Date of Award
5-1-1963
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Sacred Theology (STM)
Department
Historical Theology
First Advisor
Carl Meyer
Abstract
This study is concerned with the effect the pressure to meet this need had on the traditional forms of ministry prevalent among Lutherans and the doctrinal ramifications and implications of forms adopted to meet these needs. In a general way, the problem of the itinerant ministries employed by the Missouri Synod may be expressed as a tension between stability on the one hand and mobility, or perhaps flexibility and adaptability, on the other. The stability was the traditional doctrine and church practice the German Lutheran immigrants had inherited and brought with them from the old country. The mobility was that required ·to adapt or accommodate the traditional forms to the new environment and a new set of circumstances. On the side of stability there was the centuries old tradition incorporated in the German Kirchenordnungen and what was understood by the German Parochialwesen. On the side. of mobility was the widely scattered distribution of Lutheran immigrants across the frontier and not enough men nor the means to locate them and gather them into parishes of convenient and practical sizes. Again on the side of stability was the traditional concept of the ministry, which, especially for the Missouri Synod, stressed the derivation of the functions and authority of the office of the ministry from the congregation or the priesthood of all believers. On the side of flexibility was the need for a form of ministry which could reach and minister to groups where a congregation did not yet exist and could hardly be maintained. Further on the side of stability was the stress placed, particularly in the Missouri Synod, on what has been called congregational sovereignty or autonomy. On the side of adaptability in this particular issue was the limited effectiveness of a single local congregation to reach thousands of scattered people far beyond its boundaries and thus the need for a collective organization to carry on such work.
Recommended Citation
Wyneken, Karl, "The Development of the Itinerant Ministries in the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod 1847-1865" (1963). Master of Sacred Theology Thesis. 284.
https://scholar.csl.edu/stm/284
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