Scripture Reading and excerpts from the Book of Concord, Quenstedt's The Church, and Loehe's Aphorisms on the offices of the New Testament

All emphasis mine:

"Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you." -1 Timothy 4:14 NIV

"But if ordination be understood as applying to the ministry of the Word, we are not unwilling to call ordination a sacrament. For the ministry of the Word has God's command and glorious promises, Rom. 1:16: The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Likewise, Is. 55:11: So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please. 12] If ordination be understood in this way, neither will we refuse to call the imposition of hands a sacrament. For the Church has the command to appoint ministers, which should be most pleasing to us, because we know that God approves this ministry, and is present in the ministry [that God will preach and work through men and those who have been chosen by men]." -Defense of The Augsburg Confession

"This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question." -Acts 15:2

"...there is in the New Testament only one office for the governance and feeding of the congregation, the presbyterate" -Loehe

"The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain." -Titus 1:5-7 (New International Version)

"If this passage does not prove the matter [That there is but one office for the governance and feeding of the congregation], then I don't know what in all the world will..." -Loehe. Aphorisms.., page 45, Repristination Press"

"It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up..." -Ephesians 4:11-12

"We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God." -2 Corinthians 5:20

"The ministerial cause that God uses in gathering and preserving the church are the ministers of the word" -Quenstedt's _The Church_ "Thesis XV" page 11 Repistination Press

"Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.

He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.'" -Mark 16:14-16

"Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'" -Mathew 28:16-20

"The efficiant principle cause of the synthetic church is the Holy Trinity..." -Quenstedt Thesis XIII

"The definition of the synthetic church is this: The synthetic church is the mixed assembly of people called and gathered, by the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments..." -Quenstedt's The Church Thesis XXI (Emphasis mine)

"That we may obtain this faith, the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christ's sake, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ's sake." -Augsburg Confession

"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" -Romans 10:14

"Everywhere in the New Testament we see that the holy office begets the congregations, never that the office is simply a transferal of congregational rights and authority where the congregation gives the office. The office stands in the midst of the congregations as a fruitful tree that contains its own seed." -Loehe page 55