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the government), and in the Synod “the Office of the Ministry” has been termed “the highest office in the Church” (Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics Vol. III [St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953], 461), which should not be understood as contradicting the rest of what Pieper wrote about the ministry (extensively citing the Bible, Luther, and the Lutheran Confessions); and

WHEREAS, It is good and helpful to distinguish between the men whom God has called to perform the duties of the divinely instituted preaching office in the Ch urch (Predigtamt) fo r proclaiming and teaching God’s Word and administering the Sacraments (pastor/bishop/teaching elder), on the one hand, and the men and women whom churches may appoint to perform other duties or hold other offices in the churches, who are expected to believe, teach, confess, and uphold the same confession of faith; and it is helpful for the Synod to certify and keep records of those who have been deemed qualified and have been appointed or called to these other offices; and

WHEREAS, The New Testament uses various terms to describe how people are designated or authorized to perform God- pleasing duties in the Church, such as, “called” ( κλητὸς, Rom. 1:1; 1 Cor.

1:1), “call” ( καλέω, Gal. 1:15), “set apart” ( ἀφορίζω, Acts 13:2;

Rom. 1:1; cf. Gal. 1:15) or “appoint” ( ἀναδείκνυμι, Luke 10:1;

“point out,” Acts 1:24; καθίστημι, “put in charge,” Acts 6:3; Titus 1:5; Heb. 5:1; see also Matt. 24:45– 47; 25:21–23; ποιέω, “make,” Mark 3:14; Heb. 3:2; τίθημι, “set,” John 15:16 and 1 Cor. 12:28; 1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11; “by prophecy with the laying on of hands,” 1 Tim. 4:14; or “ordain” [KJV, the Greek word χειροτονέω involves either laying on hands or a show of hands, Acts 14:23], or “appoint choose, or hand-pick,” 2 Cor. 8:19), but there is no mention of ordaining (initiating s omeone into a specific “order”) or commissioning (though it does mention “putting in charge” or “appointing,” καθίστημι, Acts 6:3) of the people who are to do other kinds of service or hold other offices in the Church; and

WHEREAS, Historically the Synod has affirmed that, “the preaching office is conferred by God through the congregation as the possessor of all ecclesiastical power, or the Keys, and through the call that is prescribed by God. The ordination of those who are called with laying on of hands is not a divine institution but an apostolic, churchly order and only a solemn public ratification of the call” (C.F.W. Walther, Ministry Thesis VI, 1852; in ed.

Harrison, The Church and the Office of the Ministry [CPH, 2012], p. 5), a position reaffirmed by 2001 Resolution 7-17A, “To Affirm Synod’s Official Position on Church and Ministry” ( Proceedings, 172–73); and

WHEREAS, For most of its history, the Synod carefully distinguished between pastors, who serve in the “preaching office” or “pastoral office,” which “is not a human institution but an office that God himself has established” (C.F.W. Walther, Ministry Thesis II, Church and Ministry , p. 5), “the highest office in the Church, from which flow all other offices in the Church” (Ministry Thesis VIII, ibid.), on the one hand, and “auxiliary offices,” which in biblical times included the offices of elders and the deaconate , and in Walther’s day included the offices of “schoolteachers who have the Word of God in their schools, distributors of alms, sextons, precentors [i.e., leaders of singing] at public worship, and others” listed in Ministry Thesis VIII, section 1 of Church Ministry (ibid., p. 286); and

WHEREAS, The current Synod Constitution and Bylaws use nonbiblical terminology for these two groups of workers in the church (“ministers of religion —ordained” and “ministers of religion— commissioned”) instead of biblical terms, making a distinction without biblical difference (e.g., what we call “the Great Commission” was delivered to men whom Jesus appointed to the Divine Office, who are currently rostered as “ordained ministers,” while there is no biblical term for those currently rostered as “commissioned minister,” those whom God permits the church to appoint to serve in ways other than public preaching and teaching of God’s Word and administering the Sacraments); and

WHEREAS, Historically the Synod, in its Constitution and

Bylaws, has referred to “pastors” also as “ministers of the Gospel,”

and referred to other theologically trained church workers by various terms that describe their training, duties, or functions; and

WHEREAS, The practices of the Synod have become examples to Lutheran churches around the world, living under the laws of widely divergent governments, and the doctrine and terminology of Lutheran churches should not be determined by the civil governments in which we find ourselves; and

WHEREAS, The terminology “minister of religion—ordained and ministers of religion—commissioned” (Const. Art. V) first entered into Constitution in 1992, replacing the historic wording (through 1986):

Membership in the Synod is held and may be acquired by congregations, ministers of the Gospel, and teachers of the Evangelical Lutheran Church who confess and accept the confessional basis of Article II.

and

WHEREAS, From 1989 through 2004 the Synod in convention added numerous man -made offices to the list of “ministers of religion—commissioned,” incorporating the graduates of programs offered by various colleges and universities of the Synod:

Membership in the Synod is held and may be acquired by congregations, ministers of the Gospel, teachers, and deaconesses of the Evangelical Lutheran Church who confess and accept the confessional basis of Article II. (1989 Const. Art.

V);

Membership in the Synod is held and may be acquired by congregations, ministers of religion— ordained and ministers of religion—commissioned, such as teachers, directors of Christian education, directors of Christian outreach, and deaconesses of the Evangel ical Lutheran Church who confess and accept the confessional basis of Article II. (Const. Art. V; added 1992;

“certified lay ministers” added in 1995; “parish assistants” added in 1998; “directors of parish music” added in 2001; “directors of family life ministry” added in 2004; the “such as” list was moved to the Bylaws in 2019);

and The following two whereases are present only in the Central Illinois District Board of Directors submission:

WHEREAS, The Central Illinois District has for the most part continued using the historic/biblical terms “pastor” and “teacher” in its Constitution and Bylaws (which also conform more to the terms commonly used in congregations to refer to these workers whom we a uthorize to teach the faith) after the Synod changed its terminology in its Constitution and Bylaws; and 2026 Convention Workbook

492 STRUCTURE AND ADMINISTRATION