Ministry Report 2012

2012

MINIST RY R E P ORT

CHURCH OF THE LUTHE R A N BRETHRE N

Ab ounding

in

HOP E 2012 BIENNIAL CONVENTION AUGUST 2-5, 2012 • FERGUS FALLS, MN

C hurch of the an Luthe United States: www.CLBA.org • Canada: www.LBCANADA.org • International Mission: www.LBIM.org Bret ren Lutheran Brethren Seminary: www.LBS.edu

C HU RC H OF T HE LU THE R AN BRETHRE N

MINISTRY R E P ORT OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

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LUTHERAN BRETHREN SEMINARY p. 4 NORTH AMERICAN MISSION

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INTERNATIONAL MISSION

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COMMUNICATIONS MINISTRY

p. 10

FINANCE AND STEWARDSHIP

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CLB STATEMENT OF FAITH

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The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

All rights reserved.

ESV Text Edition: 2007

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

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Romans 15:13

Office of the President CLB President Joel Egge

Hope from God, is anchored in God, built on His promise and secured by His work. John, who announced Christ Jesus’ arrival to save us, pointed people to the majesty of God’s holiness and the magnificence of God’s grace. He proclaimed hope. John, himself, needed the gift of hope. Jesus reminded John that He was the hope of the world; bringing sight to the blind, strength to the crippled, and freedom to the slave. John looked into death’s face and was kept faithful to God through the confident assurance that the Savior has come for all God’s people.

We, the Church of the Lutheran Brethren, share that hope.

It is the hope anchored in God’s perfect offering, Jesus Christ.

In Him, we receive the desire and strength to leave family and home to bring the Gospel to unreached people groups around the world. In Him we find courage to share the Gospel in spiritually deprived communities, even communities hostile to God’s light and truth. The God of Hope gives us a solid place to stand in faith and ministry, in submission to Holy Scripture.

John gave his life for the Gospel because he believed in the promise of eternal life. We also believe in that promise, and in that promise, we discover our purpose and joy. In Jesus, we have peace and live in response to what He has done, believing that He who promised is faithful.

We are the Church of the Lutheran Brethren and we are abounding in Jesus Christ, the hope of Glory.

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LUTHER AN BRETH R EN SEM I NA RY CHURCH OF THE LUTHE R A N BRETHRE N

Birthed in revival, the Lutheran Bible School was founded in 1903 in Wahpeton, North Dakota. The pastor’s course offered theological training, and the Bible course prepared young adults to be more effective as lay persons.

The Bible course continued in various forms and locations for 100 years. The pastor’s course continues today as Lutheran Brethren Seminary.

Throughout the years the seminary has worked to maintain and improve the quality of its programs. The foresight of President J.H. Levang led to increased requirements for enrollment. The seminary diploma was upgraded to a Master of Divinity degree. More recently LBS has sought accreditation with the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS).

This past year, as we applied for a change from Candidate status to be fully accredited, the faculty, staff, and board of LBS completed a self-study and were visited by a TRACS evaluation team.

But one quality has not changed throughout these 100 plus years: God’s Word is our foundation. Through His eternal Word, God delivers to us the Hope of the Gospel.

Students are taught to proclaim this hope to the hopelessly lost. Students learn to bring this hope to the discouraged, the sick, and the grieving. LBS prepares pastors, missionaries, and leaders to plan for evangelism and outreach to bring this hope to more and more people.

This is not without great challenges. The world has changed dramatically. We are no longer primarily evangelizing Norwegian immigrants. We are preparing students to reach a diverse culture of people who are largely ignorant of the hope of the Gospel at best and hostile to the church at worst. Therefore, in the missions and evangelism department, students are taught to think cross-culturally even in North America.

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Technology has similarly brought dramatic changes.

Students expect to be able to receive an education sitting alone with a computer half-way around the world from the school and professor. LBS has invested in the technology that will enable us to offer a distance learning program once we are fully accredited. Using a platform called “Adobe Connect” students can attend classes via videoconferencing and interact with both professor and fellow students. Our program management software, Populi, enables faculty to share a multitude of resources with their classes. This same technology will enable us to offer lay and elder training courses and seminars.

All of this requires the partnership of LBS supporters.

We are truly grateful for our financial partners. Their outpouring of support has greatly encouraged our ministry.

