Remembering the Mission of God – after the 2024 Convention

Dear Friends in Christ,

Our recent, much-anticipated LCA-NZ Convention of Synod has now concluded, and the dust has settled. Actually, no, it seems to me that there’s still a lot of dust swirling around, and this is understandable. It’s going to take time for us to learn to live with the outcomes of this convention. I’ve been talking with people who feel relieved and joyful, as well as with those who feel concerned or even grieving.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the mission that God has called us into. His mission, to deliver the good news of salvation through his Son. This salvation comes to us freely, graciously, through faith and not by any of our abilities.

Personally, the recent stages of debate surrounding ordination in our church have also been a reminder of the distinctive Lutheran teaching on the proper distinction between Law and Gospel—and the need to hold fast to the Gospel always.

Pr. Steen Olsen, retired SA District Mission Director, offers insightful reflections on this in his recent blog post, which I commend to you:
Bring Jesus (14 Oct 2024)

As we navigate this period, learning to live together with the convention’s decisions on ordination, let us resist allowing “legalism” and its close cousin, fear, to obscure the core message of the Gospel—what Jesus has accomplished for us.

He has saved us by His grace, and forgetting this undermines our mission. It even creates barriers for those who have yet to hear the good news – and who have been prepared by God to receive it through us.

The danger we face is falling into the trap of mixing the Gospel with requirements for personal performance, sincerity, or merit. Steen warns of the danger in adding conditions to grace, which distorts the Gospel into a “legal gospel”—truly, no gospel at all (Galatians 1:6-7).

It’s the age-old temptation to shift our focus from what Christ has done for us, to what we do for God—what Steen calls “adjectival theology.” Let me encourage you to cling to grace and remember that, while God doesn’t need your good works, your neighbor does.

In this moment, let us continue to bear with each other in love, that even the world might take notice and be drawn to ask us for the reason behind the hope we have (1 Peter 3:15).

In Christ’s peace.

iStock image; credit: doidam10