Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays

The ELS, in her desire to mediate and unify different confessional pockets within
the rapidly unraveling Synodical Conference, was drawn into the Wisconsin/Missouri
debate over church and ministry. Yet this debate revealed that there was no unanimity
among her pastors and professors. They soon came to the realization that they first, as a
synod, needed to come to a clear understanding of these twin doctrines. After an
exhaustive study of Scripture, the Lutheran fathers and the history of the Synodical
Conference, the ELS would come to defend the Wisconsin position as the Scriptural
position.
The position of the Old Norwegian Synod
What was the position of the founding fathers of the Norwegian Synod in these
matters? Some today within the ELS would like to assume that the Norwegian Synod
fathers held the position that would later characterize the “Missouri” side: only the local
congregation is established by God; the pastor is the only divinely ordained form of the
public ministry. Oft quoted is the statement by Herman Amberg Preus,
The congregations joining to form a church body, and
adopting a constitution, should be very guarded indeed, in
freely relinquishing, in part, their liberty and independence,
doing so out of kindly solicitude for their own and the
common welfare, lest they delegate to the synod or general
body any rights and powers which the Lord solely has
entrusted to the congregations themselves, and which,
when exercised by them, offer the best guarantee as to the
preservation of the true faith…Much less ought the
congregations assign to the general church body or its
officers any power and authority by virtue of which their
resolutions – even when not in conflict with God’s Word –
could be construed as laws binding upon the congregations
by virtue of divine authority, vested in them as superiors
according to the fourth commandment. Such concessions
on the part of the congregations would make of the synod a
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