Lutheran Missiology: Confessing the Primacy of the Means of Grace

Quoting from Dr. Naomichi Masaki's article in the Holy Trinity 1998 issue of Logia (VII, 3) titled "Confessing Christ: Office and Vocation":

Lutheran missiology must confess the primacy of the means of grace. To confess the means of grace is to confess the office of the holy ministry (AC V) and its instrumentality in the confession of the gospel itself. Such, indeed, was Luther’s own understanding of the missionary task. According to Luther, the task of a missionary is to teach true worship. To emphasize this point, Luther cites the example of Noah. Luther notes that when Noah was traveling around the world, preaching everywhere, he was “giving instructions concerning the true worship of God.” Since for Luther there is no true worship of God other than what God himself has given, the sacraments together with preaching, he sees Noah as guiding people to sacramental worship so that they could meet God in “the covering.” The work of a missionary never stops at baptism, but it continues in teaching, until all are brought into the world of the Divine Service, where our crucified and risen Lord is present to give them his gifts.