Reflections on the Relationship Between Doctrine and Mission, Confession and Outreach
Rev. Herb MuellerBy Herbert Mueller
Doctrine or Mission?
Which is more important? Doctrine or mission? For Lutherans, that’s like asking whether a coin can have a “heads” without a “tails.” Yet there are common caricatures among us that would separate doctrine (or our Lutheran confessions) from the task of missions. “Pastor A” and his congregation say they are all about outreach but feel a concern for doctrine often impedes their efforts. “Pastor B,” on the other hand, becomes so focused on correct teaching that he drives people away. Pure doctrine is fine, says “Pastor A,” but never at the expense of offending people. Meanwhile, “Pastor B” will insist he is not opposed to outreach, though his shrinking congregation is surrounded by unbelievers.
Perhaps you already have in mind your favorite example of “Pastor A” or “Pastor B,” or both! If so, I’m sorry I tempted you to sin, but remember, a caricature is an extreme, like a cartoon, especially the character you believe is opposite your own position. But can you see that both extremes go too far? As Lutherans who know the Bible and our confessions, we understand these two must be one: doctrine and outreach, our confessions and the mission of the church. You cannot have one without the other. This may seem a commonplace, but our confession of the Gospel is what moves us into the mission of proclaiming the Gospel.
Confession
In talking about our confession, we are not talking here about the confession of sin, but the fact that we are identified as Lutheran by a specific confession of faith. We believe the Bible is the Word of God and that Christ is the only Savior of the world. We trust we are forgiven and find favor with God (are saved) solely by God’s grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith in Christ and His death and resurrection for us. This central teaching of the Bible is explained in our Lutheran Symbols or Confessions (for example, Luther’s Catechisms, the Augsburg Confession, the creeds and all the documents in the Book of Concord). Just as every American ship flies the American flag to identify it, our confessions, or symbols, are our theological flag identifying us as Lutherans. These do not add to the Bible but help us keep the central message of the Bible clear: salvation in Christ alone. We don’t hide who we are and what God has given us in our Lutheran confessions. But we confess them before the world in a loving and compelling way because they are in accord with the Word of God.
Mission
In talking about the mission, we mean the mission of God, the Holy Trinity, which begins in the heart of the Father who created all things by His Word, and now sends that Word in the person of His Son, sends Him into our flesh to give Himself into death for us and to rise from the dead that we might have life. The mission of God continues as the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit through the Word of God proclaimed to sinners. Jesus pours out His Spirit on His disciples and His Church so that they (we!) proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name to all nations (Luke 24:47closeLuke 24:47 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (ESV) closeLuke 24:47closeLuke 24:47 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (ESV) 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (ESV) ). He sends His disciples to make more disciples by baptizing them into the Triune name and by teaching them all He has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20closeMatthew 28:18-20 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV) closeMatthew 28:18-20closeMatthew 28:18-20 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV) 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV) ). He sends His preachers to proclaim His Word because “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the message of Christ” (Romans 10:17closeRomans 10:17 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (ESV) closeRomans 10:17closeRomans 10:17 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (ESV) 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (ESV) ).
He commissions all who are baptized to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9close1 Peter 2:9 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (ESV) close1 Peter 2:9close1 Peter 2:9 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (ESV) 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (ESV) ). All this the Father gives to the Son when He sends Him “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10closeLuke 19:10 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (ESV) closeLuke 19:10closeLuke 19:10 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (ESV) 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (ESV) ). And now, through the Church, He is making known His manifold wisdom in Christ (Ephesians 3:10closeEphesians 3:10 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. (ESV) closeEphesians 3:10closeEphesians 3:10 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. (ESV) 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. (ESV) ) because God desires none to “perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9close2 Peter 3:9 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (ESV) close2 Peter 3:9close2 Peter 3:9 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (ESV) 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (ESV) ).
The Connection
Here’s the connection between the two, our confession and the mission. Our Lutheran Confessions at their heart, I believe, are focused outward, not inward. Over and over again, they repeat the phrase, “Our churches teach…” and “We believe, teach and confess…” “We condemn…” the contrary doctrine. These are dynamic, active words. Our church is a witnessing, proclaiming church. In the Gospel “the forgiveness of sins is preached in the whole world” (Smalcald Articles, Part III, Article IV, Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, pocket edition, p. 406; hereinafter cited as Concordia). Luther says of this, “In short, the whole Gospel and all the offices of Christianity belong here, which also must be preached and taught without ceasing” (Large Catechism II, Concordia, p. 573).
All of this makes for an intimate connection between the mission of God in Christ and His Church and our confession of faith in Christ before the world. This connection is so strong in Scripture, I believe, that any Lutheran congregation or Lutheran synod which has become focused inward on itself has, in reality, forgotten what it means to be Lutheran.
