LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 111

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A Brief Overview of the LCMS Processes for Ecclesiastical
Supervision and Removal from Membership in the Synod
PRESENTED AT THE REQUEST OF FLOOR COMMITTEE 10 IN INTRODUCING RESOLUTION 10-03A
Rev. Dr. George Gude
Chairman, LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters
67th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod • July 25, 2019
When the Synod was founded in 1847, it was assumed
that anyone who joined the Synod wanted from their
innermost being to remain faithful to the Scriptures
and the Confessions. Visitation, which we now call
ecclesiastical supervision, was intended to assist the
members in remaining faithful and to ensure that the
doctrine and practice of the congregations and pastors
were in conformity with the Scriptures and the
confessions. This visitation duty was assigned to the
President of the Synod. Initially, since the Synod held
annual conventions and membership matters were
handled at the convention, it was assumed that any
problem involving a member of the Synod could be
dealt with and resolved at the next session of the
Synod. However, in 1848, the actions of F. W. Poeschke,
who was one of the original members of the Synod in
1847, were of such a serious nature that President
Walther concluded the situation could not wait until
the next convention of the Synod to be resolved. After
discussing the matter with the St. Louis pastoral
conference, Walther temporarily suspended Poeschke
from membership in the Synod until the 1849
convention could take action. The 1849 convention
confirmed the suspension of F. W. Poeschke, removing
him from membership, and it also inserted a new
paragraph into the Constitution giving the President of
the Synod the power of suspension until action could
be taken by a convention.
Due to the rapid growth of the Synod, by 1852, it was
with reluctance determined to be necessary for the
Synod to divide into districts. This reluctance was due
to a concern that a division into districts would make it
difficult to maintain the theological unity of the Synod.
An 1852 resolution laid out some guidelines for the
committee which was to draft a new constitution for
presentation to a convention of the Synod. These
guidelines clearly reflected this concern for
maintaining the unity of the Synod. The Synod was to
be divided into three or four districts, each with its own
president, and one of these district presidents would
also be elected as President of the general Synod. Each
district president was given visitation duties for his
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district. Since he would have had the visitation duties
for his own district, the President of the general Synod
was not to have general visitation duties. However, if he
became aware of a problem that a district president
was not dealing with, he could on his own deal with
that situation personally.
The constitution adopted in 1854, establishing
districts, carried out the spirit but not the specifics of
these recommendations. The Synod was divided into
four districts, each with its own president. However,
the President of the general Synod was not to be
selected from among the four district presidents, as had
been suggested, but rather was a separate office. The
matter of maintaining the theological unity of the
entire Synod was resolved by giving the President of the
general Synod the supervision over the entire synod,
including the congregations and individual members,
and the duty to visit every parish in the Synod during
his three-year term. If admonishment by the President
of the Synod was not heeded, his duty was to bring the
matter to a district or Synod convention, which was
where membership matters were handled, according
to
the
proper
steps.
Since
the
same
visitation/supervision responsibilities were also given
to each district president for his district, action by the
President of the general Synod was anticipated to be
used only in very extraordinary, extreme situations. In
essence, the district presidents were the agents of the
President of the general Synod in the carrying out of his
duties of ecclesiastical supervision. In the case of a
public offense between conventions, the district
president was given the power of temporarily
suspending a member until the case could be decided
at the next convention of the district or Synod.
Due to the continued rapid growth of the Synod, the
proposed solution for maintaining the unity in
theology and practice of the Synod by having the
President of the general Synod visit each parish of the
Synod during a three year period was not workable.
Thus, in 1864, these visitation/supervision
responsibilities for all the members of the Synod listed
in the 1854 Constitution, were removed from the duties
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2019 (67TH) LCMS CONVENTION | 111