FOR VACANT CONGREGATIONS CALLING A PASTOR

Resources for congregations with pastoral vacancies, desiring to maintain or regain confessional Lutheran teaching and practice when filling the pastoral office in their midst

Resources on the LCMS Pastoral Call Process provided by The Augustana Ministerium

(PDF) - How Confessional Congregations Can Call Traditional Pastors Even If... (Lutheran Clarion)

Upholding the Scriptural-Confessional Understanding of the Office of Pastor

“We dare never give them occasion to think: ‘If you want to get a pastor, you’ll have to support the president…’ No, a congregation should and must know that there is no need to fear that we will touch its right; it must decide whom to call, and we have nothing to say about that. We merely say: ‘If you want to act with foresight, wisdom, and humility in dealing with such a sacred matter, then get advice from the best advisors–and as a general rule those are the District presidents. But we do not insist that you must go to the president.’”

Rev. Dr. C.F.W. Walther, 11th Synodical Convention (Missouri Synod), 1863

Martin Noland. “District Presidents and Their Council: Biblical and Confessional Limitations,” in Church Polity and Politics: Papers presented at the Congress on the Lutheran Confessions. Edited by John R. Fehrmann & Daniel Preus. (Crestwood, MO: The Luther Academy, 1997) [Available through Logia Books]

Directory of Lutheran Liturgical Congregations

The Augustana Ministerium

How an LCMS Pastor is Called to a Place of Ministry

WHAT THE LCMS BYLAWS SAY...

In a nutshell, a congregation may issue a divine call to any ordained minister (pastor) on the ordained minister roster of the LCMS who is not under restricted or suspended status (or one from a synod in full-fellowship with the LCMS). The constitutional task of the District President is to advise the congregation and provide information as it is requested from the calling congregation. The constitution does not allow for District Presidents withholding requested information for candidates or pastors who are not under restricted or suspended status.

If a congregation may certainly call any pastor on the roster of the synod who is in good standing (neither restricted nor suspended). Few congregations know this (for various reasons). This is part of the freedom that congregations have. With this said, a congregation should recognize that those who have the responsibility to advise and give information will not necessarily be pleased to have that congregation call someone not on the provided list and there may or may not be "political" or consequences to this, for a little while.

A congregation should make sure that the pastor in question is rostered and is in good standing and should have some basic information about him. If a pastor has spent a very short period of time in his current place of ministry this should be noted, but this in should not necessarily be a reason to take someone off of a call list. Whether that one is available for a call (as a pastor in good standing) is God's concern. A District President should not pre-emptively make those decisions for the congregation as the Holy Spirit's instrument for God's call.

Synodical Bylaw 2.45
"a. Congregations shall seek the advice of the respective District President when calling ordained or commissioned ministers.
b. Congregations which are members of the Synod, in conformity with Article VI 3 of the Constitution of the Synod, shall call and be served only by ordained or commissioned ministers who have been admitted to these respective ministries in accordance with the rules and regulations set forth in this Handbook and have thereby become members of the Synod.
c. Congregations which violate this requirement and persist in such violation, after due admonition, forfeit their membership in the Synod."

Bylaw 4.73
"Each District President...shall...advise the congregations of his District as to the calling of pastors and teachers, give counsel, and respond to requests and inquiries. He may call upon Circuit Counselors to assist him."

"If the bishops wanted to be true bishops and to attend to the church and the gospel, then a person might -- for the sake of love and unity but not out of necessity -- give them leave to ordain and confirm us and our preachers, provided all the pretense and fraud of unchristian ceremony and pomp were set aside. However, they are not now and do not want to be true bishops. Rather they are political lords and princes who do not want to preach, teach, baptize, commune, or perform any proper work or office of the church. In addition, they persecute and condemn those who do take up a call to such an office. Despite this, the church must not remain without servants on their account."
+ Smalcald Articles, Part III, Article 10,1-2 +

"St. Peter prohibits the bishops to rule as if they had the power to force the churches to do whatever they desired [1 Peter 5:2 ]. Now the question is not how to take power away from the bishops. Instead, we desire and ask that they would not force themselves into sin. But if they will not do so and despise this request, let them consider how they will have to answer to God, since by their obstinancy they cause division and schism, which they should rightly help to prevent."
+ Augsburg Confession, Article XXVIII,76-78 +

"...All this evidence makes clear that the church retains the right to choose and ordain ministers. Consequently, when bishops either become heretical or are unwilling to ordain, the churches are compelled by divine right to ordain pastors and ministers for themselves. Moreover, the cause of this schism and dissension is to be found in the ungodliness and tyranny of bishops, for Paul warns that bishops who teach and defend false doctrine and impious forms of worship are to be considered accursed."
+ Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, The Power and Jurisdiction of Bishops,72 +