{"id":24621,"date":"2016-07-11T06:05:13","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T10:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=24621"},"modified":"2016-07-10T22:12:49","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T02:12:49","slug":"the-lutherans-great-and-holy-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/the-lutherans-great-and-holy-council\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lutherans’ great and holy council"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is holding its triennial convention July 9-14 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. \u00a0The delegates will not be trying to revise the Christian sexual ethic, ordain women, or weigh in on national politics.<\/p>\n

The biggest issue, as I understand it, has to do with the paradoxically-named \u201cLay ministers.\u201d \u00a0Some decades ago, the LCMS started a program for laity who wished to serve congregations\u00a0full time. \u00a0But some congregations\u2013especially small, rural parishes\u2013began using lay ministers as pastors, having them preach, give pastoral care, and administering the sacraments. \u00a0But that seemed to go against the\u00a0Augsburg Confession, Article XIV\u00a0<\/a>, which requires an ordained ministry for public preaching and for ecclesiastical order. \u00a0Some in the LCMS defend the lay ministry program in the name of the priesthood of all believers and for pragmatic reasons, saying that these little congregations couldn\u2019t afford a seminary-trained pastor and that these lay ministers have been doing an excellent job and don\u2019t deserve to lose their positions.<\/p>\n

\n

A proposal before the convention would do away with the Lay Ministry program, but\u2013and this is the brilliant Solomonic provision\u2013ordain<\/em>\u00a0those who are currently serving congregations\u00a0in a pastoral capacity. \u00a0This would align church\u00a0practice with the Lutheran confessions while also doing a favor for the lay ministers who have been serving. \u00a0Being a pastor does not require seminary training as such, but it does require a call<\/em>\u00a0and an ordination. \u00a0<\/em>The measure before the convention would also provide for additional training for the new pastors. \u00a0(Somebody please correct me if I have any of this wrong.)<\/p>\n

Does anyone know of any other big questions before the convention?<\/p>\n

You can follow the convention, including livestreaming, here.<\/a><\/p>\n

The convention FaceBook page<\/a> gives a good running summary.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is holding its triennial convention July 9-14 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. \u00a0The delegates will not be trying to revise the Christian sexual ethic, ordain women, or weigh in on national politics. The biggest issue, as I understand it, has to do with the paradoxically-named \u201cLay ministers.\u201d \u00a0Some decades ago, the LCMS […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4642,4641,1340],"class_list":["post-24621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","tag-lay-ministers","tag-lcms-convention","tag-lutheran-church-missouri-synod"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Lutherans' great and holy council<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is holding its triennial convention July 9-14 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. \u00a0The delegates will not be trying to revise the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/the-lutherans-great-and-holy-council\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Lutherans' great and holy council\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is holding its triennial convention July 9-14 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. \u00a0The delegates will not be trying to revise the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/the-lutherans-great-and-holy-council\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-11T10:05:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-07-11T02:12:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/the-lutherans-great-and-holy-council\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/the-lutherans-great-and-holy-council\/\",\"name\":\"The Lutherans' great and holy council\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-11T10:05:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-07-11T02:12:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is holding its triennial convention July 9-14 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. \u00a0The delegates will not be trying to revise the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/the-lutherans-great-and-holy-council\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/the-lutherans-great-and-holy-council\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/the-lutherans-great-and-holy-council\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Lutherans’ great and holy council\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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