CELC Meets in Lima, Peru

Representatives of the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference (CELC) traveled to Lima, Peru, for their eighth triennial convention. The convention met at the Hotel Ferrua in downtown Lima, three blocks from the seminary building. The convention occurred on May 30 through June 2, 2014, under the theme “We Are God’s Workmanship—Created in Christ Jesus for Good Works.”
The Rev. David Haeuser, ELS missionary in Peru, was the liturgist for the opening service. The Rev. Takeshi Nidaira, Japan, preached on Ephesians 1:1–10 to 96 worshipers. Nineteen voting delegates from twelve member churches received the following churches into associate membership in the CELC: the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Church of Albania, St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation in Finland, Christ Evangelical Lutheran Ministries (CELM) in India, Lutheran Mission of Salvation—India, and the Christian Church of the Lutheran Reformation of the Republic in Chile.
Five essays were presented during the course of the four-day session:
Essay #1: “God Sanctifies Us—He Makes Us Holy After He Declares Us Holy” by the Rev. John Brenner, United States. Original sin involves the total corruption of our human nature and we stand condemned because of the sinful nature given us through our parents. God sent His Son to live under the Law in order to redeem us by His perfect obedience and innocent death. Jesus atoned for the sins of all people. Therefore, God has justified the entire world. This means that God has declared everyone not guilty and forgiven.
Although all are forgiven, not everyone will be saved: sin’s salvation comes through faith in Jesus. Salvation and faith are gifts that the Holy Spirit gives through the Means of Grace, the Gospel in God’s Word, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.
In the wide sense, sanctification refers to the entire work of the Holy Spirit from conversion to preserving our faith to the end. In the narrow sense, sanctification refers to the work of the Holy Spirit that leads us to abhor sin and do good works. Sanctification is a result of God’s justification by faith. The power and will to do good works come from God. Good works are the visible evidence of faith, because they flow from true faith. Sanctification of one’s life will always be imperfect because Christians are both saints and sinners. They cannot be perfect in this life, but they can strive to do God’s holy will.
Essay #2: “God Gives Us Power—His Gospel in the Means of Grace Gives the Power for a God-pleasing Life” by the Rev. Gottfried Herrmann, Germany. How does God cause Christians to please Him? He gives them power for “good works,” works that are good in God’s eyes because they are done from faith out of love for Jesus. God gives us His Holy Spirit through His Word, written in the Bible.
God would have His children serve Him, not out of fear of the Law, but out of love for Christ given through the Gospel. While keeping the Law is enticing, no one can obey it perfectly. Only through the message of God’s love in Jesus can one be empowered to serve God. Through the Gospel in the Word, the Holy Spirit creates faith, sustains it, and gives strength to do good works. In Baptism, God works to make His forgiveness completely certain. Baptism is not a one-time event, but an ongoing drowning of the Old Adam and an arising to a new life. Through the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Spirit seals to Christians God’s forgiveness of sins. Out of that certainty grows new power to do good works.
While prayer is important to the Christian’s life, it is not a means of grace, for God does not speak to the Christian in prayer—only through His Word. The Christian’s pious efforts are not enough. Only the Holy Spirit working through the Word can produce good works. Christians can ask God to help them live for Him.
Essay #3: “God Guides Us—His Law in the Bible Guides Us in Godly Living” by the Rev. Brester Msowoya, Malawi. The people of the world do good things to gain a good reputation or with the hope of reward or to please others. But the believer does all to benefit God, even when working to help his fellow men. In everything they do, it is motivated by love for God who saved them through Jesus’ work of redemption and who created faith in them. St. Paul wrote, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works” (Ephesians 2:10). Through faith in the Gospel, God makes every Christian a new creation, or spiritual rebirth.
After this spiritual transformation by God, believers desire to do good works, such as serving in the public ministry of the Word. There are challenges to that work, such as culture. In Malawi, most tribes practice purification to please their ancestral spirits. After a birth, the baby and mother are considered unclean until the ritual cleansing is done. For 30 days, the new mother is considered unclean. So the people think that if the Holy Spirit requires cleansing for sin, our customs cannot be wrong.
