LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 140

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4. LIFE TOGETHER
doctrinal and practical concerns to the Synod mission
office granting status.
(d) A recognized service organization operating
domestically respects the role of all districts impacted by
its mission planning. A recognized service organization
shall pursue church planting or establishment of
preaching stations/missions only after consulting with
and obtaining the concurrence of the same districts’
president and boards or committees responsible for
missions.
(de) Operating with freedom and self-determination in
its mission independent of control by the Synod, a A
recognized service organization also operating
internationally agrees to inform, seek the counsel of, and
cooperate with the Office of International Mission in its
international work and respects protocol documents
that may exist between The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod and her partner churches that have been made
available to the recognized service organization.
(f) Each recognized service organization shall be
required to give its assurance in its governing documents
that recognition as a service organization is not an
endorsement by the Synod or a guarantee of financial
responsibility for the debts and obligations of the
organization or for services provided or offered.

and be it further
Resolved, That Bylaw 1.2.1 be amended to include a
definition of ecclesiastical oversight, as follows:
PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING
1.2.1
The following definitions are for use in
understanding the terms as used in the Bylaws of The
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod:
…
(i) Ecclesiastical oversight: The responsibility,
primarily of district presidents, to monitor; to make
inquiry and receive a response thereto; to make
suggestions; to bring concerns to the attention of a
higher authority, namely the Synod status granting
office, as relates specifically to the ecclesial relations of a
recognized service organization operating within his
district, and the impact and/or reflection of its work on
the mission and ministry of the church.
(ij) …

and be it further
Resolved, That new Bylaws 6.2.2 and 6.2.2.1 be added,
renumbering existing Bylaw 6.2.2 as Bylaw 6.2.4, to provide
for distinction of three classes of RSO based on the type of
work done by the RSO, providing a basis for a positive
definition of Synod’s expectations for each, and for a
further distinction of ESOs and MSOs regarding their
degree of churchly governance and support (and therefore
freedom to act in an unconditioned, churchly manner), as
follows:

140 | PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2019 (67TH) LCMS CONVENTION

PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING
6.2.2
Policies shall distinguish the three classes of
recognized service organization, with criteria, procedures,
and benefits appropriate to each, further distinctions being
drawn within the categories as needed:
(a) A witness service organization, under the Scriptures
and Lutheran Confessions, engages in Word or Wordand-Sacrament ministry (including chaplaincy),
religious media/programming, mission society activity,
support of specific missions, mission-and-ministry
training, church worker professional development,
church worker care, or other work directly related to the
church’s proclamation. A witness service organization is
governed solely by Synod (or partner church)
congregations or a board comprised solely of members of
member congregations of the Synod (or its partner
churches).
(b) An educational service organization, under the
Scriptures and Lutheran Confessions, operates a
Christian school (other than one governed solely by a
Synod congregation or congregations), camp (with
Christian programming), or the like. (Schools governed
solely by Synod congregations, by virtue of their
recognition as such by their districts, do not need
recognized service organization status and have the
rights and responsibilities of parish schools without
obtaining recognized service organization status.)
(c) A mercy service organization facilitates the church’s
extension of the divine mercy without compromising the
church’s scriptural and confessional standards. It does so
in areas in which cooperation in externals is possible, in
demonstrated coordination and connection with
member congregations of the Synod or its partners and,
wherever possible, in close proximity to the Word-andSacrament ministry of the Synod and/or its partners.
6.2.2.1
Policies of the Board of Directors and the mission
boards and offices of the Synod may distinguish, within the
educational and mercy service classes (educational service
organization and mercy service organization), tiers of
status recognizing different degrees of churchly governance
and support and commensurate expectations for
performance of activities and realization of mutual benefits.
6.2.2.4

According to policies …

and be it further
Resolved, That Bylaw 6.2.2.2 be added, to make explicit
Synod’s expectations of an RSO allowed to call a rostered
worker of the Synod, and to provide enhanced protection
for such called workers, as follows:
PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING
6.2.2.2
The right to extend a Synod-recognized, regular
call to a rostered worker is afforded to the board of directors
of a recognized service organization, provided that:
(a) the board’s composition contains at least the
proportion of members of Synod member congregations

Resolutions