Grace Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, Elgin, Texas

What's Going On in the Missouri Synod?

Additional citations from the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions not included in the study materials are linked to this document and will open in a separate window.

The Service of Women (Order of Creation)

Both man and woman were made in the image and likeness of God.
Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
Both man and woman have dominion or authority over creation.
Genesis 1:28, “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”
Nevertheless, the man and the woman are not the same, nor are they interchangeable, but they are placed in a God-given order.
Matthew 19:4, “And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female’…”
Ephesians 5:33, “Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”
The man has been given headship over the woman.
1 Corinthians 11:7-9, “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. ⁸ For man is not from woman, but woman from man. ⁹Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.”
The woman has been given subordination under the man.
1 Corinthians 14:33-37, “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. ³⁴ Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. ³⁵ And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church. ³⁶ Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? ³⁷ If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.”
This order of creation does not teach or imply any “superiority” or “inferiority,” but reflects the good and gracious will of God which is rooted in the very structure of God’s creation itself.
1 Corinthians 11:11-12, “Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. ¹² For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God.”
Ephesians 5:21, “…submitting to one another in the fear of God.”
St. Paul bases God’s command for man and woman on the “Order of Creation” (1 Timothy 2:11-14 and 1 Cor 14).

According to the order of creation, we do not allow a woman to have authority over a man.
1 Timothy 2:11-13, “Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. ¹² And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. ¹³ For Adam was formed first, then Eve.”
Ephesians 5:22-25, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. ²⁴ Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her…”
1 Peter 3:5-6, “For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, ⁶ as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.”
According to the order of creation, we do not allow a woman to hold the pastoral office. {Note: The Scripture uses the terms bishop, elder, and overseers to refer to the pastor.}
1 Corinthians 14:33, “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says.”
1 Timothy 3:2, 4-5, “A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; … ⁴ one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence ⁵ (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); (also v. 14-15)
1 Timothy 5:17, “Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.”
1 Thessalonians 5:12, “And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you…”

In the “Order of Redemption,” both man and woman are equally redeemed by Christ and are one in Christ (Galatians 3:28). Nevertheless, the order of creation is not abolished by the order of redemption. As long as we live in this world, we remain male or female (Mt 19:4).
Galatians 3:26-29, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷ For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
(Also see 2 Corinthians 5:17, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Colossians 3:11)

Up until 1969, the Missouri Synod, along with other members of the Synodical Conference, taught and practiced that on the basis of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-12, a woman was not to have authority over a man by either participation in congregational meetings, nor by holding a congregational office.

“All adult male members of the congregation have the right to participate actively in the discussions, votes, and decisions of the congregation since that is a right of the whole congregation. See Matt. 18:17-18; Acts 1:15, 23-26; 15:5, 12-13, 22-23; 1 Cor 5:2; 6:2; 10:15; 12:7; 2 Cor 2:6-8; 2 Thess. 3:15. Excluded from the exercise of this right are the youth (1 Pet 5:5) and the female members of the congregation (1 Cor 14:34-35)” (Walther’s “Pastoral Theology,” 1995, translated from 1906 version)

In 1969, the Missouri Synod in Convention, granted women the right to vote in congregational meetings and to hold congregational offices which do not involve a violation of the order of creation. Furthermore, any office whose function was to assist the Pastor in his office was strictly forbidden to women.

“Does such an exercise of the franchise constitute an act of domination over someone else, especially over one’s husband? Suffrage is defined by The Oxford English Dictionary as “a vote given by a member of a body, state, or society…”; also “the right or privilege of voting as a member of a body, state, etc.”… From this definition of suffrage public teaching in the church is not an essential or necessary part of suffrage in the church… It is also evident from the definition of the franchise that it does not give to those who have the right of suffrage the power to lord it over others… In the matter of suffrage, then, we conclude that there is nothing in Scripture to prohibit women from exercising the franchise in the voters’ meeting of the congregations to which they belong.

When it comes to the matter of holding office in the church…. …the basic question remains: Does such office-holding, of itself, constitute an act of lording it over others?” …After all, the church is the people of God, among whom the structures of organization, exist as a means of ministering to others (cf. Eph 4:12, Luke 22:25). In this understanding of the church, the exercise of the franchise offers the privilege of service to the body of Christ rather than the prerogative of power over a political entity” (1969 CTCR Report “Woman Suffrage in the Church”).

In 1985, the CTCR report “Women in the Church,” began to collapse the Scriptural prohibition, “that a woman is not to have authority over a man,” so that it only applied to the exercise of the Pastoral Office.

In 1994, the CTCR report “The Service of Women in Congregational and Synodical Offices” concluded that women may serve “in all offices of the congregation, including that of chairman, vice-chairman and elder, and district and Synodical boards and commissions” provided that they don’t involve the public accountability for the function[ing] of the pastoral office.”

A CTCR Minority Report of five LCMS professors disagreed.

The most glaring problems with the report: “first, the treatment of terms such as ‘teaching,’ ‘exercising authority,’ etc., and second the understanding of the doctrine of the order of creation…. Simple equation of teaching with the pastoral office seems too facile for this text…. The issues surrounding the verb authenteoo (“to exercise/usurp authority”) are very difficult and simply must be handled, as the Report does not…. This is especially true in the case at hand, when the current Report puts forth positions which are at odds with the official position adopted by the Synod. Our fundamental concern, however, is that in an important matter such as this we study seriously and reverently the Word of God as his faithful people” (CTCR Minority Report, 1985).

The 1995 LCMS Convention did not accept the 1994 report, but told the CTCR to continue to study the issues in consultation with the faculties of the seminaries and to “address concerns regarding the priesthood of all believers, the order of creation, and the Greek word authentein.”

Without another study being produced, the 2004 Synodical Convention approved Resolution 3-08A, “To Affirm the Conclusions of the 1994 CTCR Report: The Service of Women in Congregational and Synodical Offices.” Based on an incomplete and flawed report, the LC-MS Convention approved women to serve in every humanly established office. The issue of authority (point 7A above) was not considered.

Here’s what part of the resolution says:

…WHEREAS, This 1994 report also stated that "these considerations imply and even require, that in determining the eligibility of women for services in all congregational, District, and synodical offices, attention be given to the functions attached to a given office. As the Commission stated in the 1985 report on Women in the Church, 'For other offices [other than the office of public ministry of Word and sacraments] we have no express "thus saith the Lord" and everything depends on the functions assigned to these offices'"; and….

Therefore be it Resolved, That the Synod affirm that women on the basis of the clear teaching of Scripture may not serve in the office of pastor nor exercise any of its distinctive functions, and that women may serve in humanly established offices in the church as long as the functions of these offices do not make them eligible to carry out "official functions [that] would involve public accountability for the function of the pastoral office";…

It’s not a good sign when the Synod doesn’t understand what it has passed. Soon after the Convention, Synodical President Gerald Kieschnick appointed a task force to provide guidelines for implementing Res. 3-08A. He acknowledged:

“For the sake of maintaining the unity of doctrine and practice in all the districts of the Synod, it is imperative that the congregations of our Synod understand clearly what this resolution says and does not say, what it allows and does not allow, in order to prevent widely varying interpretations of such phrases as ‘the distinctive functions of the pastoral office’ and ‘public accountability for the pastoral office.’”

The foregoing material developed by and used with permission of Trinity Lutheran Church, Herrin, Illinois.

4. Lay Ministers

6 Points

6. Ecclesiastical Supervision and Dispute Resolution