United Lutheran Mission Association Information

1. The United Lutheran Mission Association (ULMA) is not a fellowship or a synod, it is an association. 2. An association is a group of people organized for a joint purpose (see "Article IV Objectives" of the Constitution of the United Lutheran Mission Association). 3. We live in a time when the official positions of various Lutheran synods often reflect an erring majority. We also know that there are orthodox pastors and people in these Lutheran synods who are in a state of confession and are working to avoid the yeast that makes its way through the whole batch of dough. 4. Institutional boundaries have become so vague and ill-defined that we are reminded of the time of the Reformation when everything was in upheaval. Here it is good to remember that the marks of the church are the pure preaching of the Word and the right administration of the Sacraments. Affiliation with a synodical institution is not a mark of the church. 5 . With this in mind, we are required to be more judicious in our practice of altar and pulpit fellowship. The word "judicious" means "done with good judgment. Each situation warrants its own careful examination. 6. The ULMA may be a first step in ultimately bringing together pastors and congregations of like mind. While the association may grow into something more, for now we remain an association. 7. When a congregation and pastor(s) become members of the ULMA they are required to indicate their adherence to the Constitution of the United Lutheran Mission Association and the Constitutional Guidelines for Mission Congregations. Both documents require submission to the Old and New Testaments as the inspired, inerrant, written Word of God and the only rule and norm of faith and practice, and the symbolical books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church found in the Book of Concord of 1580 as true and unadulterated statements and expositions of the Word of God. 8. With Scripture and the Book of Concord of 1580, the Commission shall also familiarize itself with and diligently use the following in order to carry out its objectives: Church and Ministry, The True Visible Church , and The Form of a Christian Congregation by C. F. W. Walther. The Commission shall also consult For the Sake of Christ's Commission: The Report of the Church Growth Study Committee, The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. 9. We understand how all Christians may want to donate and/or use their time and talents to help fulfill the great commission, but all donors must realize that they are helping to finance Lutheran mission congregations with their donations. In addition, their donations would not put them in altar and pulpit fellowship with ULMA congregations if they are in opposition to what we believe, teach, and confess. 10. Those who become a member of our association and attempt to subvert our governing principles in Commission work will be dealt with according to Robert's Rules of Order which includes expulsion. 11. Mission congregations, which are required to adopt the ULMA Constitutional Guidelines for Mission Congregations, are in fellowship with one another unless a mission congregation or former mission congregation becomes heterodox. 12. Are the member congregations of ULMA in altar and pulpit fellowship with one another and with mission congregations established by ULMA? While keeping in mind the above statements, if member congregations of the ULMA adhere to the Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions in Commission work, and if there is nothing to manifestly indicate that they do otherwise in their respective congregations, then nothing should prohibit them from entering into altar and pulpit fellowship with one another and with mission congregations that have been established by the association. "Altar fellowship" is the practice of communing at the same altar. It is a public proclamation of unity or oneness in doctrine. Consequently, if someone is living in manifest, unrepentant sin or tenaciously clings to false doctrine (here we are not talking about the casual intrusion of error), such should not be admitted to the Sacrament of the Altar. Concerning "pulpit fellowship", the Lutheran Cyclopedia observes: "In the early church, unity was exemplified by fellowship in worship. Pastors in one part of the church were recognized in other parts and, if present at a service, were invited to take part. . . Rise of heretics and impostors led to rules and safeguards (Concordia, 1984, pg.