"The church has the power to elect and ordain ministers."

“But, it is objected, here the church is meant inasmuch as it is represented by individual persons and not as it consists of all its members, for the term ‘church’ in Christ’s statement: ‘Tell it to the church’ [Kirche] (or congregation [Gemeinde; Luther’s bible has “Gemeine”]) cannot be interpreted to denote all church members. I reply: The bishops or those who teach cannot alone represent the Church, since to it, if correctly defined, the hearers also belong. Indeed, the presbyterium may represent the church, and to this belong not only those who labor in the Word but also the church elders [Kirchenaeltesten] who have been appointed to attend to the affairs of the entire church in its name. We admit, therefore, that by the term ‘congregation’ or ‘church’ [Gemeinde or Kirche] may be understood the teachers, whom Bellarmine calls ‘prelates,’ but we deny that the hearers are to be excluded, for they are represented by the church elders [Kirchenaeltesten], namely, the more eminent members of the rest of the church, who at the same with with the ministerium (preaching office [Predigtamt]) constitute the presbyterium or, as we are accustomed to call them in our churches, ‘the consistory,’ which carries out ecclesiastical business in the name of the church” (ibid., par. 87).

[Walther comments]: Our church confesses here that the whole church [ganze Kirche], not merely as a great, populous whole, but also its smallest parts, has the keys and so also the ministry [Amt] of the Gospel, just as a whole face reflected in a mirror appears in every single part of it, though it may be smashed into a thousand pieces. Therefore, the church has the power to elect and ordain ministers. Hence, the power of the public preaching office [Predigtamt] rests in the church and is conferred [uebertragene] by the church according to Christ’s express direction on certain persons specifically called to the ministry of the Word.

Gerhard in Walther’s Kirch und Amt – p. 267-68