Voters’ Assemblies: A Better Choice Than Clergy or Corporate Hierarchy

By: Rev. Jack Cascione

November 7, 2003 Walther Conference speech

 The Fifth National Free Conference On C. F. W. Walther at Concordia Seminary Saint Louis MO  

pastorcascione@juno.com  relaimnews@earthlink.net  www.reclaimingwalther.org  www.Lutherquest.org

Resolution 7-17A “To Affirm Synod’s Official Position on Church and Ministry” reaffirmed Walther’s “Church and Ministry,” as the official position of the LCMS at its 2001 Convention.  One of the resolves reads: “Resolved, that all pastors, professors, teachers of the Church and congregations honor and uphold the resolutions of the Synod as regards the official position of our Synod on Church and Ministry and teach in accordance with them.”

As of this date, we are appalled to report that the two LCMS Seminaries, the Council of District Presidents, and the LCMS Praesidium have not agreed in public with the 2001 LCMS Convention that Walther’s “Church and Ministry” teaches the only official polity endorsed by the Synod for all LCMS congregations.  Walther’s “Church and Ministry” teaches a clear Biblical basis for congregational polity instead of Episcopal or corporate hierarchy.  The spread of Romanism and clergy hierarchy must be stopped in the LCMS.

As a new faculty member at Lutheran High School North in St. Louis in 1969, I learned that 33 members of the faculty were supporting Dr. John Tietjen while I was one of two who supported President Jacob Preus.  The assistant principal, who was earning his doctorate in theology here at the Seminary, used to come over to my classroom and tell me why the Libs were right and Preus was wrong.  I told him that when the lay people in the LCMS found out the Seminary doesn’t believe the Bible is the inspired word of God they would be fired.  He told me that in 10 years all those lay people would all agree with the professors at the St. Louis Seminary.

The people who led the 1974 Seminary Walk-Out of 45 professors and 450 students, and led 300 congregations and 100,000 members of the LCMS into what is now the ELCA, were not prepared for the resistance they encountered from all those informed LCMS lay people working through congregational voters’ assemblies.  It was those voters’ assemblies that returned Missouri to the Word of God and back on track.

Now, in 2003, those who are once again trying to overthrow the authority of God’s Word in the LCMS have learned their lesson.  If they can silence the congregational voters’ assemblies they will have full control over the Synod.

Today, 90% of the LCMS lay people have little or no information about what is happening in their church.  “Put me out doc and wake me up when it’s over.”

Wherever clergy authority becomes a priority in the Church, the word of God takes second place.  The two major splinter groups in the Synod have the same goals, clergy control, only with different techniques.

The “Jesus First/Church Growth/Pastoral Leadership” axis wants CEO/Pastors running praise band/entertainment based congregations.  The other faction is those who want to return to pre-Walther European Lutheran Hierarchy also know as Hyper-Euro-Lutherans.  They are the I’m-a-bishop/ordination-gives-me-special-grace/Episcopal Hierarchy-is- God’s-way axis.  Does it really matter if CEO’s or Bishops enslave the lay people?  The effect is still the same.

At times the arguments between these two factions is rather amusing.  They are usually arguing about who is following proper procedures, by-laws, rulings, and practice rather than God’s Word.  Their goals are almost always the same, elect the right man and he will do the right thing.  However, the goal should be to only elect men who will follow the Bible.

There is nothing like a good old fashion “Whose in charge” clergy fight.

“Mark 9:33 And he came to Capernaum : and being in the house he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?  34 But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest.  35 And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.”

Right after Christ consecrated the Lord’s Supper we read in Luke 22:24 , “And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.  25 And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.”

This happened again and again.

Luther said he would have followed the Pope if the Pope would follow God’s Word. Nearly every time we see a usurpation of authority in the church the second shoe is a redefinition of God and/or His Word.

After writing, “How To Keep and/or Start Your Own LCMS Church” (sent to every delegate at the 2001 Convention to promote the adoption of 7-17A) I keep getting phone calls from lay people.  They ask me what they can do to keep their voters’ assemblies.  I then do a little diagnostic test and ask if their pastor thinks he is a chairman of the board directors, loves praise bands, and promotes contemporary worship or if he thinks he is the archbishop and a holy guy with a sacrament of ordination.

In either case, the scenarios are the same: the pastor wants to reduce the number of voters meetings to one or two a year and nearly everything is decided in closed meetings of the board directors or the elders.  Of course, everything is designed to make the church grow.  The CEO’s will tell their members that if they object to their innovations, they are against evangelism, growth, the business plan, and are divisive.  The bishops will tell them that they are against God.

When Martin Stephan led the Lutheran immigrants from Dresden in 1837 who were to form the LCMS in this country, he had them all convinced that he was the chief mediator of the Means of Grace.  Without him, they wouldn’t have a church, valid sacraments, or salvation.  God’s grace came to them, through him.

