“The ILC is Growing”: Papers from 2015 World Conference published

ONLINE – Presentations from the International Lutheran Council’s (ILC) 25^th World Conference (held in Buenos Aires, Argentina September 23-26, 2015) have been published in a special issue of the Journal of Lutheran Mission.

In a preface to the issue, ILC Vice Chairman Robert Bugbee reflects on the continuing growth of the ILC. “This is not only true from the perspective of membership numbers and statistics,” he notes. “There is a rising urgency within the Council to become more vigorous in its goal of extending the reach of a truly confessional Lutheran witness to additional places throughout the world. The Council’s leadership is currently grappling with concrete plans to bring that about.”

Such growth has more to do with than just ILC infrastructure of course. “If this growth had only to do with a human agency, its structures, personnel, and funding, it would be of little moment to those who care deeply about the mission of Christ’s church in the world,” Vice Chairman Bugbee explains. “For us, the happiest news flash is the one St. Paul identified long ago when he wrote his friends of ‘the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing’ (Col. 1:5-6).

That emphasis on Gospel-proclamation ties into the ILC’s 25^th World Conference in Buenos Aires, where the theme was “Bringing the Reformation to the World.” Papers presented at that conference focused on proclaiming Reformation truths to a contemporary world, and are now available in this special issue of Journal of Lutheran Mission. In addition to the convention’s Keynote Address on “The Augsburg Confession in the 21^st Century,” the issue includes lectures, reports, and sermons. It also includes a statement adopted by the ILC at its world conference on the document “From Conflict to Communion,” a document published by the Lutheran World Federation and Roman Catholics regarding the upcoming 500^th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.

To read this special ILC issue of the Journal of Lutheran Mission, see the embedded document below or click one of the links below. You may also download the full issue in pdf format here.

1. A Sermon for the International Lutheran Council—2015 World Conference, Buenos Aires, Argentina by ILC Chairman Hans-Jörg Voigt.
2. The Augsburg Confession in the 21^st Century: Confessing the Faith Once for All Delivered by Rev. Alexey Streltsov.
3. The Report of the ILC’s Chairman Hans-Jörg Voigt.
4. A Statement from the International Lutheran Council on the Document ‘From Conflict to Communion:’ Lutheran—Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation 2017
5. A Sermon on St. Michael and All Angels (Luke 10:20; Rev. 12:11) by Rev. Dr. Albert B. Collver III.
6. Our Confession in Augustana IV-VI by Rev. Sergio Adrián Fritzler.
7. A Devotion on Matthew 6:24-34 by Rev. Dr. Lawrence Rast.
8. Augustana VII: The Church and Fellowship by Rev. Dr. Albert B. Collver III.
9. Bringing the Reformation to the World: The Means of Grace by Chairman Hans-Jörg Voigt.
10. Faith, Ethnicity, and Social Issues in the Thoughts and Work of Pastor Vladislav Santarius by Rev. Dr. Martin Pię

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