In 1863 C.F.W. Walther wrote a book called The Form of a Christian Congregation. I recommend this book to all of our members in IDE (available through CPH). In it he spends one chapter on the "Congregations duty to do its share that the Church in general may be established and promoted." He spends half of that chapter talking about the ways a congregation takes the Gospel to those in the community and the world who have no church membership. Walther quotes one of his favorite Lutheran fathers by the name of Conrad Dannhauer. Dannhauer lays out a fourfold approach to confessing the Christian Faith in our vocations. I will address each of these approaches over the next four editions of the IDE Today. The four approaches are Example, Written Word, Witness, and Prayer.
The first approach is one of Example. Dannhauer writes: The example of a holy life rightly occupies the first place. If that, like a charming perfume, reaches the nose with its sweetness, it easily attracts both eye and ear; but when it spreads an evil smell, it at once repulses. 'Be harmless as doves' (Matt. 10:16), the Lord said at the time when he sent his doves among the hawks that were to be tamed. Keep the serpent in your eyes, but the dove in your heart. From the dove learn the simplicity of the eye which looks straight ahead, without any side glance or misty veil, toward the goal, that is, God. Learn from it true tenderness; if you cannot be without gall, then at least be without horns and teeth. Learn from it the swiftness which it has, moving its wings without noise and pride. Learn from it also its pureness and its abhorrence of all filth, its chastity joined with faith, concord with truth.
The most effective way to win unbelievers would be to let them see in us the glory of what Christ has taught; to let them know that we do not seek their kingdoms or thirst for their gold or covet their possessions, but that we seek nothing else than their salvation and the glory of Christ. This theology once upon a time subdued both the pride of the philosophers and the invincible scepter of the princes. Without this we would more easily degenerate into Turks and barbarians then that we would draw them to our side.
The face of God was manifest in the person of Jesus. We have been baptized into the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ Jesus (Rom. 6). His face has not only shined upon us but dwells within us by faith. It is the face of Christ that is exemplified through our faces as we interact with our neighbor with the gentle kindness of the dove. Walther would have us believe that Christ is visible to our neighbor through our example of Christian love in our daily lives. God bless us each and every day with opportunity and strength of faith to confess His name to our neighbor.