In rebellion to this teaching Walther wrote “Church and Ministry.”  I quote: "For when our Savior Christ says, 'Tell it to the church,' He by these words commands the church [local congregation] to be the supreme judge.  From this it follows that not only one state, namely that of the bishops, but also other pious and learned persons from all states are to be appointed as judges and have decisive votes."  ("Church and Ministry" C.F.W. Walther, 1851, CPH 1987, page 343)

"This is to be understood in the sense not only that the church has the power to excommunicate impenitent sinners but also that the congregation has the supreme authority in all church matters such as reproof, church discipline, divisions, judging doctrine, and appointing pastors, to mention only these things." ("Church and Ministry" C.F.W. Walther, 1851, CPH 1987, page 343)

"For when a certain school principal in Brunswick held an erroneous doctrine and among other things also rejected the Formula of Concord, Chemnitz presented the matter to the whole congregation as to the final and supreme judge." ("Church and Ministry" C.F.W. Walther, 1851, CPH 1987, Page 343)

This is what the LCMS agreed to in Resolution 7-17A but the District Offices, the COP, the St. Louis Head Quarters, the current Synodical President, and the two Seminaries are not saying Amen in public.

There appears to be no end to the schemes, methodology, paradigms, resolutions, and reorganization now taking place at the Synodical, District, and Congregational level in the LCMS with the goal of reducing, nullifying, and quashing the authority of congregational voters’ assemblies.

The laity are not a lower order of Christians. We read 1Peter 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

In the LCMS only the congregation can claim to be the true visible church on earth.  In Matthew 18:17, when disputes arise in the church Christ says: “Tell it unto the church.”  He doesn’t say “Tell it to the clergy.”

In all matters of business and practice the Voters have the final authority.  In matters of doctrine the Voters have the final authority in judging if the pastor and anyone else in the church is following the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions.  See the “Sheep Judge Their Shepherds” by C. F. W. Walther.

But, as I said, the schemes to undo this God-given authority never stop.  Recent appointees of the Synodical President to the Synod’s Commission on Constitutional Matters have made a series of rulings designed to usurp congregational authority and to centralize power in the office of the LCMS President.

According to these rulings the Synodical President cannot be charged with false doctrine while he is in office nor can those who carry out duties under his direction or with his permission.  On January 20-21, 2003 , while affirming the importance of LCMS Convention Resolutions, the Synod's CCM reversed Walther's teaching on "Church and Ministry."  The CCM ruled that no LCMS pastor could be removed from office if he is following orders from his superior even though Walther taught that the Voters' Assembly is supreme.[1]

What if the Ecclesiastical Supervisor is wrong?  The CCM says it doesn't matter because the pastor in question was simply following orders.  Now LCMS Congregations are supposed to accept the principle of accountability to superiors as immunity for their pastors’ actions, a principle that was rejected at the Nuremberg Trials.

Walther writes: "I do not hesitate to say that as important as the Leipzig Debate of 1519 was for the cause of the Reformation, so important was the Altenburg Debate (1841) for the development of the polity of the Lutheran Church of the West." (Mundinger, "Government in Missouri" CPH, St. Louis, p. 114)

Walther was simply following Luther’s writing titled: "That a Christian Assembly or Congregation Has the Right and Power to Judge all Teaching and to Call, Appoint, and Dismiss Teachers, Established and Proven by Scripture" as the official structure for its congregations.  (Luther's Works Vol. 39:305-314)

In the Lutheran Confessions where we read:

"The churches should not be robbed of their power to judge doctrine, and all things should be judged according to Holy Scripture as the Word of God." ("Church and Ministry" C.F.W. Walther, 1851, CPH 1987, page 333 [Trig p. 518])

Walther[2] and Fritz[3] quote the Lutheran Confessions to teach their position on congregational supremacy.

Walther regularly speaks about the Congregation as the final tribunal.  He also states the Congregation is the possessor of all church power in Theses VI and VII.  As the possessor of all church power, the local congregation must be divinely instituted by God.  He regularly quotes the Lutheran Confessions on this point as follows: “In 1 Cor. 3, 6, Paul makes ministers equal, and teaches that THE CHURCH IS ABOVE THE MINISTERS.” (Treatise, Concordia Triglotta, page 507, par. 11)

" . . . the keys belong not to the person of one particular man, but to the Church, as many most clear and firm arguments testify. For Christ, speaking concerning the keys adds, Matt. 18, 19: If two or three of you shall agree on earth, etc. THEREFORE HE GRANTS THE KEYS PRINCIPALLY AND IMMEDIATELY TO THE CHURCH, . . . Likewise CHRIST GIVES SUPREME AND FINAL JURISDICTION TO THE CHURCH, WHEN HE SAYS: TELL IT UNTO THE CHURCH.] (Treatise, Concordia Triglotta Page 511 par. 24-25)

Just because 7-17A was adopted, doesn’t mean it is being followed.  The current Synodical President has shown no sign of making the District Presidents and Seminary Professors practice Walther’s “Church and Ministry.”  The 2003 Epiphany issue of "Logia" published an article by Dr. David Scaer, Professor of Systematic Theology at Fort Wayne titled, "Missouri's Identity Crisis: Rootless in America."

