The Doctrine of the Call

A snippet from Walther’s convention essay on “Calling a Pastor” (“Essays for the Church,” Vol. 1, pp. 72, 74):

“If a person is asked whom a congregation could get, the inquirer should always be directed to the District president.  Even the average pastor does not know who would be a qualified man, for it takes the oversight of an entire District to qualify a man to give sound advice.  The fact that District presidents have been bypassed is largely responsible for the fact that we have often made poor use of our gifts and talents.  Conditions would be greatly improved if our congregations had always been trained to asked the District president: ‘Which man is available and would be suitable for our needs?’ . . .

“On the other hand, if he would attempt to prescribe: ‘This man and that man you dare not call, but you must call this man or that man,’ then the congregation would be obliged to tell him: ‘You’re free to go now; we invited you, not to give you our rights, but to get your best advice.’”