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A Church with Two Passions
We look at the last portion of a paper that Pastor Jonathan E. Schroeder shared with delegates at the 60th Biennial Convention of our Wisconsin Synod:
Our calling as the Church and as the WELS is to preach the gospel, by sharing the Word and keeping the Word. Christ did not leave us the option of choosing "going" over "teaching" or "keeping" over "sharing."
They are two sides of the same coin: Preach the gospel! One drives the other.
We go that the Holy Spirit might call more of his elect to faith. Once found, we teach the new believer the truth of God's Word and all the promises and plans that God has made for him.
Teaching new believers about the unbelievable grace of God cannot but engender a desire to go and make disciples. Going leads to teaching, and teaching leads to going.
It's a symbiotic relationship that Christ never intended to have his Church divde by pitting one directive against the other.
Imagine if the Church failed to fulfill one of its twin directives. The church that teaches God's Word faithfully to its own, but does not share it with the world, fails to participate in the mission to which Christ invited it.
The church that goes to the entire world, but does not teach everything he has commanded us, fails Jesus' litmus test for discipleship: "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples." (John 8:31)
Mission zeal without sound doctrine is mission work that is slowly losing hold of the one tool that opens hearts. No methods, no programs, no people skills can convert sinful man -- only the word of God.
Mission work without zeal for doctrine is destined to falter. Conversely, zeal for doctrine without a corresponding zeal for sharing the Word is like walking with one shoe: you are always off balance.
We keep the Word so that we can share it with the world. Mission work both at home and abroad is what makes our zeal for doctrine so important.
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Watch your life and doctrine closely, Paul said, but why? Not doctrine for doctrine's sake, but for the sake of salvation.
As we gather here, we are faced with financial decisions that will certainly change the face of our synod. It's an appropriate time for us to look at this church body, our synod, and consider Our Calling and what it means for our future. Our calling is to be a church with two passions: keeping the Word for the world and sharing the Word with the world.
Can we recapture our founders' missionary passion to share this Word with the world, the lost and found? Can we retain our fathers' passion to keep the word for the world? Of course -- but how?
Through the gentle whisper of gospel, the remembrance of dripping water, and the taste of body and blood. We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength.
When God speaks, he opens his mouth wide. Our calling is to be his child, to be his mask, to be his Church.
The God who called us before the world began is now calling us again in the last age of this earth, and his words meant for the Church in trying times ring true in our age as well.
They are words of comfort and courage, words of power and promise: "Do not be afraid, I am the First and the Last. I am the living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." (Revelation 1:17-18)
God has called us to sonship before him, to service in the world, and to proclaim salvation to the world. Nothing can describe the magnitude of his mercy and grace.
All we can do is marvel, and then in grateful thanks seek his strength to live lives worthy of the calling we have received.
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1)
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