LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 174

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174

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS

Rev. Joe Hoem, Board of Directors, The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod
Michelle Kazmierczak, JD, Board of Regents, Concordia
University Chicago, River Forest, Ill.
Rev. Dr. Thomas Korcok, associate professor, Concordia
Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario
Dr. Gerhard Mundinger Jr., chairman, Board of Directors,
Concordia University System
Rev. Dr. Scott Murray, third vice-president, The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod
Rev. Dr. Paul Philp, director of institutional research and
integrity, Concordia University System
Dr. Bradd Stucky, Board of Regents, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Rev. Dr. Dean Wenthe, president, Concordia University
System
Over the course of three days on the CTX campus, the visitation
team interviewed 53 individuals, met with both the CTX leadership
and the CTX Equity Team, attended chapel, and ate lunch in the
campus dining halls.
The visitation team asked questions related to Lutheran identity,
the mission of the university, the faculty’s use of a biblical worldview in their approach to controversial topics, the proposed change
in the university’s governance, campus life, and other related topics. At the end of many interviews, I asked how loved and supported students and faculty felt on campus. The visitation team did not
quarrel with interviewees and did not push back on answers given.
The team asked clarifying questions when appropriate or necessary. Summary statements from the interviews and related comments were included as an appendix to the report given to the BOR.
Dissimilar to their experience during prior ecclesiastical visitations, the visitation team to CTX felt unwelcome and carefully
managed while on campus. The team was repeatedly asked not to
interact with students or faculty outside of the interviews. Almost
every interviewee was accompanied by a “support person,” which
in most cases was a supervisor.
One member of the visitation team observed, “From the very
beginning the reception from the administration was not welcoming. … Almost everyone we were allowed to meet with was accompanied by a supervisor or support person. This made it difficult
for us to get a real look as to what is happening on campus. I was
certainly made to feel like I [as a representative of Synod] was the
bad guy, and we had no right to be on campus.”
This sentiment was echoed by nearly the entire visitation team.
They believed their time on campus was unproductive, that most
of the interviewees had been prepped with common talking points,
and that having a superior as a “support person” caused interviewees to give guarded answers.

The Concordia University Texas Proposal
Though I have been made aware of several concerns from former faculty members of CTX, the final precipitating event for our
visit was the BOR’s February 2022 announcement of their desire
to seek separation from the LCMS through a restructuring of its
governance model.
All interviewees were aware of the proposal to create a new
model for governing CTX apart from the Synod, though interview2023 Convention Workbook

ees had differing degrees of familiarity with both the proposed
model and the current model of governance. One person revealed
to the team that even as a new employee he was made aware, as
early as June 2021, of the university’s plan to seek independence
from the Synod.
The draft document “Reimagining the Relationship: A proposal
from Concordia University Texas to Separate from LCMS Governance,” proposes a “model of governance in which the institution
is solely governed by the CTX Board of Regents while continuing
to align itself with the LCMS.” To explain this proposal, the document also provides the rationale for separating from the Synod.
CTX views the move away from the Synod as one in the “long
tradition of Lutheran social service, medical, and military ministries” that have distanced themselves from their parent church
bodies. “To meet the above challenges, nimble, focused, and local
control is essential so that issues can be quickly addressed by those
most close to the institution. This proposed governance change
would equip the institution’s local board to address complex issues
in the most efficient way possible, ensuring that decisions can be
made in a way that best serves the church and local constituents,
much as is done in a congregation.”
When asked to identify the hindrances of Synod oversight that
keep CTX from responding to complex issues efficiently, interviewees named two: (1) the slow process for getting approval for
a loan from the Synod Board of Directors (BOD), and (2) the prior
approval process, which slows down hiring or removes some job
candidates from consideration.
These arguments fail to hold up to closer scrutiny and fail to
justify the university’s desire to completely change its governance
model to one that is a novelty in the history of the LCMS. In fact,
the CTX BOR minutes from the Sept.,6, 2019, meeting blame the
lender, not the Synod, for failure to get a loan on the school’s timeline. Regarding the second concern, prior approval is only required
for the hiring of the university president and members of the theology faculty. Administrators we spoke with only mentioned one hire
that was impeded by the prior approval process.
The proposal to separate from the Synod is also based on the
false assertion that the closing of three Concordias over the past
four years is evidence of the failure of the current governance
model. The closures of Concordia College Alabama, Selma, Ala.;
Concordia University, Portland, Ore.; and Concordia College New
York, Bronxville, N.Y., were not the result of too much oversight
from the Synod. They closed because of financial pressures and
declining enrollments. Their relationships to the Synod and financial assistance from both the Synod and her entities allowed them
to stay open much longer than they would have if they were selfgoverned and separate from the Synod. Over the past 16 years, the
LCMS has given over $92 million in support to the Concordia University System.
The CTX BOR identifies concerns about the governance changes proposed by the LCMS BOD 7-03 Task Force as the primary
rationale to seek separation from the Synod. The final form of the
task force’s proposal to the Synod in convention in 2023 is uncertain, and no one can know what the Synod in convention will
decide. Moving to separate from the Synod before the 7-03 recommendations are finalized or before the Synod in convention has
taken any action on the recommendations of the 7-03 Task Force is
imprudent and premature.