Pastor Harrison's Convention Report

One of the bright spots in the Convention Workbook for the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s upcoming Regular Convention is the report of Pastor Matt Harrison, the Director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care (WR-HC). Beginning on page 102, Pastor Harrison joyously reports on the accomplishments and challenges of WR-HC over the last triennium. “It is impossible to adequately express the profound honor, thankfulness, and joy that we at LCMS World Relief and Human Care have and experience as a result of the unfathomable generosity of you, the dear members and congregations of the LCMS.”

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll discuss several aspects of his report. I’ve copied his remarks at the end of this post. Today I’d like to discuss Pastor Harrison’s candid remarks on WR-HC’s dealings with the ELCA.

Reflecting on the work that has been done over the past nine years, Pastor Harrison states

It has been a blessed endeavor, but a very hard road. Our offices have had more direct contact and involvement with the ELCA than any other in the LCMS. The complications brought about by the recent decision on homosexuality are only the most recent high-water mark of what has been a rising tide of pain, sorrow, and frustration in dealing with ELCA leadership, whom I have personally heard confess that there is salvation outside of faith in Christ. The decisions on homosexuality are symptomatic of a fundamental difference with them on what the Bible is and what the Gospel is. It has been supremely challenging to kindly but firmly insist on respect for the LCMS’s biblical positions, and to do as little damage as possible to agencies that serve so many with mercy. That said, the status quo with the ELCA cannot hold.

He is spot on when he states that the ELCA decisions on homosexuality are symptomatic of fundamental differences. Some in the ELCA don’t believe the Bible is the Word of God, but rather that it contains the Word of God. Once you’ve crossed that line, you rule over the text of Scripture, not the other way around. You may not realize how serious this has become. The ELCA preaches another Gospel. If it sounds far-fetched that Pastor Harrison has personally heard ELCA leadership “confess that there is salvation outside of faith in Christ,” consider this: On the official ELCA Synodical website, under the “What We Believe” heading, the salvation section comes with a near full-fledged endorsement of universalism:

For ELCA Lutherans, Braaten’s words ring true: "The special quality of Jesus’ uniqueness is best grasped in terms of his universal meaning. This concrete person, Jesus of Nazareth, is unique because of his unequaled universal significance. The point of his uniqueness underlines his universality. If Jesus is the Lord and Savior, he is the universal Lord and Savior, not merely my personal Lord and Savior. Because Jesus is the unique and universal Savior, there is a large hope for salvation, not only for me and others with the proper credentials of believing and belonging to the church, but for all people whenever or wherever they might have lived and no matter how religious or irreligious they may have proved to be themselves. It is clearly God’s announced will that all people shall be saved and come to the knowledge of truth (1 Timothy 2:4)."

It has been eight months since the ELCA Churchwide Assembly embraced homosexuality. Since then, what has the LCMS done in response? Nothing. Rather than taking swift action, a Task Force was appointed whose major contribution was to opine “frank and serious discussion on this issue needs to continue on various levels so that convictions and beliefs are not compromised and that worthy projects, activities, and relationships between our church and others may continue wherever possible.” After seven months of deliberation, we are told to continue deliberating. The message this sends to the rest of the world is that we really aren’t all that concerned – it’s business as usual. In contrast, I’m glad to see Pastor Harrison make a definitive statement exposing the ELCA’s universalism and their embrace of another Gospel. When he states that “the status quo with the ELCA cannot hold,” it spells the end of the “business as usual” attitude held by the current administration. I, for one, have no desire to cooperate with a Synod who has abandoned the plain words of Scripture in such a monumental way, and it’s refreshing to find that Pastor Harrison addresses this important issue.

Here’s the full text of Pastor Harrison’s words:

“We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith” (2 Thessalonians 1:3–4).

It is impossible to adequately express the profound honor, thankfulness, and joy that we at LCMS World Relief and Human Care have and experience as a result of the unfathomable generosity of you, the dear members and congregations of the LCMS. Your kindness through the 2006 tsunami, Katrina, Haiti, and hundreds of other disasters has been as encouraging as it has been amazing. Stewarding LCMS World Relief and Human Care is a sacred task. This institution has been a blessing to millions, literally.

