LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 105

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SYNODICAL REPORTS 105

ters, and the administrator of the Synod’s dispute resolution

process, require significant amounts of time and attention. The ad-

vent of the convention of the Synod every three years also requires
large amounts of time and energy as the Secretary’s Office works
with the Committee for Convention Nominations to prepare for the

Synod’s elections and with Concordia Publishing House to produce

this Convention Workbook and other convention publications.

Other responsibilities add variety to the life of the Secretary of
the Synod, including membership on the Board of Governors of
Concordia Historical Institute, on the Commission on Structure,
and on the KFUO Radio Committee. So also does providing staff
support to the Council of Presidents, working closely with the Ros-
ters and Statistics Department to maintain the official Synod ros-
ters, and participating in numerous other committees and responsi-
bilities in and around the International Center.

All of this activity, although quite removed from the parish min-
istry, is still a wonderful and very interesting opportunity to serve
our Lord and His church. When elected to this position 6 years ago,
after having served 10 years as a District President and 17 years as
a parish pastor, it was suggested to me more than once that life as
the Secretary of the Synod would seem pretty bland and unevent-
ful. But such has not been the case, even when taking only the day-
to-day responsibilities of the office into consideration. Add to that

_ the new assignments, expectations, and challenges of every trien-
nium, and the end result has been another three eventful years for
the Office of the Secretary.

Among those new assignments, expectations, and challenges
were the following:

* Service as the secretary of the Pro Tem Commission on Struc-
ture: The 2001 convention asked the Commission to continue its
work on a comprehensive revision of the Handbook of the Synod.
Countless hours on the part of the members of the Commission
and especially the Secretary’s Office have gone into the proposed
revised version of the Handbook that the Commission is propos-
ing to this convention for adoption.

Service as one of the Synod’s representatives for discussions with
leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: Regular
semiannual sharing meetings as well as a new series of theologi-
cal discussions have provided opportunity to address issues of
mutual interest in a frank but cordial manner with fellow Chris-
tians with whom we share the name “Lutheran.”
Service as the editor of The Lutheran Annual: During this trien-
nium the decision was made to revamp the Annual to include dif-
ferent information, including e-mail addresses, Web site infor-
mation, and membership and worship attendance statistics, using
an improved user-friendly format.

Service as the administrator of our Synod’s dispute resolution
process: These past three years have put the process to the test
with high-profile cases that generated attention and scrutiny from
all quarters under quite extreme conditions. While satisfaction
with the outcome of the process often varies, particularly when
panels become involved, and while specific areas of the process
beg corrective attention after the test of the past three years, the
process does provide an orderly manner for addressing even
highly volatile cases.

Service as the “Keeper of the Bylaws”: The highly increased use
of electronic mail has added a new expectation to this office,
namely, timely response to a regular stream of e-mailed questions
and concerned comments regarding the Synod’s Articles of In-
corporation, Constitution, Bylaws, and other official documents.
While e-mail is a marvelous new means for communication, it
also has created expectations for timely reply that consume a por-
tion of every day in the Secretary’s Office.

May God now bless us with His guidance and wisdom, enabling
our Synod to come together to conduct its business constructively
and to address the concerns that trouble our life and walk together
in a peaceful and helpful manner.

Raymond L. Hartwig, Secretary

R7-03

Vice-President-Finance—Treasurer/
Chief Financial Officer

The Vice-President-Finance—Treasurer of The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod (the Synod) serves as the Chief Finan-
cial Officer (CFO) in administrating the financial affairs of the
Synod. The duties of the CFO are carried out in accordance with
the rules and regulations adopted by the Synod and as directed by
the Board of Directors of the Synod. I believe all my activities as
CFO have been consistent with this requirement.

During this last triennium, there were external influences that
directly impacted the finances of the Synod. A stock market in de-
cline for nearly three years had a significant negative effect on the
operating income of the Synod and many of its entities. The bear
market also had an adverse effect on the personal wealth of indi-
viduals and the income of charitable foundations, thus limiting their
ability to make charitable contributions. Further, the events of Sep-
tember 11, as well as Enron-type corporate scandals, have in-
creased the costs of managing risk (insurance). These external in-
fluences have had a definite impact on the finances of the Synod.

The Synod’s budgeted revenue for the year ended June 30, 2001,
was $90,257,000 of which $25,000,000 was unrestricted. In the bud-
get for the year ended June 30, 2004, budgeted revenues had de-
creased to $77,400,000, with unrestricted contributions of
$22,000,000. Fortunately, the Synod was not required to incur debt
or dispose of assets because of this shortfall in revenues. However,
the Synod was forced to deplete its reserves and reduce funding to
national ministries. While all national ministries have been adversely
affected by the decrease in the Synod’s revenue, missions, seminaries,
universities, and colleges have been most severely impacted.

During the past several years, the Board for Mission Services
has found it necessary to reduce its annual budget from
$32,000,000 to $26,000,000. In achieving a balanced budget, it was
forced to reduce the number of career missionaries from 100 to 68.
When family members of the missionaries are considered, 125 peo-
ple were affected by the reduction. In addition, the mission staff
residents in St. Louis were reduced from 68 to 34 people.

In 1992, subsidy payments from the Synod to the seminaries,
colleges, and universities (schools) approximated $10,000,000.
With the decrease in the Synod’s revenues, the payment of an an-
nual subsidy by the Synod to the schools was gradually eliminated,
with the fiscal year ending June 30, 2001, being the last year of
subsidy. Also, in the past, the Board for Higher Education/Concor-
dia University System (BHE/CUS) paid one half of property- and
liability-insurance premiums and one half of the audit fees for the
schools. These payments, which approximated $1,900,000, had to
be eliminated entirely during the current fiscal year.

With such cutbacks necessary to achieve a balanced budget, the
church body must now decide if it wants to continue its national
ministries through the historical precedent of centralized direction
by the Synod. In order to do so, the Synod must endorse a method
of funding that will ensure that these ministries have sufficient rev-
enues to operate. The Mid-South and the Southeastern Districts
have referred to this convention two funding proposals. The Board
of Directors of the Synod will continue to evaluate a variety of
funding methods.

In addition to reviewing and evaluating funding methods, it is
important that the Synod determine if it is using its assets in an ef-
ficient manner both functionally and economically. In so doing, our
church body should ask questions such as these:

* How many colleges and universities are needed to accomplish the
ministry?

¢ If Districts were consolidated, could they accomplish their min-
istries effectively? Would infrastructure costs be reduced?

2004 Convention Workbook