Rock River Church, Wisconsin

June 10-17, 1863

Dear brethren in the faith and in the ministry! Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!

The Lord is especially gracious in permitting us to gather here again during these so unpeaceful and warring times¹ in order to enjoy the blessings of brotherhood through mutual instruction, admonition, encouragement and strengthening. Surely the more we experience tribulation outwardly and are beset by anxiety inwardly, surely the more we pastors in the church in particular, who often feel weighted down by the heavy burden which rests upon our tired shoulders, receive grace to understand the responsibility of our holy office the more fully, will we thank the Lord for his undeserved grace that he promises us such refreshment and strengthening through the fellowship where he himself, the Lord, has promised to be present with his divine power, wisdom and grace, the more energetically will we also ask him to bless this our coming together in order to grant that we be firmly united in the same mind and the same judgment to speak the same thing so that there shall not be division among us, so that we do nothing out of strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind each esteem the other better than ourselves. (1 Co. 1:10; Ph. 2:3.) Yes, may our merciful God grant that in everything we think and say and do, we may seek the glory of God alone in the building up of congregations and that we do only the Lord’s will! May he hinder every evil counsel and ungodly deed which are the will of the devil, the world and our flesh by which the kingdom of God is hindered from coming to us, and on the other hand may he strengthen and preserve us in the Word and in faith until we die! Amen!

It is incumbent upon me, dear brethren, as it was on my predecessor,² to report to you on the state of our church body! When I comply with this duty now as well as I am able, I believe that the short time in which the presidency has been entrusted to me, together with the many other duties of my Call, and my lack of experience and desired ability, must all serve as an excuse for my knowledge and presentation of the condition of our synod being neither as comprehensive nor exhaustive as could be desired.

When we met last year we felt here and there in our church body the convulsive spasms which also made their appearance everywhere as aftershocks where the generating and regenerating powers manifest a special effect. As in a natural birth things often seem to hover between life and death, so surely not here where God has performed his work of grace among us, could he who has the power of death, the prince of darkness and lies, be missing, as little as he was mistaken about them among us who many times feared that Satan should have gained the upper hand and retained the field of battle with his lies. But, praise God, it did not happen as we feared. God let his work prosper among us as a blessing far beyond our expectation! Fortunately the spirit of lies succeeded in thus binding us neither in the controversy over slavery nor Sunday, hence the Fourth and the Third Commandments, so that on the one hand we confused spiritual liberty which consists precisely in this, that man, freed from the power of sin has the will and the desire to fulfill the will of the Lord revealed in the Word, with the carnal freedom with which the spirit of man in our days in particular urges a worship of self, or, that on the other hand we let ourselves be deprived of our Christian liberty which Christ has earned for us with his blood, and let ourselves be made slaves of men through the commandments and ordinances of men. Through the controversy everyone learned to treasure our precious gem, Christian liberty, more and more, and learned in the same degree to understand that free children of Christ are slaves of Christ, who are submissive to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake. Many people who did not grasp the precise point of the controversy or its truly great importance because of meager knowledge of the Word of God, but who were, however, worried in their misguided conscience, calmed down again, even if they did not understand fully. Finally, also those people whom the devil has wanted to use as his servants to fight against the truth willingly or unwillingly, and who have frightened its witnesses, have been silenced with their open attacks and ridicule, because the truth was mighty for them with or against their will; they have had to bow before its authority.

So we can say that as far as we can tell the worst aftershocks are passed, and as mothers who forget all the pains they have gone through, so can we now rejoice more calmly at the proofs of God’s grace and the power of his Word which little by little he is allowing us to see here and there, because when we ask, “Why has all this happened?” the answer is: “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” (Ps. 118:23), and through the Word which is a life-creating seed, and even life and spirit, he has done all things, because we can only blush.

