LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 53

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OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
appointees including two pastors (one of whom is a district president) and two laypersons; four seminary professors with two from
each seminary faculty; and three additional members (one of whom
is a Concordia University System professor) appointed by the President of the Synod, in consultation with the vice-presidents. The
President and First Vice-President of the Synod and the presidents
of the two seminaries are advisory members, with no term limits
on their service. CTCR members elected in convention serve a sixyear term and may be reelected once. Members appointed by the
President, seminaries, or the COP serve three-year terms and may
be reappointed twice.
For the sake of efficiency, the commission operates with an
executive committee and three working committees. The executive committee includes the CTCR officers, the chairs of the three
committees, and the executive staff (see below). While not rigidly
defined, one committee focuses on matters pertaining to church and
ministry (including church relations matters), the second on other
doctrinal issues, and the third on social and ethical matters of concern to Christians and the church. All official reports, opinions, or
documents of the CTCR are finally approved before their release
or publication by the entire commission meeting in plenary. CTCR
officers during the past triennium were the Rev. Dr. Lawrence Rast,
chairman; the Rev. Dr. Brian Saunders, vice-chairman; and the
Rev. Dr. William Schumacher, secretary. Chairs of the respective
committees were the Rev. Dr. Naomichi Masaki (Committee One),
the Rev. Arlo Pullmann (Committee Two), and Dr. Andrea Pitkus
(Committee Three).
The CTCR is currently served by three executive staff members,
two full-time and one part-time. The Rev. Dr. Joel D. Lehenbauer,
who has served on the executive staff of the CTCR since 1991,
has been executive director since 2008. At its April 2018 meeting,
the commission took action to renew Dr. Lehenbauer’s term for a
new five-year term (cf. Bylaw 3.9.5.3.1 [a][3][4]). Another review
by the commission was scheduled to conclude at its April 2023
meeting. The Rev. Dr. Larry M. Vogel, who was previously associate executive director from 2009 until retirement in February 2020,
now serves as assistant to the executive director. He was awarded
an honorary doctorate by Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort
Wayne, in May 2020, and received his PhD from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, in May 2023. The Rev. Dr. Richard J. Serina Jr.
was called to succeed Dr. Vogel as associate executive director in
May 2020. He began work in August 2020, and, after a lengthy
delay due to the pandemic, was installed in September 2021. From
1991–2007, the CTCR was served by three full-time executive staff
members. Since 2008, however, one of those executive staff positions had been continuously vacant, primarily due to budgetary
limitations of the Synod. The current triennium featured the first
full complement of executive staff members since that date, albeit
with Dr. Vogel serving part-time and deployed. In addition to facilitating the work of the commission detailed below in this report, the
executive staff also responds to emails, letters, and telephone calls
requesting further information about or clarification of the LCMS
view of various topics and teachings.
The current commission featured relatively unprecedented turnover in the extended 2019–2023 triennium, beginning with nine
new members joining after the 2019 convention. It also filled a
number of vacancies during this time. Dr. Serina was appointed
to the commission by the COP in 2019 before accepting the call
to serve on the executive staff in 2020. The COP appointed the
Rev. Dr. Ely Prieto to replace him in time for the December 2020

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meeting. The Rev. Dr. Dale Meyer retired from the presidency of
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, in May 2020. The Rev. Dr. Thomas
Egger was called to replace Dr. Meyer in February 2021 and began
his service as advisory member on the commission upon accepting
the call as president. The Rev. Dr. James Bushur, a faculty representative of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, was
scheduled to complete his term in 2022 before the extension of
the triennium. He chose to relinquish his appointment at its original completion date in 2022, and the Rev. Dr. Roland Ziegler was
elected by the faculty to replace him for the remainder of his term.
The Rev. Dr. Jonathan Shaw, Director of Church Relations—Assistant to the President, regularly attends CTCR meetings and reports to the commission regarding matters of church relations that
are under the purview of the President’s Office. In addition to the
turnover at the beginning and throughout the triennium, the pandemic necessitated five consecutive virtual meetings, and six out
of eight meetings at one point. Despite these challenges, the commission diligently attended to its constitutional responsibilities to
Synod, its congregations and workers, and the Synod President.

I. Theology
A. Luther’s Large Catechism with Annotations
and Contemporary Applications (2013 Resolution
3-13A; 2016 Res. 5-12)
This project developed from a series of requests from the Synod for more resources in the arena of theological instruction that
would prove accessible to specialist and novice alike. The Synod’s
2013 Res. 3-13A addressed the matter of catechesis, including a
resolve that a “catechetical compendium for adults” be prepared
“which would be more comprehensive and apologetic in scope.”
The 2016 LCMS Convention adopted Res. 5-12 on the use of Luther’s Catechisms. The resolution gave the CTCR, in concurrence
with the Synod President and seminaries, the task to “explore the
creation of an annotated and expanded edition of the Large Catechism.” A proposal was developed in collaboration with the Office
of the President and approved by the commission in 2019. Its contents were reviewed by the commission from May 2020 through
June 2021, approved by doctrinal review in December 2021, and
submitted to Concordia Publishing House for publication in March
2022.
The originators and editors of the project are the Rev. Dr. John
Pless, assistant professor of pastoral theology and missions at Concordia Theological Seminary, and the Rev. Dr. Larry M. Vogel,
assistant to the executive director of the CTCR. The volume contains the text of the Large Catechism, with historical introductions
and annotations provided by a variety of editors. It also includes
over seventy excursuses, which comment on topics addressed in
the Large Catechism and apply them to our contemporary setting.
It is the hope of the commission that this text might connect and
apply the Large Catechism’s 16th-century confession of the faith
to our 21st-century context in a way that encourages vigorous,
well-informed, and effective mission outreach; addresses current
challenges to confessional Lutheran theology; and provides an extended Scriptural explanation and defense of the faith. In February
2023, the commission adopted a statement explaining this project
for those who had questions about or objections to its content. That
statement is included in the Workbook appendix.

B. Completed Reports
Reports of the CTCR are ordinarily convention-requested
2023 Convention Workbook