LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1992, Page 57

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REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT 57

c. Widely representative committees will continue to
explore and make appropriate recommendations about the
size, shape, and purpose of Districts; regionalization; and
other structural components of the Synod that will in-
crease its efficiency in serving the congregations of the
Synod in carrying out the mission of the church.

Comment: The Synod’s emphasis on vision, network-
ing, and compatible relationships is not bureaucratic pub-
lic relations jargon, as some suggest, but rather points to
a major reorganizational pattern for our life and work Ca
gether. Many years of study and experimentation have
gone into the realization that the various boards and de-
partments of the Synod no longer serve most effectively as
purveyors of program material. They must increasingly
focus on linking people and congregations with similar
needs and solutions. Exciting stories abound on the success
of this effort during the past triennium! Although care
must be taken not to think of structural or organizational
change as the primary means by which the Synod will
become more effective in carrying out the Lord’s mission
(which remains the means of grace), we must increasingly
recognize that some organizational changes are necessary
precisely in order to help us maintain our confessional sol-
idarity and provide an effective focus on the world mission
of the church. A number of key proposals for organizational
change are before this convention from the Commission on
Structure and Board of Directors and deserve our careful
study and support.

10. Peace in the Church

a. Improved methods that employ biblical emphases
and reduce adversarial confrontation are necessary in the
Synod’s way of dealing with conflict at the congregational,
District, and national levels.

b. Studies of 1 Corinthians 6 and related materials
should take place throughout the Synod in an effort to help
reduce the use of civil action as a means of settling disputes
among Christians.

c. Every effort must be made to counter the divisive
behavior and diminished trust that characterize a network
of political activists within the Synod.

Comment: A special Task Force on Conflict Resolution
has developed a number of outstanding recommendations
for the consideration of the convention. These are printed
elsewhere in this Workbook. Throughout this triennium;
we have suffered greatly because of inadequacies and
abuses of our present system. (Please note several rec!
ommendations later in this report.) An excellent study by
the Commission on Theology and Church Relations has
been prepared on the implications of 1 Corinthians 6 and
a Christian’s use of the civil courts as a means of resolving
conflicts. This study needs to be given serious attention!

and all of us need to be more keenly involved in discour, ©

aging one another from taking civil action against each
other, particularly when prior efforts to resolve difficulties
through personal or ecclesiastical means have not been!
given every opportunity to succeed. The Council of Presi-
dents, together with pastors’ conferences throughout the,
Synod, needs to give increased attention to dealing with
those who cause divisions and offenses among us through!
false witness, misrepresentation, and power-oriented po-

litical activity. The mission God has given us is too chal-
lenging and important for us to allow the devil to continue
to sow seeds of discord and divisiveness among us. Con-
scious efforts to develop a higher trust level among us
should be encouraged at every level of our synodical life
together.

In each of the above priority areas, the Synod is en-
couraged to act with great boldness if we are indeed to be
about our task of telling everyone what He has done in the
most effective way possible.

Special Projects and Studies

The foregoing section called attention to a number of
special studies and projects that have received direction,
encouragement, and support from the President's office.
They include a CTCR study on 1 Corinthians 6, a report
of the Task Force on Conflict Resolution, the report and
recommendations of the Task Force on Higher Education,
the Mission Blueprint for the 90s, a study of the future of
seminary education, and the beginning of a major family
initiative. In the paragraphs below there are additional
comments on some of those projects as well as three ad-
ditional matters.

1 Corinthians 6

In the first meeting of the Board of Directors of the
Synod following the Wichita convention, I stated that one
of the issues that needed to be addressed in the Synod was
the use of civil courts by Christians and the implications
of 1 Corinthians 6:1—11 for our common life together. Sub-
sequently, the Vice-Presidents and J requested the CTCR
to address the issue, which it did in a document that was
mailed to all pastors in the fall of 1991. Not only does this
study strongly discourage the use of civil action by Chris-
tians against Christians when personal and ecclesiastical
efforts have not been exhausted, but it reminds us that St.
Paul teaches us that it is better to suffer reproach than to
follow civil approaches that injure the church and its
witness. ~

Although it is often observed that we are living in a very
litigious society, the increased instances of litigation
within the Synod have not only been costly in terms of
finances, but also in terms of our corporate witness and
our example to our sister churches around the world. I
believe that the time has come for the Synod not only to
adopt better means of conflict resolution among us, but to
state very clearly that any member of the Synod who en-
gages in litigation against the Synod thereby forfeits his
membership in the Synod, except perhaps in very unusual
circumstances.

Conflict Resolution Proposals

In my report to the 1989 synodical convention I reported
that “various complexities in our procedures need clarifi-
cation and adjustment” and that we need to identify “more
informal ways of resolving conflicts, perhaps using third-
party arbiters and the like, in order to avoid the increasing
costs and legal involvements in many cases” (1989 Work-
book, p. 5). Early in this triennium, it became increasingly
clear that the present Bylaws of the Synod dealing with
reconciliation, adjudication, and appeal have a number of