Lutheran Church Growth

by Carl F. W. Walther (The first president of what later became the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod) The following is from Walther’s 1883 address at the dedication of the new Concordia Seminary building in St. Louis. The full text occurs in Concordia Journal, July 1989 (Vol. 15:3), pp. 222-230.

Newsletter article for August 2003

When our synod, the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio , and Other States, thirty-six years ago met for the first time in the God-blessed city of Chicago , it was a small, despised little band of only twelve poor congregations. The church which in this country still called itself Evangelical - Lutheran lay in utter ruin. The teaching of our church was unknown territory for it. The small number of preachers who still knew something about it and wanted to stick to it were considered people with limited mental capacities, and the hope was that they would soon die out. The Lutheran Confessions were hardly known even by name anymore, and they were considered documents of earlier unenlightened times, now long obsolete. Instead of Luther’s doctrine in this church that called itself Lutheran, the teaching of Zwingli and obvious rationalism was in vogue, coupled with fanatic methods of conversion. Hardly a single preacher had an orderly call into office according to God’s Word; almost all of them were engaged only for one or a few years. Immortal souls were entrusted to unprepared, immature men on a trial basis, while Christian parochial schools were abolished and Lutheran youth were in typically heathen fashion entrusted to an irreligious state. In short, the so-called Lutheran Church of our country was dead at that time, the laughingstock of all the sects, who, like hungry nightingales, came for the funeral.

When our synod at that time came forward with the watchword then unheard of: Gottes Wort und Luthers Lehr vergehet nun und nimmermehr [“God’s Word and Luther’s doctrine pure will now and evermore endure”], it was not only the anti- Christian papacy, not only the united - evangelical community of mixed religions, not only the fanatic sects, but above all the local so-called Lutheran church that would lead to Rome, and with great certainty they predicted an early, inglorious extinction for us, an outlandish growth and un-American intrusion.

And it is true, our prospects were really very dreary. To want to transplant the Old Lutheran church, which submitted to every letter of the Word of God, to this land of untamed love for liberty seemed in real fact to be a completely hopeless, worse than foolish undertaking. But far from letting itself be made to falter, our synod did not ask: What must we do to become large and numerous? But it only asked: What must we do to be found faithful before the Lord of the church? Our synod knew that success was not in its hands. Success is therefore left to God.

And what happened? The very evil plans of our enemies did not materialize for them. When the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod did not preach a new doctrine but proclaimed nothing but what they, the congregations, had learned from Luther’s Small Catechism; when the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod brought them the greatest message that a preacher can provide, namely the certainty of the grace of God and their salvation; when the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod were not trying to lord it over them in popish fashion but on the contrary first tried to get them to understand their wonderful Christian freedom and their holy congregational rights; when the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod did not seek their own temporal advantages but were interested only in immortal souls; when the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod prefer to suffer hunger and anxiety, prefer to suffer shame, persecution, and exile rather than to depart from “God’s Word and Luther’s doctrine” even in one letter; behold, then one congregation after another joined our synodical union. The mustard seed took root, shot up joyfully, and gradually assumed the stature of a mighty tree, under the shady boughs of which the birds of the air live. The Old Lutheranism, scoffed at because of its original diminutive stature, yes, even laughed to scorn, gradually, among the hot battles in America , became a power so that finally everyone who wanted to be really Lutheran had to get used to the idea of agreeing with the doctrine of our synod. The old treasured books of our church, in the forefront its confessional writings and the works of Luther, were dusted off, carried from house to house, and enthusiastically read and studied by our people. Like a prairie fire that true Lutheran faith and Lutheran life and conduct not only again spread irresistible across the land, but God also granted us unity of faith and a joyfulness of faith together with an intimate brotherly love, so that the days of Luther seemed to have come back among us. Wherever a little Lutheran church grew up like a fruit tree, even on a lonely prairie, there immediately also a little Lutheran schoolhouse grew up like a young shoot. The old pure songs, full of the power of faith and excitement of love, as they were sung by our fathers, resounded again with their charming old tunes. In short, the true Lutheran Church, for which dirges had already been sung all over the world, revived here of all places, came up out of the grave, and in more than a thousand places in our great union of states planted the victory banner of the pure Gospel. For years already the Macedonian call “Come over to help us” sounds in our ears from all directions. An ever increasing stream of Lutheran immigrants, also those of our German language, is flooding over our land and settling here, so that almost week after week new congregations are founded which to a large extent apply to us for teachers in church and school. And not only within our new fatherland, but even from the land of our forefathers, yes, even from the remotest countries of the earth that well-known call for help comes over to us and profoundly moves our hearts.

Everywhere doors are opened to us for entrance with the joyful news of the free grace of God in Christ for all sinners. Even though hundreds of workers have already been sent out into the great harvest from our institutions, the requests for such workers have on that account not become fewer in time but rather steadily more numerous, so that finally, with saddened hearts we have no longer been about to satisfy most of these requests. And so it finally also came about in this institutional building, that the present number of students, though insufficient, could no longer find room. A larger (Seminary) building became a matter of unavoidable necessity.