# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_2016_S171
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

RESOLUTIONS
7

University Education
To Adopt Lutheran Identity Statement for CUS
Institutions as Prepared by CUS Presidents
RESOLUTION 7-01A
Reports R1, R15, R63 (CW, pp. 1–6, 77–79, 262); Overtures
7-01–02 (CW, pp. 363–364)
Whereas, The Synod is blessed with university leadership that
seeks to reflect the confession and practice of the church and to
share the treasure of the Gospel with a world in need; and
Whereas, The presidents of the Concordia University System
(CUS) have endorsed an identity statement and its protocols as a
means to demonstrate their support for the Christian teaching and
Lutheran confession and practice of the church (R15, pp. 77–78):
Lutheran Identity Standards for CUS Institutions
As educational institutions of The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod (LCMS), the colleges and universities of the CUS confess the
faith of the Church. The Concordias uphold the teachings of Sacred
Scripture and its articulation in the Lutheran Confessions. This
includes the biblical teaching that Jesus Christ—true God and true
man—is the sole way to God’s mercy and grace; that at the beginning of time the triune God created all things; that life is sacred
from conception to natural death; and that marriage between a
man and a woman is a sacred gift of God’s creative hand—over
against the reductionistic assumptions of many in our culture who
view men and women as only transitory and material beings.

an LCMS institution, as do the institution’s primary
print and electronic publications.
2. Governing Board—All of the institution’s regents
are active members in good standing of LCMS congregations (Bylaw 3.10.5.2–4).
3. Senior Leadership—The president and the senior
leaders over academic student life, admissions, and
athletics are active members in good standing of
LCMS congregations and faithfully participate in
worship and religious activities on campus and in
their local congregations.
4. Faculty—Each tenure track or continuing-level
faculty search is given optimal exposure among
members of congregations of the LCMS to identify
faculty who are qualified in their respective academic
disciplines and are members of LCMS congregations.
Ideally, all faculty members are active members of
LCMS congregations. When academically qualified
LCMS members are not available, faculty members
will be Christians who affirm, at minimum, the content of the Ecumenical Creeds and are members of
Christian congregations. All faculty members promise to perform their duties in harmony with the
truths of Holy Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions,
and the doctrinal statements of the LCMS (cf. Bylaw
3.10.5.6.2).

As educational institutions of the LCMS, the Concordias are
committed to providing an excellent, robust curriculum in the liberal arts and professional studies, which together equip students
for various vocations of service to church and society. As C. F. W.
Walther wrote:
As long as and wherever the Christian church flourished, it
always and everywhere proved itself to be a friend and cultivator
of all good arts and sciences, gave its future servants a scholarly preparatory training, and did not disdain to permit its gifted youth at
its schools of higher learning to be trained by the standard products of even pagan art and science.
Accordingly, the colleges and universities of the CUS affirm and
promise to uphold these identity standards:
1. Identity statements—The institution’s mission statement (and/or vision statement) clearly identifies it as
Committee 7 Chairman Timothy Scharr
“7. University Education”

U P O N T H I S R O C K • Resolutions

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