LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 27

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MINUTES OF THE CONVENTION
Committee 8: Synod Structure and Governance

The chair called on Synod Structure and Governance
Committee Chairman Larry Stoterau, President of the Pacific
Southwest District, to begin his committee’s report to the
convention . After a video introduction, he recalled the committee’s activity since the regional gatherings and emphasized
that the convention and the Synod are now approaching a
crossroads . He structured his presentation around some of the
questions that will be addressed by the committee, i .e ., What
is before us? How have we come to these crossroads? What
have people told us? Which path will we take? Where will it
lead? His presentation included personal testimonials from
Rev . Ronald Burcham of Urbandale, Iowa, and Deaconess
Sally Hiller, Executive Director for Congregational Outreach
and District Operations of the Southeastern District .
Session 2
Sunday p.m.—July 11, 2010
Devotion

The chair called on Rev . Dr . Glen Thomas, Executive
Director of the Board for Pastoral Education and convention
chaplain, to introduce First Vice-President William Diekelman
as the devotion leader . Using as his text 2 Corinthians 12:9, Dr .
Diekelman spoke of God’s ability to fix brokenness, a power
made perfect in weakness .
Committee 8: Synod Structure and Governance

Committee 8 Chairman Larry Stoterau continued his committee’s introduction of its report to the convention, calling
on Vice-President–Finance—Treasurer Tom Kuchta to speak
regarding the “state of financial crisis” faced by the Synod and
the financial impact of the committee’s recommendations . He
also called on Steven Trusty of Omaha, Nebraska, a first-time
convention attendee, to speak in support of the committee’s
proposals .
Committee Vice-Chairman David Buegler, Fifth VicePresident of the Synod, joined Chairman Stoterau at the
podium to review jointly the committee’s report, its 38 resolutions clustered into five groups of resolutions according to
topic (TB, p . 376) . The remainder of the session was devoted
to bringing the delegates up to date on the most recent changes
to the committee’s proposals and responding to questions and
comments from the assembly . The first four of five clusters of
resolutions were covered during the session .
Devotion

Session 2 was closed with a devotion by convention chaplain Glen Thomas, who offered petitions of intercession and
thanksgiving prompted by prayer requests from the delegate
assembly .
Session 3
Monday a.m.—July 12, 2010
[Note: Prior to all sessions of the convention, special music
by musicians from local congregations called the delegates

27

to opening devotions and convention business. Periodically
throughout the course of the convention, the assembly also
viewed “Red Chair Videos,” brief video presentations by
members of the Council of Presidents recalling significant
forgiveness moments in their lives and ministries.]
Call to Order and Morning Devotion

President Kieschnick called the assembly to order .
Convention chaplain Glen Thomas introduced the morning devotion leader, Rev . Quentin G . Poulson, Director of
Mission and Education Networking for the LCMS Board for
Black Ministry Services . His meditation, “Walking Together
in Love,” based on Ephesians 4:29–5:32, spoke of the walk
of Christians as a wonderful walk—but also a walk that
Christians must continue to work at, a walk especially not
easy when forgiveness is necessary, a walk empowered by
God as He sends Christians out into the world to share His
love with others .
After tending to several housekeeping matters, the chair
asked the assembly to decide whether to continue the committee presentation and Q and A sessions or to move forward
with consideration of the resolutions proposed by Committee
8 . By a vote of 647 to 467, the assembly determined to move
forward with the resolutions .
Committee 8: Synod Structure and Governance

Committee 8 Chairman Larry Stoterau presented Res . 8-18
(TB, pp . 147f .), read in its entirety by a member of the committee and introduced for consideration . Early in the discussion,
a motion was introduced to amend the resolution by deleting
the words “rather than simply serving as a culture of voting
power or legislation” from lines 7–8 on page 148 . The committee agreed to accept the deletion as a friendly amendment .
After further discussion and response by the committee to
questions, the chair inquired of the assembly whether it was
ready to terminate debate (Special Standing Rule 7) . Debate
was terminated [Yes: 912; No: 495] . Res . 8-18 as amended
was not adopted, failing to receive the required two-thirds vote
[Yes: 680; No: 495] .
Registration Report

The chair asked for a registration report from Committee 9:
Registration, Credentials, and Elections . Committee Chairman
Russell Sommerfeld provided the following updated report:
Voting pastoral delegates
Voting lay delegates
Total voting delegates

597
599
1,196

Ordained advisory delegates
Commissioned advisory delegates
Official representatives
Special advisory delegates
Others
Total

42
114
120
9
110
395

A motion to adopt the updated report was introduced and
carried [Yes: 1,147; No: 11] .
2010 Convention Proceedings