Saturday, March 10, 2018

Keyser on "Lutherans Must Evangelize."
No More One-Hour New Member Class, Like Tim Glende's?



From the final chapter of Election and Conversion. A Frank Discussion of Dr. Franz Pieper’s Book on “Conversion and Election,” with Suggestions for Lutheran Concord and Union on Another Basis
The time has come when the whole Lutheran Church must do more home missionary work; when she must not be satisfied only with “gathering Lutherans” and nurturing the children of the Church (noble and paramount a work as this is); but when she must go out into “the highways and hedges, the lanes and the alleys,” and bring in the unsaved of all classes and conditions. These people before conversion will not be Lutherans, and many of them will not have Lutheran antecedents; but they need Christ and the Church; and after they have been converted, they must be indoctrinated and molded into good and true Lutherans. When some of our sister Lutheran bodies do this kind of work on a large scale, as the General Synod has done all along, they will have some of the difficult problems to deal with that have tested the General Synod’s skill, patience and strength.
Let it be understood that the mission work which we urge must not be done by the so-called “revival” method. God forbid! It must be done according to our sober and solid Lutheran methods – quiet personal work on the part of pastors and people, careful catechization after conversion, and the true preaching of the law and the gospel. When the whole Lutheran Church of America enters this work with sacred earnestness and prayer, much of our controversy will be laid aside.