 |
| Official Graphic of Emphasis Witness, Mercy, and Life Together |
Not being a student of Von Schenk, I cannot claim to be familiar with his book Lively Stone. His book does not grace my bookshelf, nor have I seen it in President Harrison's library. But then we never claimed to have invented anything new. In fact, new in the realm of the church in regards to her purpose and doctrine is not a good thing. Another word for innovation in doctrine is heresy. People turning up references to a similar threefold emphasis in other places might indicate that perhaps Witness, Mercy, Life Together is fairly good at describing what the emphasis of the church is.
Pastor Bill Weedon, someone familiar with Von Schenk, searched for a quote in Lively Stone stating the threefold emphasis. He found on page 97 "where Von Schenk speaks of Missouri's so-called doctrinal purity, moralism and legalistic ritualism (which outlaws the prayer of consecration with anamnesis and epiclesis) as false marks of the Church. 'These false marks are poor substitutes for the true marks of the Church: Leiturgia, Missio, and Diakonia ('Liturgy, Mission, Service').'"
Indeed, Von Schenk mentions a threefold marks of the church: leiturgia (liturgy), missio (sending/mission), and diakonia (service). Doesn't seem that the "Witness, Mercy, Life Together" is precisely the same focus as Von Schenk's leiturgia, missio, and diakonia, but no doubt there are some similarities. In any case, I am glad that the "evangelical" catholic group on ALPB seems to have in general positive feelings toward "Witness, Mercy, Life Together" -- and if Von Schenk is the reason for that, great!
No doubt other similarities will be found between "Witness, Mercy, Life Together" and other Christian groups and writings. For instance the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP) -- The Batak Christian Protestant Church -- has three departments in their church listed in the following order -- Koinonia, Marturia, Diakonia. Considering that the church's website is in Indonesian, apart from knowing the three names of their departments, I am not sure this helps us much in further understanding Witness, Mercy, Life Together.
However, you could help us with "Witness, Mercy, Life Together." Thus far, we have focused primarily on New Testament Scripture passages. You could help us by either posting in the comments or emailing us quotations or references from the Book of Concord that further elucidate the emphasis "Witness, Mercy, Life Together." Another area of help could be in the suggestion of quotations from Luther or Walther. How about some early church father references? Any takers?
