AFA and "The Church"

How does AFA want to relate to the established church, the LCA mainly but also others?

The following is a vision of how the One Mission, One Spirit, One Faith, One Church that inspires us all as the One Body of Christ, must drive us to cooperation and loyalty but with the freedom of using different paths to the same goal. Our different pathways are not poles apart but meant to be supplementary based on transparency and mutual respect.

AFA DESCRIBES ITSELF A FAITH MISSION BUT WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

It means that AFA is purely driven by faith – passion for Christ and the Gospel - as the uniting factor beyond any church membership and any institutional allegiance. A Faith Mission usually draws supporters from various Faith communities. In the case of AFA, most supporters are loyal and committed members of the LCA but some also come from other groups, even other denominations.

The only thing that ultimately unites us is the Gospel, not being Lutheran or anything else. Our primary allegiance must be allegiance to Christ. The same should go for every pastor of any church as well. We have no pope, no intermediary. But we also love and respect our church, and want to show it.

The institution itself, like the LCA, strictly speaking, is a Faith Mission as well. It is a Faith Mission in the broader, theological sense.

Our church should remind itself that it has largely grown out of German Faith Missions like the Hermannsburg Mission which was independent of the organised Lutheran churches of the time but at the same time remained Lutheran.

AFA wants to focus on Overseas Mission. It does not see itself as superior or better than anyone or as offering some kind of blueprint for others to follow. We acknowledge the great work being done by LCA International Mission. We cannot do what they do. By implication we also want to be agents of renewal in our churches, through an outward focus, away from self-focus, a focus on a lost and suffering world.

‘The Church’ as it operates on earth is never the visible church of God on earth and cannot be. Church laws, synodical resolutions, the authority of the church – all that is not identical with the law of God and the authority of Christ. The Spirit works through the (visible) church, with the church, in the church but is not bound to the church, any organized church. The Spirit works freely. The Spirit works through AFA as well but never in a vacuum without congregations in which the Word of God is preached and the Sacraments are administered in accordance with the Scriptures. To narrow that down to any denomination is questionable though the Lutheran Confessions are of great help and importance.

The church is spiritually kept alive by continually reforming itself. That also means changing while maintaining absolute, unwavering loyalty to the holy, historic and Apostolic Christian Faith. AFA needs the church and the church needs AFA. We want our church, and all churches, to be and become powerful Faith Missions on earth.