But even if our Lord has thus far brought this controversy in our church body to a blessed outcome, our battle, dear brethren, is, however, not over, our enemy is not resting! Surely it is obvious how the Lord has blessed the cause of his Gospel among us, and not to praise the Lord for it would be nothing less than rank ingratitude. The writings of Luther, the dear father of our church, have found a wide distribution in many of our congregations, while many of their readers have had to confess openly how they acted earlier when they imagined that they were well at home in Luther’s writings and in Lutheran doctrine. Thus Luther’s simple and popular, powerful and clear sermons on the Gospel have now made it precious to them and the Lutheran Church dear to them because Luther’s writings have revealed this pure Gospel to their eyes so that they see that it is not little squabbles which we have with the different sects and church bodies but that it is in the chief point of the doctrine of our salvation, justification by faith alone, that the Lutheran Church distinguishes itself from all the other church bodies and that it is around the pure Gospel, of which they want to deprive us, that the controversy between them and us revolves. There is therefore also in several congregations a greater desire for the pure, unadulterated milk of the Gospel, a greater ability to test the spirits whether they are of God, not to allow oneself to be satisfied with a well-written moralizing address but neither with an emotional gushing forth in which Law and Gospel, faith and works, justification and sanctification are mingled with each other in the greatest confusion to the harm of unrepentant souls. People expect of the preacher that he shall be a shepherd and caretaker of souls who drives and prods to Christ with the Law and feeds and nourishes with the Gospel.

But people will not tolerate his using the Law - not to say the Gospel - to keep poor sinners away from Christ. But together with this a sharp stimulus is also given us preachers to apply our time and effort toward the preparation of the sermon and to seeking his help and grace unceasingly here because he who has redeemed souls with his blood really wants to make us his servants capable of preaching the Word of Reconciliation.

In the following paragraphs President Preus reports on the progress of various aspects of the synod’s work. God blessed its teacher training institution at Luther College, Decorah, IA beyond “our most exaggerated expectations.” He reports that the synod’s manpower needs are being met by the ordination of several men. He asks the synod to praise God also for this evidence of his mercy and asks the Lord’s blessing upon their work. He expresses thanks that the Lord has again brought three pastors back into the Synod who had left earlier. He reports that the reconciliation has been accomplished on the basis of agreement in doctrine, not on the basis of a modern-day type: simply forgiving and forgetting.

You see here then that I have mentioned to the esteemed synod some of the most obvious proofs of grace from the Lord toward our church body in the course of the last year. But, as I said, it has not happened in order that we are to settle down to peace and rest after the battle is over. Much rather therefore has the Lord shown us such exceedingly great and varied grace in order that our hearts should be filled with sincere thanks to him for his rich spiritual blessing and be firmly convinced of his gracious presence in the future and in order that we should be inflamed to even greater faithfulness and zeal in the Lord’s work, to even greater zeal, courage and perseverance in the battle prescribed for us and to an even greater patience and joy in the trials appointed us. And if these last surely will not cease in the future either, so is the enemy with whom we have to fight not far away nor does he sleep. No, he is in the midst of our congregations. He works there with great craft and cunning. Only through a steady, earnest and dauntless fight in the armor of God can we be conquerors over him and retain the victory.

I have said above that my personal knowledge of our synod’s congregations is neither comprehensive nor thorough. However, partly through personal experience during a shorter or longer period of time in about thirty-five different congregations for soon twelve years now, I believe that I have arrived at some knowledge of how conditions are in our church body so that I shall not be mistaken when I mention the following of the chief flaws from which our synod suffers and to which I want to direct the esteemed synod’s special attention.

