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Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod

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File:LCMS cross.gif
Official cross symbol of the Missouri Synod

The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. It is a conservative, confessional Lutheran Christian denomination with German-American roots. The LCMS is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri and counts about 2.6 million baptized members.

History

The Missouri Synod emerged from seveal communities of German Lutheran immigrants during the 1830s and 1840s. In Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, isolated Germans in the dense forests of the American frontier were brought together and cared for by missionary F.C.D. Wyneken. A utopian movement of Confessional Saxon Lutherans under Martin Stephan created a community in Perry County, Missouri and Saint Louis, Missouri. In Michigan and Ohio, Missionaries sent by Wilhelm Löhe cared for scattered congregaions and founded utopian communities in Frankenmuth, Michigan and the Saginaw Valley of Michigan.

The Saxon Immigration

In the nineteenth century German Kingdom of Saxony, two Lutheran ministers, Martin Stephan and C.F.W. Walther, and many of their followers found themselves increasingly at odds with the rationalism of the state-sponsored Lutheranism in Saxony. In order to freely practice what they saw as pure Lutheranism, Stephan and Walther and 750 other Saxon Lutherans left for the United States in November 1838.

The ship arrived January 5, 1839 in New Orleans, and most of the immigrants (including Walther) settled in the area of Saint Louis in Missouri. Stephan was initially the bishop of the new settlement, but he soon became embroiled in charges of corruption and sexual misconduct with members of the congregation, and was expelled from the settlement, leaving Walther as the senior clergyman. To this day the Missouri Synod is not governed by bishops. Other congregations would eventually join with this core community.

During this period there was considerable debate within the settlement over the proper role of the church in the New World: whether it was a new church, or remained within the German Lutheran hierarchy. Walther's view that they could consider themselves a new church prevailed.

Organization of the Missouri Synod

On April 26, 1847, twelve pastors representing 15 German Lutheran congregations met in Chicago and founded a new church body, "The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States." Walther became the fledgling denomination's first president.

In its early days the synod was conservative on a number of issues. Following Walther's lead, the church strongly opposed humanism and religious syncretism. It also supported the institution of slavery, based on a literal reading of 1 Corinthians and other epistles of Paul

The new synod grew quickly during the nineteenth century, reaching 685,000 members by 1897.

Transition to English

Until the United States' involvement in the First World War, the synod remained overwhelmingly German in its makeup and its language. The anti-German sentiment caused by that war prompted the church body to "Americanize" its image, and over the next half-century the synod's membership doubled.

In 1947, the church body shortened its name from "The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States," to the present one, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.

Battle over Biblical Inerrancy

Teachings of the LCMS

The LCMS is a conservative Lutheran church body and is generally too conservative to be considered a mainline Protestant church.

Doctrinal Sources and Standards (Formal Principle)

Regarding the Bible, the LCMS believes it to be the inspired Word of God and inerrant; they reject the scientific approaches of Higher criticism of the Bible (also referred to as "historical critical" approach).

The synod professes the beliefs found in The Book of Concord. The LCMS's motto includes the words "Scripture Alone". The LCMS and other conservative Lutherans regard the Book of Concord and Lutheran Confessions as "the pure and unadulterated explanation and presentation of the Word of God," neither adding to nor subtracting from them.

Major Doctrines (Material Principle)

The LCMS teaches that Jesus Christ is the focus of the Scriptures and that faith in Him alone is the way to eternal salvation ("I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life: no one can get to the Father except through me" John 14:6). Essential to the Missouri Synod understanding of Jesus is the doctrine of justification by divine grace alone. The church rejects any attempt to attribute salvation to anything other than Christ's death and resurrection.

The synod believes that baptism and communion (also referred to as the eucharist) are "means of grace" along with the Word of God. Both are considered sacraments capable of imparting the Holy Spirit and forgiveness of sins on those who participate in them in faith. Some in the LCMS also view Confession and Absolution as being the third sacrament.

