Monday March 3rd, 1997 at 2:00 p.m., was the funeral service for Dr.
A.O. Fuerbringer (93 years old, 1903-1997). It was held at University Lutheran Chapel
(ELCA) in Norman, OK. and conducted by the pastor there, the Rev. David Klumpe.(Formerly
both a LCMS congregation and pastor, now both ELCA)
I attended as Pastor (1988-present) of Trinity Lutheran Church (LCMS), also in Norman,
Oklahoma. Our vicar Steve Willweber, a student at Concordia Seminary St. Louis (who helps
us with the campus ministry for the LCMS at the University of Oklahoma - he’s our
seventh vicar) attended with me. Older members of our congregation who were present
remember Dr. Fuerbringer as their pastor and parochial school teacher here during the
Great Depression.
Three ELCA and three LCMS pastors served as pallbearers, and words of remembrance were
brought by Dr. John Tiejen (former president of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and of
Seminex), Pastor Ken Wade (Oklahoma District LCMS vice-president), Bishop Floyd
Schoenthals (Arkansas/Oklahoma Synod ELCA).
The significance of this event is the reason for these ponderings. I shared with my
vicar that on that day we were indeed going to witness "the end of an era".
A.O. Fuerbringer served in my congregation in Norman as pastor of his first
congregation out of the seminary after his ordination - Trinity Lutheran Church (1927-34),
met and married his wife here at Trinity in Norman (Carolyn Kuhlman) (1934), retired here
in Norman (1985), died and was buried here in Norman/OKC (1997).
Four years ago, another vicar, Todd Schlechte and I went to visit him at his home and
he spoke for nearly two hours about his life and the history of the Lutheran Church
Missouri Synod. It was a fascinating and enjoyable conversation. To my surprise, I
discovered that he knew my maternal grandfather, Roger Nickel, who was at the seminary
during the same years.
Fuerbringer is a "charter name" in the LCMS, since they were part of the
German Lutherans who emigrated and came here to escape the rationalism and pietism of the
German state church. His father Dr. L. Fuerbringer was president of the seminary from
1931-1943 and president of the Synodical Conference in 1927.
His grandfather O. Fuerbringer came over from Germany as one of several theological
candidates with C.F.W. Walther. He helped Walther build the log cabin college in Perry
County in 1839. He also married the widow of O. Walther, brother of C.F.W.
After coming home from the funeral, I changed clothes and took out old dusty clippings
from the 1969-1974 years of our Synod. I even found my old copy of "Faithful to Our
Calling, Faithful to Our Lord" - the defense the then faculty of Concordia Seminary
gave of its theology, in their objection to LCMS President J.A.O. Preus’ Fact Finding
Committee.
Of the 44 professors who signed this document, two of these, of course, were Dr. A.O.
Fuerbringer (president of Concordia Seminary from 1953-1969) predecessor to Dr. John
Tiejen (president there from 1969-1973).
Dr. Tiejen had been asked to say some words at the funeral about his colleague. It was
striking for me to see him standing there speaking beside the casket of Dr. Fuerbringer,
and to realize that these two men represented 20 years (1953-1973) of critical LCMS
history.
Since two other key figures from those difficult years, Dr.Robert Preus and Dr. J.A.O.
Preus have also recently died, I thought this was a fitting time to look back on this
"ending of an era" and consider what significance it has for us in 1997, the
150th anniversary year of the founding of the LCMS.
Dr. Tiejen, who now lives in Ft. Worth, Texas, spoke words in remembrance of his old
friend Alfred, on behalf of "the Seminex faculty in Diaspora". And indeed, the
list of honorary pallbearers was a "Who’s Who list" of the old AELC /
SEMINEX coalition: John Tiejen, Paul Manz, Ralph Klein, Edgar Krentz, Edward Schroeder,
John Constable, Robert Bertram, Fred Danker, Robert Werberig, Larry Neeb, Paul
Bauermeister, and William Danker.
John Tiejen (who also brought words of condolence from the Lutheran School of Theology
in Chicago) was, as always, winsome and gracious in his words, and demonstrated again why
he had the total and complete devotion of the Seminex faculty and students when he was
only 42 years old.
It was no wonder that when the Seminex theology was condemned by the LCMS in
convention. this was viewed by the majority of the faculty as an outrage. Theirs was a
seminary of leading lights in theology! How dare they be questioned!
My own personal experience during the years 1969-1977, while I was at Lutheran High
School West in Cleveland, OH. and as a student at Concordia College Ann Arbor and
Concordia College River Forest, included contact and encounters with the following:
- Pastors, congregations and extended family members in the Cleveland area who were
sympathetic to the Seminex / ELIM cause.-My father (Clyde Nehrenz), as a layman, was a
member of the LCMS Seminary Issues Committee in the 1970s before the Synodical Convention
(assigned to deal with the seminary crisis prior to the forming of Seminex). I was aware
through him of the serious theological issues that were at stake.
- Professors at River Forest were part of the ELIM group and critical of
"conservative" students like me. Student editors of the campus newspaper were
also sympathetic to Seminex (who in fairness, did publish my letters to the editor
critical of Seminex).
- Youth counselors at an Ohio District Convention in the 1970s drafted a statement in
support of the then Senior College at Ft. Wayne (which supported Seminex) and convinced
unknowing high school and college students to present it to the Convention (to which I
objected in speaking on the floor).
My experiences were not unique. The same things were being experienced by young men and
women all over the synod, especially the pre-seminary students like me, soon to be
enrolled at the seminary. Impressionable minds were in considerable confusion about the
state of affairs in synod.
