The Right View of Missions - With Joy! Pfotenhauer

God grant that we not think that we can solve the many problems that we see in our midst by forcing all sorts of activity [Werktreiberei]. That won’t do it. Good pious works never make a good pious man. Rather, a good pious man does good pious works. Evil works never make a man evil; rather, an evil man produces evil works. The more faith in Jesus Christ grows, the more lively faith recognizes the love of God in Christ, all the richer will be the harvest of faith in every sort of good work, also precisely in the great works that our Synod performs. You will grow in zeal for the preparation and sending of preachers and teachers and be seized by the right view of missions, so that you do not go about the work downcast but with joy. We see what the right view of mission is where the apostles Peter and John say to the Sanhedrin, “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

May you, dear brothers, presidents, visitors and members of commissions, have the same mind that St. Paul had concerning the congregation at Colossae in all those duties that are entrusted to you. He wrote to you in chapter 1:9–15:

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation."

And now, venerable brothers, the “God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal testament, our Lord Jesus, make you ready in every good work, to do His will, and work in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever! Amen.”

Pfotenhaer, "The Revitalization of Synod..." in At Home in the House of My Fathers.