordAlone, (National
Office:
2299 Palmer Drive # 220
,
New Brighton
MN
55112
, Toll-free: 888.551.7254, Local: 651.633.6004, Fax: 651.633.5994, wordalone@popp.net)
an ELCA breakaway group with a six-figure membership.
WordAlone is attempting to free its affiliated congregations’
property through the courts from the ELCA and is promoting theological
reasons to justify its existence as the foundation for a new
Lutheran
Church
body in
America
.
The Episcopal Church is being decimated over the
approval of gay clergy. The
ELCA has adopted Episcopal hierarchy and is also promoting homosexual
clergy in the name of diversity. Methodist,
Presbyterians, Baptists, LCMS, and many more are trying to survive by
hiding their denominational identity in their new mission congregations.
Yet, there is no diversity in God or the Bible, only one Lord, one
faith, one baptism.
Will Marquart, a seminary professor, be able to
clarify the issues, point out a Scriptural direction for the Synod, and
communicate to lay people? His
brilliant book, “The Church and Her Fellowship, Ministry, and
Governance” has little information about voters’ assemblies,
congregational constitutions, Synodical constitutions, or Synodical
structure, things over which Walther wrote volumes.
Walther understood that left to themselves, without
the oversight of congregational voters’ assemblies and voter supremacy,
the clergy would inevitably use the Synod for their own objectives.
Walther himself had once helped Martin Stephan accomplish total
control over 700 immigrants, which resulted in their financial ruin and
public disgrace.
Walther also understood that in
America
, not the government, not the royalty, but lay people pay for every church
deed, brick, and salary, and must govern their own congregations.
He agreed with Luther that the home should have authority over the
church.
Walther taught Lutherans how to understand their
religion with his classic, “Law and Gospel.”
He used the Scripture to teach congregations and pastors how to
organize and work together with his “Church and Ministry,” “Pastoral
Theology,” “The True Visible Church” and “The Form of a Christian
Congregation.” He
established seminaries and oversaw the establishment of teachers’
colleges. He spent his life
teaching lay people through “Lehre and Wehre,” now called the Lutheran
Witness. He worked tirelessly
to promote one unified worship service in all LCMS congregations, with one
hymnal, if there was any hope of uniting and maintaining a unified
Lutheran church body in
America
.
Many LCMS congregations now practice two, three, or
more styles of worship in an attempt to make the LCMS the first church
body in history that doesn’t agree with itself on how to worship God.
The current LCMS President publicly supports LCMS
clergy participating in prayer services with Moslems.
His publication of the Benke case has resulted in the
disintegration of the Lutheran Hour and the Lutheran Layman’s League,
and he has not supported the Board of Directors attempts to limit the
Concordia University Systems debt to 203 million dollars.
The LCMS President’s appointees to the Synod’s
Commission on Constitutional Matters have decided that the Synodical
President is immune from charges of false doctrine while he is in office.
Those who receive his approval for their actions in behalf of the
Synodical also share his immunity.
The LCMS is no longer looking the house that Walther
built. Unless the lay people
are brought back into the decision-making process, the Synod as we know
it, cannot survive. The LCMS
must once again become a Synod of the lay people, not the clergy.
The LCMS clergy now dominate the decision making process in nearly
every district and every level of Synod.
“Leadership” and the abuse of power are replacing doctrine and
faith.
Add to this mix one of the most knowledgeable
speakers in the world today on the subject of creationism, Dr. David
Menton; a response to a tape of the 911 Yankee Stadium Prayer For America
by Rev. Herman Otten; and an analysis of the Koran in the light of Law and
Gospel by Rev. Thomas C. Pfotenhauer; and lay people will find that the
2003 Walther Conference has a lot to say about today.
=========================
Register now for the 2003 Walther
Conference in
St. Louis
Location:
Concordia
Seminary St.
Louis
801
DeMun Avenue
St.
Louis
,
Missouri
63105-3199
When:
Friday,
November 7,
11:45 a.m.
, through Saturday,
November 8,
12:30 p.m.
Registration:
Write
to Sponsoring Congregation
Hope
Lutheran
Church
,
10701 St. Cosmas
Lane
St. Ann
,
MO
63074
or
e-mail
fnp@hope--lutheran.org
or
Phone
(314-429-3808)
Hope
is about 2 and 1/2 miles from
St. Louis
’
Lambert
International
Airport
. Contact Hope for
information about shuttle service from the Airport to the Seminary.
Send
a registration fee of $30.00 to
Hope
Lutheran
Church
and an additional
$10.00 for supper at Seminary Dining Hall
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