As a result of a series of strategic decisions over the past nine years, we have vastly increased the capacity of the LCMS to act immediately in times of disaster and other need. The response to Haiti illustrates this in spades. In virtually everything we do, we seek to increase local Lutheran capacity to care for their communities, because when local Lutherans do this, they share the love of Christ in word and deed.

It has been a blessed endeavor, but a very hard road. Our offices have had more direct contact and involvement with the ELCA than any other in the LCMS. The complications brought about by the recent decision on homosexuality are only the most recent high-water mark of what has been a rising tide of pain, sorrow, and frustration in dealing with ELCA leadership, whom I have personally heard confess that there is salvation outside of faith in Christ. The decisions on homosexuality are symptomatic of a fundamental difference with them on what the Bible is and what the Gospel is. It has been supremely challenging to kindly but firmly insist on respect for the LCMS’s biblical positions, and to do as little damage as possible to agencies that serve so many with mercy. That said, the status quo with the ELCA cannot hold.

It has been a hard road too, guiding LCMS World Relief and Human Care through the complexities of a Synod bureaucracy that is severely strapped for cash. Through many hard decisions, especially over the past year and a half of economic downturn, we have been able to operate well in the black, and our financial position as of March 2009 is, frankly, outstanding. Some time ago the LCMS President’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Funding the Mission recommended that perhaps LCMS World Relief and Human Care become a synodwide corporation (like CPH, or the LCMS Foundation or LCEF) because we are “fully funded” by donors. Some twenty years ago, the Seventh Day Adventists (a church body smaller than the LCMS) did this with its mercy arm, which became the “Adventist Development and Relief Agency” (www.ADRA.org ). ADRA has grown from revenues similar to LCMS World Relief and Human Care ($10–20 million per year) to $170,000,000, and has vastly increased the impact and influence of that church body worldwide. We should do the same with LCMS World Relief and Human Care. We could vastly increase the work of mercy worldwide and benefit millions. “Could we have the vision and foresight to do the same? Because of constant overspending and weakening revenues, the Synod headquarters is deeply dependent on donations to LCMS World Relief and Human Care for operating cash (from $5–15 million dollars at any given time over the past triennium). The financial crisis of the Synod can be quickly addressed. As every businessperson, every farmer (and even the occasional person in government) knows, expenditures must not exceed revenues.

For whatever the strengths and weaknesses of the LCMS board system, thus far the Board for Human Care in the present system of bylaws has formed a reasonable firewall in the face of a Synod headquarters starving for cash and constantly (understandably!) looking for ways to ease its condition. I believe the proposed elimination of our board will erode that firewall further, and decisions about funds given by donors for mercy will increasingly be made in view of the Synod’s financial crisis and less in view of the need of people in trouble. (On stewardship and God’s priorities for mercy, see 2 Corinthians 8–9.)

In any case, I am at peace. Our board and staff have given everything they have, even risking their own lives and well-being at times, for the advance of mercy in the name of Jesus all over the world. The following report is but a small snapshot of the work done. I am humbled and honored to have had this opportunity to work with such fabulous staff, to be so humbled by the generosity of so many thousands upon thousands of donors, to be able to mine the depths of the Scriptures on mercy, and to have had this message resonate so profoundly all over the Synod and the world. And I am, finally, profoundly optimistic. The Lord has blessed this work so abundantly through so many difficult times when the road ahead seemed impossible, and He will continue to do so—but always in his way—under the cross. “Be ye merciful, as your father in heaven is merciful.”

With profound thankfulness, I remain convinced that mercy—the mercy of Christ to and for us—and our demonstration of that mercy to those within and outside the Body of Christ is the key to the future of the Church. Mercy is the key to mission and stewardship. It is the key to living our Christian lives together in love and forgiveness. We desperately need to learn more deeply of the mercy of Christ so we may learn how to care for one another in the Church. Mercy is the key to moving boldly and confidently into the future with courage in the Gospel—a confidence and courage based on conviction (Christ Have Mercy: How to Put Your Faith in Action, p. 11).

Matthew C. Harrison
Executive Director