This resolution was prepared Nov 3rd by Ginny Valleau and will be voted on at Holy Cross Lutheran, North Kansas City this Sunday. We would recommend that all churches in the LCMS consider this at their next voter's meeting.

Terminate All Cooperative Ministries between the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and the LCMS, while Continuing to Reach out to ELCA Church Members in Christian Love and with Clear Biblical Admonition

WHEREAS, God’s Word warns us to, "…watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people." (Romans 16:17-18) and not to be partners with sexual immorality or take part in the unfruitful works of darkness (Ephesians 5:3-12), and

WHEREAS, at the 2001 Synodical Convention of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Resolution 3-21A was passed, which, in part, Resolved that “we cannot consider them (the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA)) to be an orthodox Lutheran church body,” but that we would continue to reach out to them in love and support, and

WHEREAS, since that time the ELCA has moved further and further from God’s Word until on August 21, 2009, their Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis, MN, voted to ordain homosexual men and women in committed monogamous relationships to serve as pastors, and

WHEREAS, President Gerald Kieschnick said in The Lutheran Witness (October 2009, Vol 128, #10), when referring to the recent ELCA action: “…this matter is fundamentally related to significant differences in how we (our two church bodies) understand the authority of Holy Scripture and the interpretation of God’s revealed and infallible Word.” And

WHEREAS, cooperation between the ELCA and the LCMS is likely to confuse the public who may interpret such cooperation to mean that the LCMS and ELCA agree regarding the unbiblical position of the ELCA in this and other points of doctrinal divergence, and may further confuse our Synod’s identity as distinct from the ELCA, therefore, be it

Resolved, that LCMS church members be encouraged to continue to reach out in Christian love to ELCA church members with clear biblical admonition, and be it further

Resolved, that the LCMS terminate all cooperative ministries between the LCMS and ELCA.

November 3, 2009