Ultimately the work of LBS is all about preparing students for ministry. We are recruiting volunteers to serve as Ministry Call Mentors for the more than 75 individuals from our churches who are considering a call to ministry.

These mentors commit to staying in touch with these potential students and to encourage God’s call upon their lives.

All of this – accreditation, technology, faculty, and financial partnership – come together for one purpose: to prepare the upcoming generation to carry the Gospel of Hope around the world.

President of LB Seminary Dr. David Veum

“My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.”

Proverbs 24:13-14

2012 LBS Graduate Pastor Dale Hexum

For over fifteen years I have been doing some type of ministry with youth. About five years ago, I came to the realization that I needed to be better trained and better equipped to bring the truth of God’s Word to these young people. At that time, I felt the call to full-time ministry and fortunately for me, Lutheran Brethren Seminary was right here in my home town.

During my time at Seminary, I have lost count of the number of times that I have sat under the teaching of one of my professors and thought, “I wish I had learned this when I was sixteen.” Now, I feel that I have received the tools and knowledge with which to serve the young people and families at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, as well as the body of Christ in God’s mission. I have also learned that we never truly finish learning and growing in the riches of God’s grace.

2010 Graduate of Lutheran Brethren Seminary, Adam Krog, ordained into the Christian Ministry at Elim Lutheran Brethren Church in Clearbrook, MN

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NORTH AMERIC A N M I SSION C HU RC H OF THE LUTHE R A N BRETHRE N

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

1 John 3:2-3

A passion for sharing the hope of Jesus Christ with the unsaved in our communities has been a foundational value in the Church of the Lutheran Brethren (CLB) from the beginning. In its early years, our denomination was a tightly-knit church family culture where our theology and ministry values were shared. Church growth and outreach happened mostly along relationship and cultural lines. Churches were planted when members of CLB congregations moved into new areas of the country and gathered to form new churches, reaching out to those among whom they lived.

In 1954, the Home Mission Department was formed under the leadership of Rev. Joseph Rangen in order to intentionally plant new churches, some in areas where no CLB people were living. There was a time of significant growth in the number of CLB churches, particularly during the 50s through the 70s. Since then church planting 6

has became more difficult, at least in part due to significant cultural shifts in North America. Even so, churches continue to be planted, albeit at a slower pace.

In 2006 North American Mission (NAM) was created by merging the Home Mission and Youth Ministry departments. The 2009 Annual Convention established five Regions in North America, each served by a Regional Pastor (RP). The ministry of the RPs is to resource, coach, mentor, and facilitate the pastors, leaders, and congregations toward spiritual health and vitality. This is done one-to-one or in small groups; through seminars and workshops.

The RPs also encourage congregations to cluster around common ministry goals. This may be to plant a new church, do youth ministry, or to support a new overseas missionary effort. There are three congregations in westcentral Minnesota, for example, who have adopted the

Mission in North America Rev. Ryan Nilsen

Last April, at the Council of Directors meeting, I was struck by the wide range of responsibilities our Regional Pastors have.

They are providing care for our pastors, assisting congregations unreached Bagirmi people group in Chad. They have committed as a cluster of churches to support this ministry by praying and raising funds for this new missionary work. As a result, Nathanael and Carrie Szobody will be commissioned at the 2012 Biennial Convention as the next CLB missionaries to Chad. As another example of cluster ministries, congregations in North Dakota have joined together in support of the new church plant in Watford City.

While the Gospel of Jesus Christ remains the same, methods of evangelism and church planting have changed. People are generally not as willing as before to enter the church buildings to hear the Gospel message.

Consequently there is a need for Christians, as the “sent ones,” to engage non-Christians in the community, in order that non-Christians can observe them living out their faith and can hear the message of hope within their own

in transition, overseeing new pastors preparing for ordination, and connecting churches with resources and training.

I’m impressed by the way our Regional Pastors work as a team and take advantage of each other’s gifts. The sheer number of ministry opportunities they engage in is staggering and a testament to their reliance on the Lord for grace and strength.

As they continue to serve the Lord, I know that the excitement I feel for what is happening in North American Mission will be shared by more and more in our denominational church family! context, outside the church, before being asked to believe.

This is a challenge for many traditional Christians who are accustomed to inviting non-believers to church where they will hear and believe the Gospel. Regional Pastors provide training in doing evangelism and church planting in this changing culture.

