The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod:

The minutes of the August 2009 board meeting are now available. These minutes and those of the past three years can be viewed by selecting "Meeting Minutes" from the panel on the left side of this page.

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“An Incredible Opportunity”

With the words “an incredible opportunity to make our confession,” Dr. Samuel Nafzger encouraged the Board of Directors during its August 20 meeting to lend its support to the Synod’s joint venture with the SELK (Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche) to establish a ministry in Wittenberg, Germany.

This Wittenberg Project, he said “will be an incredible opportunity to make our confession in the Lutheran family and world and to do so with good relationships with other Lutherans,” this after returning from meetings with SELK and with the International Lutheran Society of Wittenberg (ILSW). He was elected chairman of the ILSW Council at its July 22, 2009 meeting in Wittenberg.

Until now largely an effort of LCMS agencies operating with the blessing of the German partner church body, the meeting signaled greater cooperation and participation by SELK, as evidenced by a news release following the meeting, printed here in its entirety:

A joint German-U.S. Lutheran church project in Wittenberg, Germany entered a new phase July 22 with the appointment of a new managing director and election of a new chairman for its supervisory board.

Meeting in Wittenberg, the Supervisory Board of the International Lutheran Society of Wittenberg (ILSW) named an American pastor, Rev. David Mahsman, to succeed Rev. Wilhelm Torgerson as managing director. Torgerson, who is retiring, will serve in the post through August. Mahsman will take up his duties Sept. 1.

The board also elected an American, Rev. Dr. Samuel H. Nafzger, to be its new chairman. He succeeds Bishop Hans-Joerg Voigt of Germany’s Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK). The ILSW’s Wittenberg Project is jointly operated by the SELK and the U.S.-based Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS).

The twin actions “underscore the commitment of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod to this project,” Nafzger said. “The LCMS, its president, and its Board of Directors are fully supportive of the Wittenberg Project.”

Nafzger noted that the dual actions—choosing a new chairman and new managing director—were taken “at the encouragement of the SELK and with its full support.”

The ILSW owns an historic 16th-century school building near St. Mary’s Church in Wittenberg. Reformer Martin Luther, who was a theological professor in Wittenberg, preached frequently at the church. It was on the door of another Wittenberg church, the Castle Church, that Luther posted 95 theses for debate in 1517, an action regarded as the spark that ignited the Reformation.

The ILSW was formed by the two German and U.S. Lutheran church bodies to operate a welcome center for visitors to the Luther sites, to re-establish a SELK congregation in Wittenberg, and to carry out other work.

“Both of our church bodies believe that it is important that our churches and the theological confession for which we are known around the world be represented in Wittenberg, the birthplace of the Reformation,” Nafzger said. “We look forward to working together with the other churches present in this place where Dr. Martin Luther lived, taught, and confessed the Scriptural Gospel of salvation for sinners by grace alone, through faith alone, on the basis of Scripture alone, in Christ alone.”

Bishop Voigt said he stepped down as chairman of the board “to advance this important project, putting the leadership into the hands of our American brethren. I consider Dr. Sam Nafzger to be ideally suited for the position of chairman. He will be able to call upon his vast experience as the long-time secretary of the International Lutheran Council (ILC) and as one of the leading theologians in the LCMS.”

“I pledge to continue to support his work in behalf of the Wittenberg Project with all my heart, a project not only meaningful but necessary,” Voigt said.

SELK and the LCMS are members of the ILC, a worldwide association of 34 Lutheran church bodies.

Torgerson expressed high regard for his successor’s background, noting especially his years of service as a church journalist. He said this would serve Mahsman well, especially as Wittenberg prepares for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. He added that he stands ready to offer the new managing director any assistance needed.

Mahsman, 58, was for 20 years the executive editor of the LCMS’ two official periodicals, a magazine for lay people and a newspaper for pastors, other professional church workers, and lay leaders in his church body’s 6,000-plus congregations. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind., and the Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) degree from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.

“I am looking forward to getting to know the Wittenberg community and its leaders, to developing many positive relationships, and finding ways to implement the goals that led to the founding of the ILSW by our two church bodies,” said Mahsman, who plans to move to Wittenberg in September.

The ILSW was established as a German non-profit organization in 2007 to operate the Wittenberg Project on behalf of the SELK and LCMS.

The next meeting of the supervisory board will coincide with the November meetings of the Board of Directors and Council of Presidents in Tampa, Florida, when representatives of SELK and the project’s new managing director will report progress toward development of a business plan for the joint venture, hopefully to be put in place by February, 2010.

Highlights of the August Board of Directors meeting can be found by clicking here.

Board Briefs is published quarterly by the Secretary of the Synod on behalf of the LCMS Board of Directors.

The LCMS Board of Directors serves the church as the legal representative of the Synod and the custodian of all of the property of the Synod. For more information about the board and its members, click here.

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