First of all is the neglect of and indifference toward and contempt for the Word of God publicly and privately in the church and in the homes for instruction for oneself as well as for the edifying of other people. We must thank God that in all our congregations we have a solid nucleus of diligent, and certainly also sincere churchgoers, but it must not be denied that overall our congregations are found to be full of people who seem to find it completely in order that they stay away from church once or twice for every time they appear there. Surely there is no shortage in some congregations of such people who regard it as rather superfluous to be in church at other times than when they want to go to Communion or they are to be sponsors. Surely the greater distance which many people lived from church in our fatherland can have contributed to our people having gotten into such a bad habit, the more it is up to us to bring to the people the strong recognition that it is a great sin and contempt for the Word of God to stay away from the divine services when a person is not really prevented from going. But unfortunately it’s no better with the use of the Word of God in the homes. Even the most valuable family devotion is neglected in many places. The false Jewish-Reformed understanding of the Third Commandment has certainly contributed not little to the so prevalent opinion that it is all which one can expect of a Christian if he reads his postil with the texts for Sunday, so that it even awakens surprise when it is a question of the Word of God also being read in the families on Sundays. It follows of itself that where the father of the home neglects the opportunity for edification and instruction for himself, there it must fare poorly with the instruction of the children, not to speak of the servants. Were even our public instruction in a better condition than it is, it would, however, not be able to remedy the offence which is caused by parents neglecting their children’s Christian instruction in this way. That things are in sorry shape in our synod where zeal and work for missions among the heathen are concerned will be made clear by the foregoing. It is, however, a matter of so great importance that I must earnestly lay it upon the synod’s heart to work toward it so that it can improve also this.

This neglect of and contempt for the Word of God is so much more dangerous because in that way one lets go of the single most powerful means for quenching and hindering all other kinds of sin which are given free reign by this neglect. How pitiful things are in our synod also with neglect of the holy Sacrament of the Altar, a look at the parochial reports in our Maanedstidende³ will convince everyone of.

In connection with this sin I must mention the neglect of brotherly admonition and encouragement. It is truly appalling how this duty of love is neglected among us, and it is another principal reason that in so many respects we are doing so poorly. All kinds of discordant and unkind talk which surely is a sin against the 8^th Commandment, and which again begets hatred, strife and quarreling, has taken the place of that Christian duty, yes, many times committed with the thought that one thereby rightly proves oneself as a zealous Christian who chastises sin earnestly. There can be no thought of any proper Christian discipline among us so long as we are doing so badly with brotherly admonition because according to Christ’s words this is the first step in church discipline. If one overlooks this, church discipline will become political discipline, yes, often worse than that, pure arbitrariness and sin. Because of the importance of this matter I therefore want to lay on the synod’s heart that if possible, as topics for discussion, it take up the doctrine of church discipline, even if people think we are finished with it. It is a matter which really can be discussed at two or three synod meetings. It will now be understood and made one’s own so much better since at previous meetings we have gone through the doctrine of absolution and the public ministry.

The third principal sin which is apparent in our congregations is earthly concern, cares for the present, sordidness and covetousness, unbelief and mistrust of God’s grace in Christ, and therefore also of his fatherly care are the basis for it. However, if the Lord helps us to firm confidence in his grace and joy in his Gospel and the good things promised in it then there is not going to be room in the heart for anxious concern, but it will be our pleasure and joy to offer our gifts to the Lord!

Finally, I will mention drunkenness and the dance, gambling and bundling⁴ as especially common among the youth in several congregations. These sins have their root in the heart’s thoughtlessness and unbelief and can rightly be counteracted and put to death only by a change of heart; but of course the greater the offense is which they cause both them who are in and those who are outside the church, the more zealous ought we be toward preventing such excesses and removing the offense. The fact that sins would not be prevalent among us if the two principal sins mentioned first were not so common, is obvious.

These are some of the enemies I spoke of which we have to combat in our midst. If it is going to happen, then it means that above all else the Word of God has to be held in respect and honor among us. Our synod’s chief effort must therefore go toward obtaining several pastors, both for our overcrowded congregations and for the many that are without a pastor.

