Most people in the ELCA believe that Called to Common Mission (CCM) introduced only peripheral changes which do not affect the heart of our faith. But the dispute over CCM is theological, not organizational. The changes it wrought contradict very basic Lutheran convictions. This short space allows only the briefest overview of why that is.

The first five articles of the Augsburg Confession describe God and his work in the world.

Article 1 is entitled "God."

Article 2, "Original Sin," concerns the problem God faces.

Article 3 describes how Jesus overcame sin.

Article 4, "Justification," explains how he reconciles us to God through faith. Following this pattern,

Article 5 should be called "The Holy Spirit," but instead, its title is "The

Office of Ministry."

According to the Reformers, the church's ministry is the Holy Spirit's work. Through the divine gifts of Word and Sacrament, he grants the faith which justifies us with God. The Spirit makes Christ present and bestows his grace. No other mediator is necessary for that to happen. Ministers do appear in the Augsburg Confession in Article 14, which focuses on good order in the church. That is, ministers serve only to insure that the Word is proclaimed and the sacraments administered regularly. But the gifts themselves depend on the Holy Spirit, not the minister.

This functional understanding of ministers departs sharply from Roman Catholicism, which declares that properly ordained priests are the conduit for God's grace. They are essential to God's work in the church and Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper. When ordained by a bishop, priests receive a special grace which permanently changes their being so they can mediate between God and his people. Catholic ordination practices reflect this conviction that properly ordained priests are essential to God's saving work.

CCM is an agreement with the Episcopal Church, which does not consistently espouse Roman Catholic belief about ordination, but does, with absolute consistency, follow the same practices. In CCM, the ELCA agreed to adopt those practices, too. And therein lies the problem. ELCA ordinations now reflect a theology which is rejected by our own Confessions.

Many ELCA members believe we can use those practices without accepting the underlying theology, but Lutherans have always insisted that our practices should reflect our theology, not contradict it. The Lutheran Confessions compel us to oppose CCM, so that there is no doubt that the Holy Spirit is the only essential actor in the Christian Church.

Scott Grorud is a pastor at Gloria Dei in Redwood Falls