As Christians in North America, we have been given the great message of hope in Jesus Christ. We are also given the opportunity to share this abounding hope with those who are living around us. NAM works together with you toward this goal.

Regional Pastor, Central Region Dr. Joel Nordtvedt

The view of New York City from Union City, New Jersey, a potential site for a future LB church plant - Christenson Photography-New York Skyline: www.​christensonphoto.​com

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LUTHER AN BRETH R EN INTERNATIONAL M I SSION C HU RC H OF T HE LUTHE R AN BRETHRE N The Lord of the Harvest has opened for us a “wide door for effective work” for over 100 years in Asia and Africa.

This cross-cultural ministry has had a strong emphasis on the Word, having translated twelve New Testaments and six complete Bibles. In this effort the CLB has made a substantial contribution to the list of those people groups that now have the Bible or the New Testament in their heart language. The other major focus of the CLB has been to plant churches and today there are major national Churches in Chad and Cameroon as well as in Taiwan and Japan. We can only guess how many house churches exist in mainland China because of the pioneering work of our missionaries over 100 years ago.

Our LBIM Mission Statement is: “To glorify God by serving the congregations of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren so as to facilitate their task of fulfilling the Great Commission by making disciples throughout the world with present emphasis on Japan, Taiwan, Cameroon and Chad resulting in congregations with a like vision and purpose.”

We are going to peoples who, unless we specifically engage them, will not hear the gospel. This focus, on the people we are going to reach, instead of those we are sending, is not new to the Lutheran Brethren. What is new, however, is a more intentional desire to know more about the people, and in some cases adopt them before the Lord as we seek to reach them with the gospel.

Today we are focused on reaching the many unreached Muslim people groups in central Chad, the Japanese of Ishinomaki, and the Hakka and other lost people of Taiwan.

This passion for reaching the lost around the world is part of our DNA. Our current focus in Chad, for example, has been met with both significant encouragements and discouragements.

Since the beginning of our focus on the Muslim people of central Chad, we have had seven couples/families called and sent. The Church of the Lutheran Brethren has prayerfully and financially supported these families, and for all this we praise God, but for one reason or another only one of those families is currently engaged in this ministry on the field.

It is obvious to us that Satan does not want the Gospel to penetrate the hearts of the lost of central Chad.

However, there is hope for the Bilala, the Fulbe and the Bagirmi people of Chad. That hope is in the power of the Word. And so despite what to us are difficult setbacks, we place our hope in the Lord.

There is hope for the Bagirmi people as we, the CLB, commission the next missionary couple, Nathanael and Carrie Szobody, at our 2012 Biennial Convention. With gratefulness to God, we have seen three congregations, as well as individuals, step forward to prayerfully and financially send them to the Bagirmi, and there are other congregations prayerfully considering their role in this mission cluster.

There is hope for the Bilala and Fulbe people! Two couples await congregations to form into mission clusters to send them to these people who need the Gospel.

We move forward with hope because we serve a risen Savior, and that is where our hope is placed.

Director of LB International Mission

Rev. Matthew Rogness

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

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Hebrews 10:23

Hope for Ishinomaki, Japan Rev. Matthew Rogness

Linda and Dean Bengtson prayerfully hoping to plant a church in Ishinomaki Japan

Selma, Carrie, Nathanael and Cyril Szobody preparing for mission work to the Bagirmi people of Chad, Africa

The Lutheran Welcome Center in Ndjamena, Chad, offers rest, renewal, and training to those ministering in Chad, Africa

The Church of the Lutheran Brethren has had ministry in Japan since the mid-1900s.

We are grateful to God for the faithfulness of those He called and we sent with the Gospel.

It has been a calling with both the rewards of those coming to faith in Christ and a Church planted with a focus primarily in northern Japan. It has always been a challenging culture to reach, taking literally years to develop relationships to give the opportunity to share the Good News of the Gospel.

Nearly a year and a half ago, thousands of Japanese people were met with a horrific disaster that began as an earthquake just off the coast of northeast Japan. That earthquake resulted in a tsunami that killed tens of thousands of people and devastated thousands of homes, businesses and infrastructure.

Today, because of the work of our missionaries, and the Church in Japan, we have an open door to give hope to one of the communities devastated by the tsunami.

