Is The Augustana Ministerium a ‘Church’?
The Augustana Ministerium is not a fellowship of congregations, but an association of pastors. Thus, it is not a synod or church body or a ‘church within a church’, and each member may leave or join synods as his conscience determines, being informed by the Word of God. A ministerium does strive to provide support where synods fail to uphold a sound confession of faith and good practice. A ministerium does strive to uphold and support faithful pastors. The work of a ministerium is to support and encourage the pure marks of the Church (the purely preached Gospel and the rightly administered sacraments, Augsburg Confession VII) regardless of synods and ‘denominations’. A ministerium strives to ensure that faithful pastors and their families will not be abandoned or neglected and that faithful orthodox pastors who are persecuted are defended fairly. The Augustana Ministerium, thus, does not seek to duplicate the functions of a synod or other body, but seeks to pick up where synods cannot
