10 Minutes with President-elect Matt Harrison

Religion News Service (which is a wire service focused on religion news) is running a Q&A with Rev. Matt Harrison. Here’s a snippet:

Q: The Missouri Synod is known as a conservative denomination, but some have said it or its leadership were not conservative enough. Do you agree?

A: I think the challenge we have to face internally is the proper approach to meeting culture and accommodating culture. Obviously we have to take a very ancient New Testament message and bring it into a fast-paced and ever-changing post-modern world. I think some thought the essence of Lutheranism was, at times, being compromised.

Q: Do you plan to take the church in a more conservative direction?

A: I am at once a rock-ribbed traditional Lutheran and at the same time believe fully that that very confession, that very conviction, drives us into the maelstrom of today’s post-modern life and particularly toward our neighbor.

Q: But will you take the LCMS in a more conservative direction?

A: I think we have been drifting, and so I will in good faith uphold the church’s confession.

Q: What might that look like?

A: We have a strong, orthodox, creedal Christianity. We believe that the fundamental teachings on social issues—sexuality and those kinds of things—have been determined already in the New Testament. I believe that we should be and we are going to continue to be uncompromising on the conviction of the truth of the Lutheran Confessions of Faith while at the same time generously recognizing that the church is far beyond our little Missouri Synod. The church exists wherever Jesus and his word is.

Read the rest here.

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