Official Workbook PDF page source text

LCMS 2026 Convention Workbook: Reports and Overtures, PDF page 40

2026 Convention Workbook
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OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
it’s gift as He creates, preserves, and extends the holy Christian 
Church. The Church lives by the Word of Christ and confesses for-
giveness, life, and salvation in Him: “You are the Christ, the Son of 
the living God” (Matt. 16:16).
What holds true in the first two articles of the Creed (for cre-
ation and redemption) also holds true here in the third (for sanctifi-
cation and the life of the Church): The Word conveys its own mean-
ing, movement, and purpose. Nowhere is this clearer than in the 
doctrine and practice of church fellowship. The Word that creates 
faith is the same Word that unites the faithful. In His High Priestly 
Prayer, Christ reveals the Word as the divine instrument of love that 
creates saving faith and binds His Church together through a united 
confession of His Word: “Holy Father, … I have given them your 
word. … Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth … that they 
may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they 
also may be in us … so that the world may believe that you sent me 
and loved them” (John 17:11–23).
The New Testament witnesses understand church fellowship 
as confessional unity in the Word, which includes the Sacraments 
instituted by Christ’s Word. The 3,000 baptized on Pentecost “de-
voted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the 
breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). In St. Paul’s locus 
on Communion fellowship, he defines the Sacrament as “the com-
munion of the blood of Christ … [and] the communion of the body 
of Christ” (1 Cor. 10:16 NKJV) and concludes, “For we, though 
many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one 
bread. … Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the 
altar?” (1 Cor. 10:17–18 NKJV). Yes, those who partake thereby 
confess their unity in what that altar stands for. Similarly, St. Paul 
says that in communing, you are making a proclamation of what 
you believe: “You proclaim the Lord’s death” (1 Cor. 11:26). The 
reverse also holds: Those not agreed in the divine doctrine are not 
recognized for fellowship. “Watch out for those who cause divi-
sions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have 
been taught; avoid them” (Rom. 16:17).
The Lutheran Confessions follow this biblical teaching. Church 
body fellowship is based on agreement “in the doctrine [of the 
Gospel] and all its articles” (FC SD X 31), that is, in all doctrine 
pointing to and flowing from the Gospel. The Solid Declaration’s 
Comprehensive Summary (CS) explains this: “For thorough, per -
manent unity in the Church, it is necessary, above all things, that 
we have a comprehensive, unanimously approved summary and 
form of teaching. The common doctrine must be brought together 
from God’s Word and reduced to a small circle of teaching, which 
the churches that are of the true Christian religion must confess” 
(FC CS 1). The Solid Declaration understands that its own articles 
convey this “small circle of teaching,” in accord with the original 
meaning of the Augsburg Confession and the other confessional 
documents, and that the Old and New Testaments provide “the only 
true standard or norm by which all teachers and doctrines are to be 
judged” (FC CS 3).
Church body fellowship based on confessional unity does not 
undercut the unity that all Christians have with the Triune God in 
Christ Jesus. Faith unites the baptized with Christ (unio mystica) 
and with each other as His Body, the one holy Christian and ap-
ostolic Church (una sancta). Church fellowship takes that unity 
seriously, requiring that the Gospel in all its articles—God’s means 
to create and sustain saving faith—be taught purely by a church 
before recognizing fellowship and sharing Word and Sacrament 
ministry, lest the Word of God and salvation in Christ be corrupted.
You are baptized. The resurrection is yours now. The new life—
resurrection—has hold of you now. Christ is risen! Alleluia! 
Let’s go. 
Matthew C. Harrison, President
R1.1
Church Relations
Holding to God’ s Word Alone in Christ!
Holding to God’s Word alone in Christ is the basis of our faith, 
the biblical principle for ecumenism, and the means for recogniz -
ing church body fellowship. This is not Gospel reductionism; it is 
God’s powerful Word conveying its own meaning, movement, and 
purpose. It is how the Holy Trinity works out salvation history and 
creates church fellowship in the Son.
God the Father Almighty created heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1). 
The Scriptures testify that as the Spirit hovered over the waters, 
God spoke and by the power of His Word created light and life, 
flora and fauna, Adam and Eve (Gen. 1:2–31). With the fall into 
sin, there came two ways to understand God and His will for His 
people: to hear God’s Word as true and trustworthy, or by human 
reason and experience to fashion an alternative god and purpose. 
Clearly, if one believed that God created the world by His Word, it 
would make sense to take that Word to heart. That did not stop hu-
manity from seeking alternative meaning and purpose by projecting 
human reason and experience into a garden, later into a pantheon 
of gods, and today into self-glory and human redefinition. Creation, 
brought into being by the Word, brings God’s meaning and purpose 
in that Word, but some take stock in their own fabricated founda-
tion.
God the Son—the eternal Word—took on human flesh from the 
womb of the Virgin Mary to be our Redeemer. He came to keep the 
Law’s requirements and fulfill the Gospel promises recorded in the 
inspired, inerrant Word of God. This the Old Testament prophets 
foretold and to this the New Testament apostles testified. As our 
Redeemer and out of divine love, Christ lived to obey the Law in 
our place, died to atone for sin, rose to justify sinners, and ascended 
into heaven to send His Spirit. Into the pastoral office He ordained 
and installed His apostles to preach the Gospel, forgive sin, ad-
minister the Sacraments, and teach the fullness of His Word (Matt. 
28:17–20; Mark 16:15–16; Luke 24:46–49; John 20:21–23).
The risen Christ teaches that all Holy Scripture is about the 
redemption He brings: “Everything written about me in the Law 
of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. … 
Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third 
day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of 
sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:44, 
46–48). Nonetheless, apart from and against the Word, the Scrip-
tures warn that some teachers shape another Christ, denying Gospel 
(Gal. 3:1–2) or Law (2 Peter 2:12–22) or incarnation (2 John 7) or 
atonement (Heb. 10:19–26).
God the Holy Spirit works through the Word and Sacraments of 
Christ to be our Sanctifier. By these means, the Spirit creates and 
sustains saving faith, forgives sins, empowers the fruits of faith, 
unites believers to Christ, conforms them through suffering to the 
Son’s image, and seals them unto the resurrection of the dead and 
the life everlasting. This work of sanctification is truly a divine gift 
to the individual, but not an individualistic deposit—it is the Spir -