Because our missionaries (Dean and Linda Bengtson) are able to be part of the relief and rebuilding effort, they have developed relationships that would normally take 7-10 years to develop.

So, without hesitation, we are praying to the Lord of the Harvest for a place to rent or buy that will allow the Bengston to take up residence among the people of Ishinomaki with the hope of the Gospel. Join us in prayerful hope that a church will be planted in Ishinomaki.

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C OMMUNICATION S & PR AY ER C HU RC H OF THE LUTHE R AN BRETHRE N

The Communications Ministry of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren (CLB) has had many names over the years: The Broderbaandet (the denomination’s Norwegian language publication), Faith & Fellowship Magazine, Lutheran Brethren Publishing, Faith & Fellowship Press, and eventually the CLB Communications Ministry. But regardless of our name, our purpose has always remained the same. Every adjustment has been made to meet the needs of congregations and to serve them within the larger mission of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren.

The Communications Ministry communicates the mission of the CLB as one voice. Through Faith & Fellowship magazine, websites, social networks, and digital media, the mission of the CLB is shared with our family of churches.

Technology has given us the opportunity to interact and share stories faster and more cost-effectively than ever before. In addition to print, Faith & Fellowship Magazine is available online and in audio format (www.ffmagazine. org). The CLB Pastors Network, an exclusive website for pastors, was created to give our pastors a place to share ideas, encourage one another, and to resource each other with their knowledge and experience. The CLB Network was built to resource elders and congregation members, making seminars available and helping to connect missionaries and seminary professors with congregations throughout the CLB (www.clbnetwork.org).

Our desire, as a communications department, has always been to bring our family of churches together in mission.

As a CLB congregation, you are not out on the mission field by yourself. You are part of a family. With over a hundred North American congregations, along with our seminary staff, missionaries and Regional Pastors, we are in this mission together, and we own the same vision.

As the CLB responds to the Gospel in mission, Communications Ministry will continue to broadcast stories of ministry in action. We want to bring the mission of the CLB into the life of your church, to help connect you with the theological training of our seminary, to share resources from our Regional Pastors, and to inspire you with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Communications Ministry wants to encourage you, inform you, and resource you, to sustain the mission and vision that we carry as a denomination, and as a family of churches around the world.

Director of Communications and Prayer Tim Mathiesen

“By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.”

Psalm 65:5 10

Artwork to the right, The Baptism of Jesus, by Megan Behrens, is from the book Footsteps in the Promise a children’s book and resource for parents available at www.FFBOOKS.org

CLB Resources Rev. Richard Iverson

I am always looking for ways to help our church family grow in their understanding of how God has been at work in history to bring about their redemption. It has been my experience

that we tend to see the Bible only as a collection of individual stories that are helpful for life, and it can often be hard to see the story of salvation written throughout the pages of scripture culminating in the person of Jesus. One of the resources I found helpful this past year was to use the book Footsteps in the Promise for my children’s sermon. I would read one story per week, but would often do a review of the week prior to give context to the kids. As in all children’s sermons, the adults listen in and hear the same valuable message.

Footsteps in the Promise is published by Faith & Fellowship Publishing and is available at www.FFBooks.org. Footsteps in the Promise follows God’s promise of salvation from Genesis to Revelation, reaching children with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and teaching them about God’s mission, His Son, and the salvation of humankind.

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F INANCE AND STEWA R D SH I P C HU RC H OF THE LUTHE R AN BRETHRE N

Christian giving is a paradox! Christian giving – a paradox? How is that true? Let’s first remember what the Law demands of us.

Jesus tells us what God really demanded on Mt. Sinai when He describes the requirements of the Law in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). It is a devastating picture for us. Jesus tells us it is not good enough if we try to do all the right things and not do any of the wrong things.

He tells us that our hearts and minds must be doing and thinking right things always, and that our hearts and minds must never be doing or thinking wrong things. Then He throws in the clincher – in order to meet His requirements you need to be perfect just like God Himself is perfect.

How are you doing in that department? Ever been angry, or even annoyed? Ever been dissatisfied with your circumstances? Ever wanted to get back at someone who wronged you? Ever resisted forgiving anyone? Ever been bored? The list goes on and on. The bottom line is this – we are certainly not perfect. In fact, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. We are by nature objects of wrath. We are doomed, cursed and destined for what we deserve – everlasting punishment. We are spiritually bankrupt and we think we can give to God?!

