Reverend
By Clyde T. Nehrenz
reverend, adj.
1. Deserving reverence.
2. Relating to or characteristic of the clergy; clerical.
3. Reverend. Abbr. Rev. Used as a title and form of address for certain clerics in many Christian churches. In formal usage, preceded by the.
reverend n. Informal. A cleric or minister. Used with the.
cleric, n. a member of the clergy.
clergy, n. the body of people ordained for religious service.
clergyman, n. a man who is a member of the clergy.
2. [usually R- ] designating, as a title of respect, a clergyman: often prefixed to the name;
3. of, characteristic of, or pertaining to the clerical office or profession, or to ecclesiastics in general; as, the reverend profession.
reverend, n. a clergyman. [Colloq.]
cleric, n. a clergyman.
clergy, n. 1. men ordained for religious service, as ministers, priests, etc. collectively.
clergyman, n. a member of the clergy; a minister, priest, etc.; a man regularly authorized to preach the gospel, and administer its ordinances.
Luther on the pastoral office and Missouri Synod practice in keeping with its official position, (para. 2 - 4)
fraud, n
1. A deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain.
2. A piece of trickery; a trick.
3.a. One that defrauds; a cheat. b. One who assumes a false pose; an impostor.
1 - They are defrauding Caesar by claiming to be clergymen entitled to special tax exemptions.
2 - They are misleading the members of the congregations they belong to as well as all members of Synod by the use of the title Reverend.
3 -They are engaging in deception (wherever they go) under an assumed identity.
This is not a matter of little consequence. It is critically important. And it has all come about as a predictable outcome of the folly committed by the 1962 synodical convention. The spiritual and theological consequences of that folly are already well advanced and have proven to be debilitating for Synod and all its members, but especially our congregations. The legal consequences for the corporation could be, potentially, equally devastating.
Clergy status granted apart from the pastorate of a local congregation can exist only where church polity is guided by the humanly-divised episcopalian principle that holds that there is a special order of Christians that exists apart from and out from under the control of local congregations. The order is entered by means of the human rite of ordination, clergyman status is initiated upon entry, the status is for life. The definitions for clergy cited above assume this position.
But the Missouri Synod operates officially under the Scripturally mandated congregational system of church government. The office of the ministry in this system is not some preexisting position waiting to be filled. Rather, "office" in "office of the ministry" is here understood in the sense of that word defined as an authority granted or bestowed. It was for the very purpose of maintaining this distinction (in order to guard against the idea of a special class of clerics set apart by ordination) that Dr. C. F. W. Walther and Missouri up until 1962 insisted that the the term "confer" be used when speaking officially of the office. The office, or authority, of the ministry to forgive sins by preaching the gospel and administering the sacraments is conferred by a congregation on a particular man chosen by means of its election and call.
It is upon acceptance of this call, before and without any reference to ordination, that an incumbent of the office under a congregational system of church government becomes a member of the clergy. In other words, he is a clergyman not because, as American Heritage and Webster's would have it, "he has been ordained for religious service," but rather because he has had conferred on him by a local congregation the authority to publicly administer the office of the keys.
Clergyman status is not for life under the congregational system. When the authority is relinquished by resignation of the office, for whatever reason, the incumbent becomes once again a common ordinary layman. He is than no longer a member of the clergy, no longer a clergyman, and no longer entitled to be addressed as Reverend. If an individual wants to address a former pastor as Reverend, well and good, but there is no justification for a former pastor signing or referring to himself as Reverend or using the title to gain special legal status.
Episcopalianism and congregationalism cannot be mixed together. They are oil and water. Cleveland Resolution 6-35 and Synod's official position on the church and the ministry cannot exist together. One or the other MUST be swept away, and the 2004 synodical convention will not be too soon to decide which one it will be.
November 4, 2002