Regarding the Eucharist, the LCMS rejects the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and the Reformed teaching that the Lord's Supper is only a symbol that points to the sacrafice of Christ's Body and Blood on the Cross. Rather, it believes in the doctrine of the Real Presence, that the Body and Blood of Christ are truly present "in, with, and under" the elements of bread and wine.

The Missouri Synod flatly rejects millenialism and the teaching of the rapture. The church's focus tends to be on immediate salvation rather than on the end times.

The LCMS is also creationist and opposed to the teaching of evolution.

Practices

The Missouri Synod is also conservative in its worship practices. Many LCMS congregations practice close or closed communion, restricting worshippers from participating in the Eucharist who do not agree with Lutheran beliefs about the sacrament. Few LCMS congregations practice open communion. ordination of women is not practiced.

Worship in Missouri Synod congregations is often traditional and liturgical, utilizing a printed order of service and traditional hymns, often centuries old, accompanied by a pipe organ. However, Contemporary Christian music in worship has been making inroads into many churches in recent years. The Missouri Synod has no official policy on worship style, but various factions on either side argue for one.

It has been said that many LCMS congregations are more liturgical and traditional than many Roman Catholic congregations.

Church structure

LCMS pastors are generally required to have a four-year bachelor's degree (in any discipline), as well as a four-year Master of Divinity degree from one of the body's two seminaries: the Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and the Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In seminary, students preparing to be pastors study historical theology, the biblical languages (Biblical Greek and Hebrew), practical application (education, preaching, and mission), and doctrine (the basic teachings and beliefs of the church).

Since the expulsion of Martin Stephan in the 1840s, the LCMS has not been governed by bishops. The basic structure of the denomination is basically congregational, with each congregation having a certain amount of autonomy. The entire synod is divided into districts; most of them correspond to a specific geographic area, but this is not always the case. Each district is led by a district president, who must be an ordained pastor. The districts are subdivided into circuits, each of which is also led by an ordained pastor.

The LCMS as a whole is led by an ordained Synodical President, currently Gerald B. Kieschnick. The President is chosen at a synodical convention, a gathering of pastors and representitives from among the laity. The convention is held every three years and discusses doctrine and policy as well as electing the leader.

Organizations

The LCMS operates ten universities known as the Concordia University System. Among the LCMS's other auxiliary organizations are the Lutheran Laymen's League, which conducts outreach ministries including The Lutheran Hour radio program. The synod also operates a publishing company, Concordia Publishing House.

Relationship with other church bodies

Maintaining its position as a confessional church emphasizing the importance of agreement in the teachings of the Bible, the LCMS is not associated with ecumenical organizations such as the National Council of Churches, the National Association of Evangelicals, the World Council of Churches or the Lutheran World Federation.

However, it is a member of the International Lutheran Council, made up of over 30 Lutheran Churches world wide that support the confessional doctrines of the Bible and the Book of Concord.

At present, the LCMS is in fellowship with the Lutheran Church Canada. Originally the Lutheran Church Canada was the Canada District of the LCMS and eventually it was decided that it would be best if the Canadian congregations formed the Lutheran Church Canada.

With 2.6 million members, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod is the second largest American Lutheran denomination, after Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with 5.1 million members, and followed by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod with 410,000.

The LCMS is distinguished from its closest non-LCMS Lutheran US denomination - the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) - by three main theological beliefs:

1. The biblical understanding of fellowship - the LCMS believes in a distinction between the altar, pulpit fellowship, and other manifestations of Christian fellowship (i.e. a prayer fellowship). The WELS does not.
2. The doctrine of the ministry - the LCMS believes that the Pastoral office is divinely established, but all other offices are human institutions and hence are not divinely established. The WELS does not believe that any office is divinely established.
3. The role of women in the church - Both the LCMS and WELS agree that Scriptures reserve the pastoral office for men. However, the WELS also believes that the Scriptures forbid women's suffrage in the congregation.

Presidents

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