No, if anyone is going to give anything to God, it will have to be someone other than us. Someone else is going to have to do all the giving for us, and from us, and as us.

That Someone is Jesus Christ! All of God’s condemnation of you was poured out on Jesus. All of the requirements

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of God’s law were perfectly fulfilled by Jesus – for you.

And how is all of this made possible for you? By grace… through faith… not of yourselves – it is the gift of God, not of your works… That is what Christ has already done for us! He gave everything for us so that He could give everything to us. It was all accomplished by Him when He said, “It is finished!”

Now let’s talk about the paradox. God is everything and needs nothing. We are nothing and need everything! Then, God gives us everything in Christ, and asks us to give back to Him. What is going on?

The answer to the paradox is that God loves us, His children, so much that by His grace He allows us to participate in His Great Stewardship Plan (Ephesians 1:10) by giving back what He has given to us so that His love can be shared with our neighbors all over the world.

Like all of the good works that God has prepared for us, this Giving is a gift and privilege reserved for His children.

God our Father gives us the honor of being part of His great mission, to unite all things in Christ.

Associate for Biblical Stewardship Roy Heggland

Director of Finance & Personnel Brad Martinson, CPA

Blessed to be Generous

I recently observed my 22nd anniversary of working as the Finance Director for the CLB. Like so many other things in life, it’s as though there are two parallel realities in operation: On one hand, it seems as though it was just yesterday that my wife and I were picking up to move to Fergus Falls for this position. On the other hand, 22 years is probably more than a fourth of my entire lifespan and much has transpired in my life during that time.

This illustrates that my sense of time passage depends on the perspective from which I choose to view it.

That same phenomenon can apply to my perspective on giving. I can view my/our giving in relationship to our income, our cash flow position, or even other statistical information available in the public realm. Or, I can view it from a perspective of faith in light of what Christ has done for me on the cross.

Ultimately, I’m eternally grateful that God doesn’t measure me on the basis of what I’ve done or how I’ve done in comparison to something or someone else. That is how I want – and need – my faith and my giving to relate… as a response motivated out of what God (through his Son) has done for me.

“As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who 13 richly provides us with everything to enjoy.”

1 Timothy 6:17

C H URCH OF TH E LU T H E R AN BR ET H R E N

STAT E M E N T OF FA ITH 1. The Bible, including both Old and New Testaments as originally given, is the verbally and plenarily inspired Word of God and is free from error in the whole and in the part, and is therefore the final authoritative guide for faith and conduct.

2. There is one God eternally existent in three distinct persons in one divine essence, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

3. God the Father has revealed Himself as the Creator and preserver of the universe, to Whom the entire creation and all creatures are subject.

4. God created Adam and Eve in His image to live in fellowship with Him. They fell into sin through the temptation of Satan and thereby lost fellowship with God. Through their disobedience the entire human race became totally depraved, that is, self-centered sinners who oppose God, and who by nature are unable to trust, fear or love Him. They are subject to the devil, and are condemned to death under the eternal wrath of God. 5. Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son, is the image of the invisible God. To accomplish our redemption, He became fully human, being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus Christ, who is true God and true man, by His perfect obedience and substitutionary death on the cross, has purchased our redemption. He rose from the dead for our justification in the body in which He was crucified. He ascended into heaven, where He is now seated at the right hand of God, the Father, as our interceding High Priest. He will come a second time personally, bodily, and visibly to gather the believers unto Himself and to establish His millennial kingdom. He will judge the living and the dead and make an eternal separation between believers and unbelievers. His kingdom shall have no end.

6. The Holy Spirit is a divine person eternally one with the Father and with the Son. Through the Word of God He convicts people of sin, persuades them to confess their sinfulness to God and calls them to faith through the Gospel. He regenerates, sanctifies, and preserves believers in the one true faith. He comforts, guides, equips, directs, and empowers the church to fulfill the great commission.

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7. The knowledge and benefit of Christ’s redemption from sin is brought to the human race through the means of grace, namely the Word and the sacraments.