Carried Out Through Congregations
Our confession also teaches that this mission of God is carried out through the church, most often as it gathers in congregations, “holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their shepherd” (SA III, XII, Concordia, p. 413), gathered by and around God’s Word and the Sacraments (AC VII). Strengthened and nurtured, congregations send believers into the world, hearts focused on Christ, to serve and to love others. Again, on Article III in the Large Catechism, Luther writes that God intends to use the Christian community to teach and preach the Word:
Until the last day the Holy Spirit remains with the holy community or Christian people. Through it he gathers us, using it to teach and preach the Word. By it he creates and increases sanctification, causing it daily to grow and become strong in the faith and in the fruits of the Spirit.[1]
Congregations (and groups of congregations) therefore send missionaries to plant new congregations with the Word of God. If a congregation becomes focused inward, its members may have forgotten why they pray the Lord’s Prayer: Thy Kingdom come! Our confession shows us what this means. “(T)he coming of God’s kingdom to us happens in two ways: (a) here in time through the Word and faith and (b) in eternity forever through revelation. Now we pray for both these things. We pray that the kingdom may come to those who are not yet in it, and, by daily growth, that it may come to us who have received it, but now and hereafter in eternal life. All this is nothing other than saying, ‘Dear Father, we pray, give us first Your Word, so that the Gospel may be preached properly throughout the world.’”[2]
This is why we equip pastor and people alike with the Biblical Good News of Jesus, the good stuff! The full Gospel! That all the baptized might give witness to the hope that is within them. This is why the Lutheran Church sends missionaries to all the world. This is why we consecrate deaconesses to serve, why we send chaplains into the military and into prisons. This is why we have schools and preschools, even mission schools. This is why we plant churches at home and abroad, including house churches. This is why we seek to serve the people around us and why we find where lost people are hurting – so that by the Word they may be connected to Jesus, and in Jesus connected to a living and loving community. Often times, planting a church, or planting a new ministry from a congregation, may be a great way of gathering new people.
Maximum Comfort in Christ
Here’s an interesting exercise for you. Read through particularly the first 13 articles of the Augsburg Confession, especially if you haven’t done it in a while. Check out also Article IV of the Apology, then perhaps Luther’s Large Catechism. Read them through with this question on your mind and in your heart: How does each topic of Lutheran teaching focus our attention on the Gospel’s comfort for sinners? How does each doctrine focus like a laser beam on the proclamation that we are justified by faith in Christ alone, apart from works of the law?
This heart and core of our confession is specifically designed, I believe, to bring maximum comfort in Christ for the penitent sinner, to bring hope to the hopeless, life to the dying. No more, no less. Grace alone, Christ alone, faith alone, based on Scripture alone. Law and Gospel. We are not just concerned for “getting it right” but we want our people to be comforted in Christ, and we want more people, especially hurting people, to come to know Christ and receive salvation in His name.
That’s our mission. And that’s also the reason God intends Lutheran congregations to be focused outward to others, to find and to engage with the Word of God and the love of Christ the unbelievers around us.
Focused Outward or Inward?
So… the real question to ask is NOT, how large is your congregation? But the most important question for any congregation to ask itself, no matter what the size, is this: Are you focused outward on others? Or are you focused on yourselves or your survival? Small congregations, even house churches, can be oriented outward, focused on confessing Christ, on testifying to what Christ has done for them, so that they are seeking to draw people in. Large congregations, even mega churches, can have turned inward, become cold, concerned primarily about survival. What about your congregation? Who are the people you have gifts from God to be able to reach? Who are the hurting people in need of Christ’s mercy? Our mission is always to give away the life Jesus gives, to bring others into the life of Christ.
For this life does not come from a new program, but through repentance and faith. The life of God is not the result of moral instruction and moral living, but is God’s gift of a new relationship with Him in Jesus Christ. The beating heart of our congregations must be the life of Jesus Christ – His life lived for us and offered up for us on the cross. His life triumphant in His resurrection. His life freely given in His body and blood, in the forgiveness of sins, in the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit.
Jesus intends that we present ourselves as “living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God” in Him (Romans 12:1closeRomans 12:1 A Living Sacrifice 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (ESV) closeRomans 12:1closeRomans 12:1 A Living Sacrifice 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (ESV) A Living Sacrifice 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (ESV) ). Jesus gives life in order to send us into the world, for the sake of the hungry, the needy, the lost, those who do not yet know Him. We are a community of servants sent into the world in our various vocations to serve God by serving others.