In the next paragraphs President Preus reports on efforts to secure one such pastor; that no new congregations have joined the synod since the previous convention. Two congregations in Illinois had deposed Pastor A.C. Preus because of his position on slavery and had gotten a pastor from the Augustana Synod to serve them. Pastor A.C. Preus, present at the convention, will be able to give a more complete account of the matter. He was now pastor of the Coon Prairie congregation in Wisconsin. President Preus next addresses a matter which had caused public offense within the synod: the case of a congregation in Chicago holding a lottery. He reports with great joy that after meetings with the congregation it has humbly confessed its sin. An “Explanation” from the congregation is included by President Preus, signed by its pastor on its behalf, in which it confesses its sin, states that a congregation is to trust solely in the Lord to provide its needs through its preaching and teaching of the Word, and asks the synod’s forgiveness. President Preus points to the incident as proof of Christian willingness to submit to the Word and assures the congregation of its forgiveness.

In connection with the above President Preus says the synod has further cause to rejoice in the fact that Pastor A.C. Preus had also admitted his sin of wanting to return to Norway, be cause he had come over here with the intent of serving only a few years, thereby betraying a wrong attitude toward the doctrine of the Call, and also admitted his sin of having become a partaker in the Chicago congregation’s sin by not protesting against it, though he could and should have. His “Explanation” is included in President Preus’ Report. President Preus assures him of his forgiveness. No essential change has occurred in our relations toward the church bodies of countrymen who are separated from us. The fact that the pastors of the Augustana Synod have finally agreed to our invitation to a joint conference and have decided to hold it immediately after the synod meeting, must revive our hope for the future.

Elling’s⁵ synod is being revealed more and more as a fanatic, unevangelical, law-oriented pharisaical sect, at any rate, in those areas. The Luther whom they have never known, they now want to consume in his own writings; yes, the rage of many people seems to increase everywhere as more of Luther’s excellent writings come out among the people and his pure evangelical doctrine becomes better known. But it’s no wonder, because which teacher distinguishes and condemns all manner of bondage to the Law and self-righteousness more sharply than Luther? May God look in grace upon the straying sheep and lead them to the path of his truth!

Our relationship with the German-Lutheran Missouri Synod is unchanged. The same love and sacrifice was shown us on their part in the past year as before, as well as in many other ways, as also through the instruction of our older students at their institutions. May God reward and bless them for it. Since their general synodical convention will be held in Fort Wayne this coming Fall, I believe our synod ought to elect a couple of delegates to it as a testimony of our agreement in the faith and as a small token of our love and respect.

President Preus goes on to list seven items for discussion at this convention of the Norwegian Synod, to report on several visitations he had conducted in congregations, as well as on conferences, etc. which he had attended, saying that such pastoral conferences are edifying both for the pastors who attend and the congregations which benefit from their attendance.

In closing, I have spoken a bit about my activity as the synod’s president. I believe that it would be very helpful for the good of our church body if the president could have more time at his disposal for the carrying out of his office whose importance grows as the borders of our fellowship reach out and the number of pastors increases. Since a new election is now to occur, I hope it will not seem too indiscreet of me - since I know that several people will give me their vote - when I earnestly ask the synod not to let their choice fall upon me again this time, since I possess neither the necessary ability for this office nor can the congregations to which I am firmly committed, spare as much of my time and work as the justifiable care of the office demands.⁶

And now, dear brethren, let us go in Jesus’ name to the beginning of the discussions. May the Lord lead them by his Spirit so that they may serve to the furtherance of his kingdom and the glory of his name! Amen! Spring Prairie parsonage, Wisconsin, 4^th June 1863

1 The Civil War, The War Between The States, was raging during this time.

2 Pastor Adolph Carl (A.C.) Preus; no relation to President Herman Amberg Preus.

3 The Norwegian Synod’s monthly publication from March 1855 until January 1874 when it became the weekly Kirketidende.

4 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines bundling as “to sleep in the same bed while fully clothed, a custom practiced by engaged couples in early New England.”

5 Elling Eielsen (1804-1883), a Norwegian layman who came to America …

6 President Preus was reelected and continued to be until he died in office in 1894.