One of the most humorous and telling examples of this was when our Concordia College
Ann Arbor Choir was on tour in St. Louis and unbeknownst to us, we sang at a
"Seminex" church. All the men singers were put up in homes of Seminex students.
They were trying to recruit us for their seminary!
It was not funny at the time.
To all fair observers of those days and the present situation in Lutheranism, it is
obvious that real issues (not just personalities) were at stake and still are.
The AELC / ELIM / Seminex coalition, in most part, joined the ELCA, and the LCMS again,
in most part, has stayed true to its historic doctrinal stance.
The differences over: the inerrancy and inspiration of Scripture, the historical
critical method, the miracles of the virgin birth and the resurrection, the ordination of
women, life issues of abortion and euthanasia, homosexuality and sexual ethics - to name
only a few- still remain.
(I attended Concordia Theological Seminary Ft. Wayne from 1977-1982 where I received a
firm grounding in our Scriptural, confesional and liturgical positions, doctrine and
practice. I thank God for this foundation.).
Now nobody wants to say Herman Otten had it right, but he did. A realignment in
Lutheranism had to and still has to take place.
Also Francis Schaeffer, the now deceased apologist at his L’Abri Fellowhip in the
Alps of Huemoz, Switzerland (where I studied in 1979) also had it right.
He was familiar with the LCMS while he was studying in St. Louis at another seminary,
and he was also good friends with Robert Preus. He would come to Concordia Seminary and
talk to students on campus. He could see ahead of time the inroads neo-othodoxy and
liberalism were making in our synod.
Schaeffer had a warning for those who were experimenting with a newly discovered
neo-orthodox view of the Christian faith, divorced from historical truth. It was a fine
advantage for them, he said, to be able to hold onto their faith handed down to them by
their orthodox forefathers. But where would this experimenting with form -criticism and
the Scripture lead to eventually?
What legacy of faith would remain to leave for their children? If the Christian faith
was divorced from historical reality, then their children could rightly ask,"Why
should I believe any of this?" "Why not choose something else?"
To this question, my baby-boomer, yuppie and now generation-X era has no answer. Not a
clue!
But to most people sitting in the pews Monday at this funeral (using the ELCA hymnal
LBW), on the surface it would seem that there was not that much difference between that
service and a LCMS service with TLH or LW. We sang "For All the Saints" and
"Praise to the Lord".
Thankfully the Creed was recited and the Lords Prayer prayed. References in the sermon
were made to Baptism and Christ’s death and resurrection. Dr. Fuerbringer was praised
as a gentle, caring man who built a seminary with a high caliber faculty.
But un-noticed by most, I’m sure, was the message that was missing. Dr.
Fuerbringer’s ancestors proclaimed this message and gave up everything for this
message when they left Germany. Some died for this message. Dr Fuerbringer was taught this
message by Franz Pieper.
The missing message?
Justification by grace through faith. This was not the main focus. The truth of a
righteous God’s wrath being appeased by the bloody sacrifice of His Son on the cross
- I did not hear this clearly proclaimed. If the good news was asserted that the reason we
can go to heaven is because ours sins have been forgiven and washed away on account of
Jesus Christ’s substitutionary death on our behalf, then I missed it somehow!
Gospel reductionism has done its work. It has become Gospel "sort of". The
historical-critical method, supposedly protected by Lutheran presuppositions, has become
the historical critical method, period. That’s all. Nothing more is left than
cynicism about any truth claims from Jesus at all.
I carefully read the Augsburg Publishing House book review newsletters. It is shocking
to observe how far afield theologically their theologians have gone into feminist and
liberation theology.
What then remains as a result of such theology? If some choose a "Jesus
message" because it gives them meaning, more power to them. But reasonable human
beings may choose another way to God.
So pietism and rationalism have won again. Only a rebirth from the dead can offer a new
start. Stranger things have happened. A new Walther could arise from within the ELCA.
What about the LCMS?
With left-over liberal tendencies toward open communion and the inroads of church
growth propensities, it’s anyone’s guess where we will be even in 25 years.
The confessional movement in the LCMS is very timely in its calling us back to our
historic Scriptural, confessional, liturgical, catholic and truly evangelical beliefs and
practices.
Pastor Harold Senkbeil’s book, "Dying to Live" is a must read for every
man, woman and child in the LCMS! I read it as part of my daily devotional. We use this
book along with Pastor John Pless’ study guide as part of our monthly elders’
Bible study.
I thank God that Dr.Barry has put out the booklets on Divine Service and Catechesis!
Our elders and the vicar and I are also reading parts of these as well.
Still, other issues such as objective / subjective justification and church / ministry
have sparked heated debates in both the LCMS seminaries even after the Seminex split.
The rectilinear and typological approaches to Old Testament prophecies are still
debated, though typology presently seems to have won (since the Concordia Self Study Bible
has largely adopted that view throughout the commentary notes).
Our forefather did not take even these issues as lightly we do today. These debates are
taking place now among the "confessional" folks. Will another "parting of
the ways" be inevitable, like the one that took place between Walther and Grabau?
Who could have predicted that in 125 years from 1847 to 1972, we would almost lose the
whole thing? Who would have thought that in our midst we would find growing what our
forefathers vehemently opposed? It happened once, it could happen again!
Eternal vigilance is required as St. Paul exhorts us, "Watch your life and
doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and
your hearers." 1 Timothy 4:16 -INJ-