LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 51

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OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
and assess and evaluate the Synod’s triennial mission and ministry
emphasis. Two members from each board were appointed to the
committee. The committee developed a methodology to interview
all district presidents and, if the district president so chose, to include other district leaders in the interviews. These interviews were
conducted in the fall of 2021 and winter of 2022. A member of the
BNM and the BIM participated in each interview and summarized
the information gathered. The JMAC collected all the information
and summarized it for the two boards.

A.1. Mission and Ministry Emphasis
The current triennial mission and ministry emphasis Making
Disciples for Life, established in 2019, has only just begun to serve
our Synod, to give direction to districts and congregations, and to
guide the policy-making work of mission and ministry through the
BNM and BIM.

A.2. Mission Priorities
The Synod district presidents, along with members of their respective staffs, had mixed reactions to the Synod’s current mission
priorities. Many recognized them as a self-evident description of
the Bible’s theology and practice of mission and ministry. Others
indicated that, while faithful to the Scriptures and the Confessions,
the priorities did not play a significant role in giving direction to
their work at the district. The Synod’s current mission priorities
are contemporary applications of the Synod’s Article III objectives.

A.3. Reaffirmation
In support of the information gathered, the BNM and BIM jointly submitted two overtures asking the Synod in convention to reaffirm the Synod’s current mission priorities and mission emphasis as
they exemplify our fervor in being faithful to the Lord and loving
our neighbor and to also encourage their use to affirm our Synod’s
unity as lived out by congregations, national servant leaders, district servant leaders, and circuit servant leaders.
Steven C. Briel, BNM Chairman
and John W. Edson, BIM Chairman
R9

Commission on Constitutional Matters
The first meeting of the commission was held via Zoom on Sep.
26, 2019, following the reappointment of Tom Deadrick and Larry
Peters to the commission. The other members of the commission
are Gerhard Bode Sr., George Gude, and Neely Owen. At the first
meeting, the commission organized itself with George Gude elected chairman and Larry Peters vice-chairman. For health reasons,
attorney Neely Owen needed to resign from the commission and
was replaced by attorney Scott Killian. The Secretary of the Synod,
John Sias, who is an ex officio member of the commission, serves
as the secretary of the commission, and Tom Deadrick was elected
as acting secretary. George Gude was appointed as the commission
member to the Commission on Handbook. 2019 Res. 9-17 directed
the commission “To Study Voting Privilege in the LCMS” along
with commissioned ministers to be appointed by the Council of
Presidents (COP) and district presidents to be selected by the COP.
John Sias and George Gude were appointed as the commissions’
members for this study. The report of this committee is published
in the Workbook (Report R62).
Due to the issues arising from COVID-19 restrictions, as this re-

51

port is written the commission has met six times in person and nine
times via Zoom. The COVID-19 restrictions along with difficulties
in scheduling resulted in the commission being unable to hold the
joint meetings with the COP as required by 2013 Res. 6-16A.
The responsibilities of the commission are delineated in the Bylaws of the Synod, Bylaws 3.9.2.2–3.9.2.2.3. These responsibilities
fall into two main areas:
Opinions: The first area is that the commission is to interpret
the Synod’s Constitution, Bylaws, and resolutions. A member of
the Synod (congregation or ordained or commissioned minister)
and an official board, commission, or agency of the Synod may
submit a written request for such an opinion. As this report is written, the commission has issued 16 opinions, most of which are included in this Workbook (Report R65). For those interested, the
published minutes of all meetings of the commission are posted at
lcms.org/ccm, and these minutes include all opinions.
Review of Governing Documents: A second area of the commission’s charge is to ensure that the articles of incorporation,
bylaws, and policy manuals of all the agencies of the Synod are
in harmony with the Constitution, Bylaws, and resolutions of the
Synod. To this end, Synod Bylaws require that any agency desiring to change its articles of incorporation or bylaws must receive
prior approval from the commission. (Note: Because districts can
only change bylaws at their triennial conventions, Bylaw 3.9.2.2.3
[b] provides a process by which district conventions may amend a
district bylaw proposal previously submitted and approved by the
commission and have the result take effect upon the commission’s
subsequent approval of the amended, adopted proposal.)
Experience has demonstrated that some agencies fail to submit
proposed changes to their bylaws and articles to the commission,
as required by Bylaw 3.9.2.2.3 (a). In these instances, any changes
that are made to the bylaws of any agency of the Synod cannot go
into effect unless and until they are approved by the commission.
The definition of an agency of the Synod is found in Bylaw 1.2.1
(a): “Agencies include each board, commission, council, seminary,
university, college, district, Concordia Plan Services, and each synodwide corporate entity.”
Bylaw 1.5.3.6 (and associated 2016 Res. 9-02A) requires all
agencies to include certain specific language in their most fundamental governing documents or to seek an exception from the
Board of Directors of the Synod. Not all agencies are yet in compliance. The commission welcomes those still not in compliance to
complete the process of adopting compliant articles and bylaws or
seeking the noted exception from the Board of Directors.
Dispute Resolution and Expulsion Processes: Finally, the
commission together with the COP maintains the Standard Operating Procedures Manuals (SOPMs) for the dispute resolution
process and expulsion processes of the Synod. As a result, following each convention, the commission with the concurrence of the
COP, reviews these SOPMs and makes any changes necessitated by
changes to the Bylaws approved by the convention.
George J. Gude, Chairman
R10

Commission on Doctrinal Review
Along with the undersigned, the Commission on Doctrinal Review consists of these members: the Rev. Eric T. Lange (Gresham,
2023 Convention Workbook