Another challenge is the false teachings of Pentecostal churches. They claim that the Spirit gives power to heal and cast out demons, and that the believer must experience speaking in tongues, dreaming, and performing healings. In 1 Corinthians 12:4–10, St. Paul speaks about spiritual gifts, but does not say that all Christians will have the same gifts; rather, He will give them to each one as He wills.
A third cultural challenge to mission work is the death of a husband. Many people believe that the spirit of the dead man is in control of his wife until the cleansing is done. If certain unchristian practices are not done, the belief is that the dead man will be unhappy and the whole village will die. They need to hear about Christ’s victory over death so that people do not fear death.
While God’s Law gives specific rules about what to do and not do, many things are not commanded nor forbidden, called adiaphora. Unfortunately, some impose the obedience of Old Testament ceremonial laws. Others set up their own rules to please God. When these are done to gain salvation, they reject Christ’s work of salvation and bind Christians to man-made laws.
Essay #4: “Honoring God—We Are Created to Love God According to the First Table of the Law” by the Rev. Petr Krákora, Czech Republic. The sinful state is the common condition of mankind, and sanctification sets the believers apart by making them holy in terms of perfect sinlessness. Sanctification is a finished event the moment people believe in Jesus, because in Jesus God sees them as perfectly sanctified—wide sense. From conversion, believers also progress in sanctification on earth—narrow sense.
Sanctification is not about our becoming holy, but being holy. That is, by Baptism Jesus made us good trees that bear fruit (John 15). Being united with Christ’s death and resurrection in Baptism, Christians live out what God has done—Christ’s death and resurrection.
Worldly people may see that Christians are kind, tender-hearted, loving, and forgiving. But the believer understands that they are only carrying the fruit produced by its Author, Jesus. Union with Jesus will also be visible in the life of the Christian. For without Christ, we can do nothing. Sanctification is not a journey toward heaven, but a journey downward toward earth—to carry Christ’s life, holiness, wisdom, justice, love, and kindness into the world.
Essay #5: “Sanctification—Serving Others is the Christian’s Seal” by the Rev. Guillermo Carrera, Peru. The emphasis is on the second table of the Law, having a responsibility to love our neighbor. If natural man cannot live a sanctified life, where does it come from? Sanctification comes from conversion by the Holy Spirit produced through the Means of Grace. In order to produce fruit, we need to be watered by the streams of living water—God’s Word. Christians are not independent trees, but only branches grafted into Christ. In reality, the vine branch does not produce grapes; it participates in the nature of the trunk. True faith moves the believer to live for his Lord, who died for his sins.
Human sexuality is a wonderful gift of God, but if allowed to go out of His limits it becomes brutal passion. When Adam sinned, he saw himself, a form of egoism leading to self-gratification, rather than mutual pleasing in a marriage. Such self-centeredness leads to many sexual sins and the desire to legitimize them under human law. Where the world promotes sexual freedom, the Church needs to cultivate chastity so as to correct the tremendous propaganda that feeds eroticism. Christians need to lead a pure and decent life in words and actions. They serve others by helping them remain sexually pure.
Vocation can be used in three ways: God’s calling us to faith, God’s calling to an occupation, and God’s calling to the pastoral office. Vocation, then, is the place in which God has put you to carry out your job faithfully. Through the occupations of others, God is active in caring for our needs.
Luther spoke about the callings of God with regard to three institutions God established: the pastoral office, the family, and the civil government. Above these three dwells the calling of Christian love to all who are in need. The Holy Spirit empowers us to help others, which is the seal of faith. Let everyone be faithful in his or her vocation so all may be done to the glory of the triune God.
 
At the business meeting, the delegates elected the following to CELC offices: the Rev. Daniel Koelpin, president; Bethany Lutheran Theological Seminary President Gaylin Schmeling, vice-president; the Rev. Timothy Buelow, secretary; and the Revs. Michael Duncan and Larry M. Schlomer, Planning Committee members. The next CELC convention will meet in Grimma, Germany, on June 28/29–July 2, 2017. The delegates resolved to create a CELC Reformation Anniversary Committee to recommend ways to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation.