LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1986, Page 71

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REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT 71

policies or directions need to be described for the Synod,
it is important to make sure that time for adequate study
and reflection has been given, lest the Synod take precip-
itous action. Particularly at this convention as we seek to
establish goals and directions in each important area of
the Synod’s work, we are planning to provide an oppor-
tunity for small group discussions of several major issues
in order to shape our resolutions and to understand the
will of the delegates as clearly as possible. Floor commit-
tees will need to give particular attention to the best use
of such time at the convention, as well.

Floor committees will also need to be conscious of the
cost of embarking upon new programs or establishing new
directions, for we simply do not have the resources readily
available at this time to undertake everything that we
would like to do.

It is important that floor committees seek to serve the
whole Synod. Many things in the Convention Workbook do
not necessarily reflect what a majority of the congregations
of our Synod have in mind. Committees will be dealing
with more than 800 overtures that come from slightly more
than two hundred of our 6,150 congregations. These ov-
ertures from roughly 3 1/2% of the congregations of the
Synod need our serious and careful attention and our rea-
soned response. However, they ought not receive a dispro-
portionate amount of our time and attention, particularly
when we must also consider the reports and recommen-
dations from officers, boards, commissions, faculties, dis-
trict conventions, and conferences who represent in some

sense all of the congregations and people of the church
body. We need to reckon with the fact, as well, that several
congregations have submitted a large number of overtures.
One congregation in Illinois, for example, has submitted
22 overtures; another in Missouri has submitted 21; and
several more have submitted six or more overtures. The
submission of such overtures clearly reflects some orga-
nizational activity on the part of certain members of our
church body, a factor that will also need to be kept in mind.

Finally, let me say how grateful I am to all of you who
have agreed to serve on the floor committees of the con-
vention, for you are giving generously of your time, ex-
perience, and ability to help our church body be truly alive
in Christ. I challenge you to help all of us not simply to
relish and recreate the past, but to cherish it and learn
from it as we live and serve in the present and future; I
challenge you not simply to react to problems in the pres-
ent, or even to attempt to manage the intricacies of our
complex organization, but rather to embrace and make use
of all the gifts God has given our church body in this dif-
ficult time. Above all, I challenge you in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ to help us move deliberately and con-
fidently toward the future, a future that must be seen and
appreciated increasingly in terms of the impending and
imminent return of our Lord to judge the world in righ-
teousness and to receive us into the eternal habitations
He has prepared for all who believe in Him, trust in Him,
and live in Him. May God help us to celebrate and to live
as His children who are truly alive in Christ. Amen.

Part III

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I am honored and delighted to welcome the delegates,
representatives, and friends of The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod to this, its 56th Regular Convention. It is
my prayer that our good and gracious God will send all of
us a rich measure of His Holy Spirit as we act and work
to celebrate the fact that we are alive in Christ, and as we
deliberate and reach decisions on the many matters that
pertain to our synodical work of bringing the life of Christ
to the nations.

In keeping with the constitutional requirement that the
President shall “give an accurate report to the Synod of
his administration” (Article XI) at the sessions of the
Synod, I am pleased to call your attention to the first two
parts of my report, which you have had in hand for some
time. The first section, which deals largely with organi-
zational and administrative matters, appears on pages 165
to 173 of the Convention Workbook, while the second sec-
tion, which was delivered to the floor committee meetings
in St. Louis at the end of May, appears in Section A of
Today’s Business (pp. 23-27). You may have occasion from
time to time during the convention to page through these
items, because in some cases they present background in-
formation on issues coming before the convention.

I would officially add that I also have sent addenda on
certain items in my report to appropriate floor committees
for their review and possible response. Some of these deal
with some rather unfortunate letters and other materials
which have been circulated among delegates and others in
recent weeks. I believe committees should be aware of this
as they do their work for the convention, so that they un-
derstand what is being said and felt by people in this great
church. Committees can review those questions, report
anything they feel is appropriate, and recommend what
they believe is proper for convention delegates.

But I don’t want to spend my time this morning on all
those many, many questions of detail and debate among
us, as much as I would like to underscore certain emphases
I have already made in the first two sections of my report.
And then I would like to focus on the challenges and op-
portunities for leadership which you, the convention del-
egates, advisory people, and friends, now have in your
hands. For the next week, you—no one else, you—are the
leaders of this church, and 6,000 congregations depend on
what we do here for a measure of guidance and support
as they carry out the ministries God has given them.

As the delegates review the Report of the President and
reflect on it, it is good to keep in mind what the Synod