# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1992_S129
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

a

PROGRAM AND FINANCE

in coordinating and integrating their work. They are also
commended for their planned efforts to involve District
staffs in defining the congregational ministries staff and
service functions that can best be carried out at the District
level and at the national level. The Board of Directors and
Commission on Structure also support the efforts to have
more joint meetings of congregation services related
boards. To facilitate the work of the proposed Conference
of Congregational Services, it is recommended that all of
the congregational services-related boards meet at the
game time and conclude with a joint session to act on: the
conference’s assigned responsibilities. The annual cost of
two meetings of the proposed Conference of ‘Congregational
Services is estimated to be $30,000, assuming each of the
congregational services boards and commigsions would
spend an additional day in St. Louis after their regular
meeting and 35 District representatives would join them
for a weekend conference meeting. This cost is far less than
the cost of the present planning style. Further savings
would occur in 1995 if a single Board for Congregational
Services is approved, and there would be only one ayn-
odwide meeting a year of national and District staffs and/
or chairmen, rather than the several meetings now held
as each current board convenes its own meetings.

Recommended Action

i
A. To Integrate and Expand the Synod’s Method for Mis-
sion and Ministry Planning and Implementation

Resolved, That the Synod establish a Mission and Min-
istry Council to replace the. Planning Council; and be it
further ‘

Resolved, That Bylaw 3.731 (the Planning Council)|and
other references in the Bylaws to the Planning Council be
eliminated in their entirety; and be it further

Resolved, That the membership of the council, meeting
semiannually, and chaired by the President, be comprised
of 30 voting and 17 nonvoting members determined as fol-
lows through the adoption of the following Bylaws:

Membership

a. Thirteen members elected at-large (four ordained
ministers, one commissioned minister, eight laypersons),
and the four officers of the Synod (the President, the First
Vice-President, the Secretary, and the Treasurer), twho
make up the Board of Directors of the Synod;

b. Chairman, or a board member designated by him, of
the 9 operating boards (Missions, Higher Education, Con-
ference of Congregational Services, Social Ministry, Con-
cordia Publishing House, Lutheran Church Extension
Fund, Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod Foundation,
Worker Benefit Plans, Communications);

c. Two additional members selected by the Conference
of Congregational Services, one pastor, and one layperson;

d. Two District Presidents to be elected by the Council
of Presidents;

e. Executive officer of the synodical Board of Directors,
and the executive officer of each of the 9 operating boards,
the Commission on Theology and Church Relations, Con-
cordia Historical Institute, and the Commission on Black
Ministry as advisory members; ,

129

f. Vice-Presidents of the Synod 2 through 5 as advisory
members. , .

Functions

a. Report to the convention a long-range, synodwide
strategic mission and ministry plan, as well as its impli-
cations for the next triennium;

b. Provide a forum for the integration of the plans of
the respective operating boards (Missions, Higher Edu-
cation, Conference of Congregational Services, Social Min-
istry, Concordia Publishing House, Lutheran Church
Extension Fund, the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Foundation, Worker Benefit Plans, Communications) and
commissions; , : ,

c., Support the operating boards in the implementation
of convention and/or council-approved plans;

d. At the request of the operating boards, approve nec-
essary changes to the plans between conventions;

e. Report to the convention performance with respect
to the mission and ministry plans adopted at the prior
convention;

f. Provide input to the synodical Board of Directors as
it appoints certain boards and staffs,

g. Recommend auditors and general legal counsel for-
use by all Synodwide corporate and trust entities;

h. Recommend to the synodical Board of Directors the
allocation of undesignated receipts to appropriate entities

‘ who shall be responsible for their respective budgets;

' i, Provide policies to assure protection of assets and
personnel by all corporations and other entities;

j. Provide for resolution of disagreements between syn-
odical operating boards or commissions or between such
entities and the synodical officers; .

k. Act in those situations ‘between conventions where
others are not authorized to act.

Resolved, That a periodic meeting (at least once a trien-
nium) between the Mission and Ministry Council and the

! Council of Presidents be encouraged; and be it further

Resolved, That Bylaw 3.69 be amended to add a para-

! graph (n) that “all synodwide entities shall be responsible
: between conventions for the implementation of their por-

tions of the triennial mission and ministry plan, in con-

* gultation with the Mission and Ministry Council.”

\ :
’ B. To Establish a Conference of Congregational Services

and a Board for Congregational Services

Resolved, That for the 1992-95 triennium, a Conference
of Congregational Services be established, on a pilot basis,

, through the adoption of the following Bylaws:

Membership

a. Twenty-six at-large members elected to Boards of
Parish Services, Evangelism, and Youth; :
b. Thirteen at-large members appointed to the Com-

| Mission on Worship and Council on Stewardship;

c. Thirty-five representatives from District congrega-
tional-ministries-related boards selected by District
boards of directors with a balanced distribution from the