It’s often asserted that the meticulous guarding and care of doctrine impedes the work of the mission of the Church and the saving of lost souls.  Does it?  This particular question hasn’t been submitted for response, but if it had been, perhaps it would have taken the form of the following question…

Question:  There are so many souls that need to hear of Christ and His saving work for them.  Do we need to obsess about having ALL the doctrine right?  Doesn’t that get in the way of the Church’s mission of reaching the lost?

Answer:  C.F.W. Walther, first president of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and perhaps the most influential Lutheran figure of the American 19th century, answers that common question well.  His answer is from a sermon he preached in 1872, on the occasion of the first official meeting of the Synodical Conference; his sermon text was 1 Timothy 4:16, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.  Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”–

“But, my brethren, the holy apostle does not only say in our text to his Timothy, ‘Keep a close watch on yourself,’ but also, ‘and on the teaching.  Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.’  And thus he shows us, secondly, that, if we make the salvation of souls above all things the chief object of our joint labor in Christ’s kingdom, we certainly shall take heed also unto the doctrine and thus be kept from ever violating faithfulness toward the Word of God.

“As you know, my brethren, it is a common saying in our time that the continual urging of the doctrine is a most pernicious tendency, only hindering, yea, destroying the kingdom of God.  People say, ’Instead of disputing so much about the doctrine, you ought rather to think of taking care of the souls and of leading them to Christ.’  But all who speak this way certainly do not know what they say and what they do.  As it would be folly to chide the tiller of the ground for his diligence to obtain good seed, and to demand that he should be eager only to obtain good fruit, so it would be folly to chide those that take heed unto the doctrine above all things, and to demand of them that they should rather endeavor only to save souls.  For as the tiller of the ground must be eager to obtain good seed above all things, if he wishes to reap good fruit, so must the Church care for sound doctrine above all things, if she wishes to save souls.”

–C.F.W. Walther, Opening Sermon for the Synodical Conference, 1872, translated by August Crull, included in At Home in the House of My Fathers:  Presidential Sermons, Essays, Letters, and Addresses from the Missouri Synod’s Great Era of Unity and Growth, Matthew C. Harrison, 198.