Scaer blames the LCMS "bronze-agers" and those who love the Brief Statement for passing 7-17A at the 2001 LCMS Convention and making Walther's "Church and Ministry" the doctrinal position of the LCMS.

Scaer warns that Resolution 7-17A, which reaffirmed Walther's “Church and Ministry” as the official polity of the LCMS, will be used to promote anti-clericalism, confuses the definition of minister and ministry, and lives in the past.  Commenting about 7-17A, Scaer states, “A theology that lives within the past is reluctant to examine itself, because it assumes that in any controversy it was and therefore is right.  Historicism replaces theology."  He also claims that 2001 Resolution 7-11 “To move Property Ownership Bylaw to Constitution" reaffirms that the Synod is more of a corporation than a church by answering that it has no equity in a congregation's property.”

What is wrong with the laity owning their own church property? Scaer answers: "It allows for a bizarre congregationalism in which any number of people can constitute a legal meeting and can deprive others [like the District Office] not in attendance of church property."  In the Catholic Church the diesis owns all the deeds.  Is this what Scaer wants?

This is the Missouri Synod, not the Wisconsin Synod.  The Missouri Synod is not “Church.”  Only the congregations are church. "The name of this corporation shall be 'Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod'" according to 2001 Handbook page138, Articles of Incorporation.

What is going to happen at future LCMS Conventions if the laity continue to have less and less voice in the doctrine and practice of their Synod? The best barometer is what is happening within the largest district, with nearly 10% of the LCMS, the Michigan District.

Michigan is in the vanguard of implementing the church growth, leadership-training model and the practice of contemporary worship.  The Michigan District President is also the Chairman of the Council of District Presidents.

The 2003 Michigan District Convention scheduled three 20 minutes sessions for floor committees and resolutions for the entire three-day convention.  The District President is given the title of CEO.  On Monday morning, it took 15 of the 20 minutes just to read the resolutions.  The 500 plus delegates at the convention adopted 8 resolutions in 5 minutes with thunderous and virtually unanimous voice votes.  The keypads weren't necessary.

The last three resolutions contained the words "unprinted overture" at the top.  In other words, the delegates voted three times to decline three successive resolutions that they had not read.  Two individuals did go to the microphones and asked to see what they were.  After the floor committee chairman denied their request, the convention votes to decline the three resolutions were nearly unanimous.

I asked Christian News Editor, Rev. Herman Otten, if he had heard of LCMS Conventions approving resolutions that they were not allowed to be read.  Otten stated that this was how resolutions X1 and X2 were passed at the 1965 Detroit Convention on the recommendation of Dr. Patty Wolbrecht.  The Libs, who later led the Walk-Out, did everything they could to keep people from knowing what they were voting for.

Most of the Michigan District delegates are probably offended when state and local proposals are printed out in their November civic election ballots.

Earlier, I said that when clergy authority becomes a priority, the Word of God takes second place.  In the 60’s the effort was to replace the Bible.  It now appears there is an effort by LCMS innovators to redefine the Trinity.  Let me give some examples.

The effort for innovation by the Church Growth CEO pastors led them to invent their own designer creeds for church services.  The 1998 LCMS Convention adopted a resolution requiring that only the three ecumenical Creeds be confessed in LCMS worship services.

Hyper-Euro-Lutherans speak about the pastor as Jesus.  Their claim of a spiritual transformation through the sacrament of ordination makes them tantamount to living communion wafers.  Episcopal hierarchy is claimed to be God’s order for the church and will supposedly bring peace to the LCMS.

In a clear attempt to silence all opposition, the October 22, 2003 letter from the Atlantic District to me reads “This letter is a stern and forthright warning that any conference items or public statements that call Dr. Benke a unrepentant sinner will lead to ecclesiastical proceeding according to Scriptural process and the Handbook and Bylaws of the LCMS.”

The Atlantic District is threatening anyone in the Synod with expulsion who claims that Benke sinned by praying with Moslems.

President Kieschnick gave his public approval and support for Atlantic District President David Benke’s prayer with Moslems, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, etc. in “A Prayer for America ” in September 2001.  It is not OK to pray with those who don’t believe that Jesus is God.

The Atlantic District claims that the Dispute Resolution Panel speaks for the Synod.  The Panel claims[4] the Bible and Confessions are important but they had to follow the Constitution and Bylaws, which is why they agreed with Benke.  However if they had followed the Constitution they would have only followed the Bible.