This is entirely consonant with the Large Catechism, third article, further explanation:
This, then, is the article which must always remain in force. Creation is past and redemption is accomplished, but the Holy Spirit carries on his work unceasingly until the last day. For this purpose he has appointed a community on earth, through which he speaks and does all his work. 62 For he has not yet gathered together all his Christian people, nor has he completed the granting of forgiveness. Therefore we believe in him who daily brings us into this community through the Word, and imparts, increases, and strengthens faith through the same Word and the forgiveness of sins. Then when his work has been finished and we abide in it, having died to the world and all evil, he will finally make us perfectly and eternally holy. We now wait in faith for this to be accomplished through the Word.[3]
Note that well – in order to carry out His work, His mission, the Holy Spirit has appointed a community on earth through which He does His work of bringing the Word of Law and Gospel to others. Every one of our churches is literally surrounded by unbelievers! How can we do anything else but open up to them? Turn outward to them? To find them where they are. To seek to bring them what we have been given – the best of the best in Jesus!
That’s also what brings us back to our confession. In other words, our mission finds its heart and core in our confession of Scripture for the maximum comfort of penitent sinners. And the goal of Lutheran missions is always to lead to Lutheran congregations – in other words, congregations that are gathered around the pure Gospel and the Sacraments rightly administered. Why? That’s where the comfort is! That’s where the life is! The best of the best. Maximum comfort for penitent sinners. We seek to plant Lutheran churches, not because we believe we’re better than others (often we’re not!) but because we believe our confession is BIBLICAL and CHRIST centered, and brings the greatest possible comfort for sinners, beginning with us.
This does not mean our churches need to have organs, speak German (or English!) or whatever other cultural folderal you can think of. What it does mean is that Lutheran congregations will have pastor and people focused on Christ in His Word of Law and Gospel, as witnessed by our confessions. It means also that worship will be Lutheran, that is, Biblical, dividing Law and Gospel properly, and focused on the means of grace, that God comes to serve us with His gifts. Of course, the details of this entail a much longer conversation beyond the scope of this paper, but we are called to be faithful in our worship, both to our context and to our confession.
Conclusion
Confession of the truth? Or outreach to the lost? Which should it be? You will not be faithful in either one without an equal emphasis on the other. That’s why, to all who count themselves “confessional,” we say, “Great! Now get out there and confess!” Our Lutheran Confessions are the clearest and most faithful expositions of God’s Word of Law and Gospel and keep Christ at the center of our life and proclamation. Don’t hide it. Don’t water it down, but by the Word of God bring the greatest possible comfort in Christ to the penitent sinner. Bring it to as many people as possible in winsome, relevant ways. The Biblical message is not something to keep to ourselves, but is meant to be broadcast, to be confessed before the world.
On the other hand, to all who put outreach at the top of their priority list, we say, “Excellent! Going to all the world with the Gospel of Christ is Christ’s own command!” We believe people are lost forever unless they hear the Word of God and are brought to faith in Christ. Outreach is what we are about. Now let’s be sure we are bringing people the “real deal,” the “good stuff” of God’s undeserved grace and mercy for the sake of Christ alone, crucified and raised from the dead, and received through faith alone. Be sure of what you are proclaiming by living faithfully in your confession. In short, don’t hide it. Don’t water it down. It’s the life-giving Word of God.
“You shall know the truth,” Jesus said, “and the truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32closeJohn 8:32 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (ESV) closeJohn 8:32closeJohn 8:32 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (ESV) 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (ESV) ). Now don’t keep is all to yourself, but get out there in the world and confess this truth for as many as will hear you! That, I believe, is the core of true confessionalism! Scatter the Lord’s good seed (His Word) wherever and whenever you can! The world is full of people (so is your community!) who need to hear the Law of God which convicts of sin and then need to hear over and over again the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins in Christ, the same Gospel that is explained from so many different directions in our confession.
One hot summer day years ago brought for me the 4th funeral in the space of a week. I was tired of death and tired of dealing with death. It hit me again as I looked into the anxious faces of the mourners around the grave: they don’t care what YOU think, Mr. Pastor. They want to hear what God is thinking. Your opinion counts for absolutely nothing right about now. But this is what counts – God’s Word – and through my tears I began to read Jesus’ promise, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26closeJohn 11:25-26 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (ESV) closeJohn 11:25-26closeJohn 11:25-26 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (ESV) 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (ESV) ).
This is what it comes to. We confess before the world the truth of God in Jesus because, in the end, we also live by that truth alone. Jesus alone gives life – also to pastors! Jesus alone carries us through this life, and through death to a glorious resurrection to eternal life.
And that’s why doctrine and mission are like two sides of the same coin.
[1]Tappert, Theodore G.: The Book of Concord : The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia : Fortress Press, 2000, c1959, S. 417
[2] Large Catechism III, 53f, Concordia, p. 589
[3]Tappert, Theodore G.: The Book of Concord : The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia : Fortress Press, 2000, c1959, S. 419
