“…ministry in the light of the Lutheran confessional theology is the actual doing of the divine election in the living present by setting bound sinners free through the Word of the cross. Rightly considered, this sets the Lutheran view of ministry off from both Roman views on the right and Protestant views on the left. To put it most pointedly, a minister is not a priest whose task it is to procure or infuse the grace that prepares you to be elected, nor a teacher who informs you about election (or damnation!) in eternity or (more lately in modern Protestantism) tries to explain what to do now that God does not elect anybody. A minister is rather an ambassador, one who is called, authorized, and sent to do the bidding of the sovereign – in this case, to do the electing as authorized by the crucified and risen Jesus.”

– Gerhard O. Forde, “The Preached God” (118)