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.