The Panel has clearly violated the Constitution of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and sinned against the Word of God, since Article VIII of the LCMS Constitution states "All matters of doctrine and conscience shall be decided ONLY by the Word of God."

In a communication with a layman from Indiana ,[5] Benke wrote, "The Muslim God is also the true God (there IS only ONE TRUE GOD, right?) but worshipping [worshipped] in an inadequate way.”

The entire controversy is rooted in the fact that Benke and the Atlantic District don’t have the same definition of God as most of the other Districts in the LCMS.

In my reply to the Atlantic District, I asked them to tell me if they agree with Benke that Moslems also worship the true God.  Thus far they have not answered.

Doctor Waldo Werning sent a copy of his book “Health and Healing for the LCMS (pages 33-34)”[6] to every 2001 LCMS Convention Delegate.  He redefined the Trinity as experiencing God in a three-fold manner, three manners of being, three levels of reality, three forms of address, and three ways in which God has revealed himself.

This is a contradiction of the Athanasian Creed, which states that anyone who divides God’s substance is eternally damned.  When I published my objections, the South Wisconsin District President defended Werning and claims that I have broken the Eighth Commandment.  The Texas District President also defends Werning’s false doctrine and is also filing charges against Rev. Al Loeschman because Loeschman published my objections on the Internet, http://www.concordtx.org

President Kieschnick accepted Werning’s charges against me.  He wrote that they were considering my expulsion from the Synod.  After a year of adjudication the Praesidium dropped the charges but President Kieschnick refuses to answer any questions about God.  In other words, anyone can be charged with breaking the Eighth Commandment for telling the truth about God in the LCMS.

At this time the President and the Praesidium have written that they will not answer any of my questions about God.  Kieschnick claims the right to adjudicate the case but refuses to explain anything about God related to the case.

The Michigan District Convention was presented with a Resolution titled, "To Clearly Confess in the Public Realm the True God and Atonement of Christ for the Sins of all Mankind."  However they defeated an amendment to the Resolution by 47 to 53, which stated, “As confessed in the Athanasian Creed.”  This took place immediately after President Kieschnick told the convention that he had an inner fire to save the lost and that the Synod had to be careful not to spend to much time on the over purification of doctrine.

If the LCMS lay people don’t get involved and take some responsibility for the doctrine and practice of their congregations, districts and Synod, they are going to lose everything they won back in 1973 and 1974.

I went to the funeral of a long time friend, Al Briel, in Toledo on October 28, 2003 .  He was 82.  We met at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Evansville , IN , in the summer of 1974 while I was an Assistant Professor at Southern Indiana State University.  He was the Chairman of the Evangelism Committee, and we used to make house calls together.  He had served in all kinds of positions at St. Paul .

He was a CPA, survived by three sons, and his a wife, Veleda, whom my wife calls the salt of the earth.

It just turned out that this average fellow had been elected by the 1973 LCMS Convention to be on the Board of Control at the St. Louis Seminary.  There were eleven votes on the Board.  Al cast one of the six votes, a one-vote majority, that led to the suspension of St. Louis Seminary President John Tietjen, which then led to the Walk-Out at the Seminary in 1974.

If Al hadn’t cast that vote, I wouldn’t be an LCMS pastor because liberals would control the LCMS and the LCMS would be a part of the ELCA. That one man, casting one vote, changed the course of millions of Lutheran lives.  Who knew all this would happen?

Al soon discovered that he had more friends and more enemies than he ever imagined.

Al kept telling me to go into the ministry.

Three years later, I was a student at Fort Wayne and he had already moved to Fort Wayne and had become the Seminary’s Business Manager.  There is so much more I could say.

There were about 75 mourners at his funeral in Toledo .  He moved there to be with one of his sons for the last two years of his life.  Whoever heard of Al Briel, whose vote changed millions of lives?

For all the work and service Al did for his church, he never said, “Look what I did.”  However, Al was quick to tell people what Jesus Christ has done for all of us.  Al loved leading people to Christ.  One of his houseguests became a Christian, married a Lutheran Pastor, and now lives in Japan .

Countless lay people who worked for, struggled, and dedicated themselves to Christ’s work have helped direct the history of the LCMS.

It was Walther who recognized that in America the energy and dedication of lay people could be harnessed and united through congregational voters’ assemblies.

It is through the devotion of an army of unpaid workers, at times in the face of opposition from misdirected clergy, as Al had to face, that God has continued to bless His church.

Al now has his reward, the gift of salvation through faith in Christ alone.

May God continue to raise up lay people who have a love for God’s Word and pure doctrine, a desire to serve their church, and the courage to commit themselves to the task at hand, as He did in Al Briel.