7a. Through the Word of the Law God brings sinners to know their lost condition and to repent. Through the Word of the Gospel He brings sinners to believe in Jesus Christ, to be justified, to enter the process of sanctification, and to have eternal life. This occurs as the Holy Spirit awakens them to see their sin, convicts them of their guilt of sin, and calls them to repent and believe, inviting and enabling them to accept God’s grace in Christ. Each one who thus believes is instantly forgiven and credited with Christ’s righteousness. The Word then teaches and guides the believer to lead a godly life.

7b. In the Sacrament of Baptism, God offers the benefits of Christ’s redemption to all people and graciously bestows the washing of regeneration and newness of life to all who believe.

God calls the baptized person to live in daily repentance, that is, in sorrow for sin, in turning from sin, and in personal faith in the forgiveness of sin obtained by Christ. By grace we are daily given the power to overcome sinful desires and live a new life in Christ. Those who do not continue to live in God’s grace need to be brought again to repentance and faith through the Law and Gospel.

Because the sinfulness of human nature passes on from generation to generation and the promise of God’s grace includes little children, we baptize infants, who become members of Christ’s believing church through baptism. These children need to come to know that they are sinners with a sinful nature that opposes God. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, they need to confess their sinfulness and yield to God; and possess for themselves forgiveness of their sin through Jesus Christ, as they are led from the faith received in infant baptism into a clear conscious personal faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior and being assured of salvation, rely solely on the finished work of Christ, and the power of the Gospel to live as children of God. 7c. In the Sacrament of Holy Communion, Christ gives to the communicants His body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine. He declares the forgiveness of sin to all believers, and strengthens their faith.

8. Eternal salvation is available to every living human being on earth

by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. This salvation consists of an instantaneous aspect and an ongoing, continual aspect.

8a. Justification is God’s gracious act by which He, for Christ’s sake, instantaneously acquits repentant and believing sinners and credits them with Christ’s righteousness. At that moment, God gives each one who believes a new and godly nature and the Holy Spirit begins the process of sanctification. There is no place for human effort in justification.

8b. Sanctification is God’s gracious, continual work of spiritual renewal and growth in the life of every justified person. Through the means of grace, the Holy Spirit works to reproduce the character of Christ within the lives of all believers, instructing and urging them to live out their new nature. The Holy Spirit enables believers more and more to resist the devil, to overcome the world, and to count themselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit produces spiritual fruit in and bestows spiritual gifts upon all believers. He calls, empowers and equips them to serve God in the home, in the community, and as part of the Church Universal. The process of sanctification will be complete only when the believer reaches glory.

9. The Church Universal consists of all those who truly believe on Jesus Christ as Savior. The local congregation is an assembly of believers in a certain locality among whom the Gospel is purely taught and the sacraments are rightly administered. The confessing membership of the local congregation shall include only those who have been baptized into “the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” confess personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, maintain a good reputation in the community and accept the constitution of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren. It cannot, however, be avoided that hypocrites might be mixed in the congregation; that is, those whose unbelief is not evident to the congregation.

10. The Church of the Lutheran Brethren practices the congregational form of church government [nationally] and the autonomy of the local congregations. The office of pastor and elder is to be filled by men only. The synodical administration has an advisory function as it relates to the congregation, and an administrative function as it relates to the cooperative efforts of the congregations.

11. The Lutheran Confessions are a summary of Bible doctrines.

We adhere to the following confessional writings: The Apostles’ Creed, Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, unaltered Augsburg Confession, and Luther’s Small Catechism.

We Believe Commentary on the CLB Statement of Faith

Writing is hard work, but Tim Ysteboe did not shy away from the labor of producing this valuable volume. It is a great benefit to pastors, elders and adult lay leaders seeking to read, reflect and pray their way to a more mature Christian confession of faith.

Pastor John C. Kilde

Faith Fellowship Bookstore

Phone : 800- 332- 9232 • Onl i ne : f f book s .org 15

C H URCH OF THE LU THER AN BRETHRE N

ONE MISSION, TO GETHER “In response to God’s person and grace, we worship Him with everything we are in Christ, serve one another in Christian love and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all people.”

CLB Mission Statement

ONE VISION, TOGETHER “We see God stirring in our church a fresh passion to reach beyond our own comfort to all people among whom God places us. We embrace God’s mission to bring the life changing Gospel to unreached people in Asia and Africa, and we sense God convicting us to more intentionally reach out to people who live in our midst in North America as well.”

CLB Vision Statement

C hurch of the an Luthe Bret ren