HOUSTON—In his daily Bible study to the convention attendees, Ted Kober, founder and president of Ambassadors of Reconciliation, asked that members work to resolve conflict within their congregations. In keeping with the convention’s theme of forgiveness, he also invited those in attendance to seek out and ask forgiveness from fellow delegates with whom they desire to be reconciled before the convention’s end.
The 64th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod is meeting July 10–17 at the George R. Brown Convention Center under the theme “ONE People—Forgiven.” Among the approximately 3,000 participants are some 1,200 clergy and lay voting delegates.
Kober asked delegates to gather in small groups to discuss Col. 3:12–17, focusing on how congregations and individuals can respond to and assist church members who are in conflict with one another. While reconciliation can be difficult, he admitted, it is not an attempt to force church members into agreement with one another but rather to “confess how we have sinned against one another in our disagreements and that we forgive each other because Christ has forgiven us.”
The convention’s morning devotion was delivered by Rev. Wayne Knolhoff, director of Stewardship Ministry for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, who addressed the idea that the “mark of a Christian steward is love.”
Posted July 14, 2010
