LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 26

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26 SYNOD REPORTS

of unrestricted dollar reductions has caused the Synod’s national
office to eliminate thirty-five (35) full-time equivalent positions.
These staffing and operational efficiencies have achieved millions
of dollars in savings. But the national operation has very little room
left for “cut-backs.” As important as it is for the national office
of Synod to work at cost efficient management of the Synod’s
business, we also urge the districts to continue to aggressively
search for operational efficiencies at their level of operations.

RECOMMENDATION #7: Higher Education Support

A significant challenge in “funding the mission” is the huge
transition our church has made in the last 40 years in the way we
fund HIGHER EDUCATION at our seminaries and the schools of
the Concordia University System (CUS). The words of our Synod’s
Chief Financial Officer written for the June 2006 issue of the Re-
porter puts this transition in perspective:

There was a time when our institutions of higher education.received
“subsidies” from the Synod. Even then, much of the schools’ funding
was from the schools themselves. In those days, each school would send
any “profits” to St. Louis, and St. Louis would redistribute those funds
as needed. Such a model did not allow the schools to develop endow-
ments to provide an ongoing financial foundation, however.

So, the funding model changed—subsidies from the unrestricted
budget of the Synod have been replaced by fund raising carried out by
the schools themselves. LCMS people are still the contributors to higher
education, which means support for the schools still is coming from the
Synod at large. It’s simply taking a different route to get there.

That’s not to say, however, that the national Synod’s unrestricted
budget gives nothing to higher education. Far from it. The current
Synod budget includes $3.3 million for the Board for Pastoral Educa-
tion and $7 million for the Board for University Education/Concordia
University System (BUE/CUS)—all funds that benefit the schools. The
seminaries get $750,000 of that as direct subsidy.

Of the.$10.3 million total for the two boards, more than $8.4 million
is from undesignated revenue. That's more than a third of the “Sunday-
morning offering” funds from congregations that make their way
through the districts to the national budget for the benefit of seminaries
colleges and universities.

At one time, the corporate Synod itself owned the college and sem-
inary properties, as well as the debt on those properties. Some years
ago, the Synod gave the properties to the schools, but kept the debt.
Nearly $3.8 million of this year’s BUE/CUS budget is payment toward
that debt.

The Synod also has established a “risk endowment fund” that is
owned by CUS. Over the past four years, some $6.6 million has been
put into the fund for use by the schools in case of financial emergency.
The insured value of the schools is well over $1 billion.

Our task force commends the Board of Directors for the sig-
nificant commitment they have made by directing $8.4 million
from unrestricted dollars to the support of our seminaries and
colleges through direct subsidies, debt assumption and repay-
ment, establishing a Risk Endowment Fund and guaranteeing
lines of credit. We also commend the universities and seminaries
for the outstanding development work they are doing. We com-
mend them for aggressive steps being taken to operate with fiscal
integrity. We commend them for the aggressive subsidy they
build into their budgets for professional church worker schol-
arships as they keep preparing church workers for the future.
We recommend the 2007 convention support with appropriate
Bylaw changes the current efforts to increase the number of re-
gents and/or advisors on our seminary and university boards
through local appointments/elections. And finally, we commend
the congregations and people of the LCMS for directing millions of
dollars of direct gifts each year for our Synod’s higher education
needs and for the estate planning that will endow this important
ministry for generations to come.

2007 Convention Workbook

RECOMMENDATION #8: Support From Corporate Entities
During our history the Synod in convention has authorized the
creation of five “corporate entities.” They are:
Concordia Historical Institut
Concordia Publishing House

hurch—Extension Fun issourl
Thi ran Church—Mi ri Syn ion
ncordi iversi tem

Each of these “corporate entities” derives blessings from their
ministry partnership with corporate Synod. Corporate Synod in turn
receives great blessings from the ministry of these “corporate enti-
ties.” In addition to these five “corporate entities” there exists in
seven of our districts independent Church Extension Funds. There
has also been established over the years a benefits corporation for
the health insurance coverage/disability and survivor plans/retire-
ment plans of the professional and support workers of our Synod
now called The Concordia Plans. In addition the Board of Human
Care has created a Housing Corporation to assist congregations to
conduct low-income housing ministries.

We also rejoice in the partnership of our two synodical auxil-
iaries, the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League and the Lutheran
Laymen’s League. Both have historically done and continue to do
wonderful ministry in support of the Synod. We believe each of
these entities should prayerfully and joyfully consider a portion of
their annual budget to be given to support the unrestricted budget of
the Synod who gave them birth. We commend Concordia Publish-
ing House and the Lutheran Church Extension Fund for having
made such contributions from operating profit for many years.

It is the recommendation of this task force that each of the
above named entities should make a contribution from their annual
budgets to the unrestricted budget of the national Synod. The
amounts (or % of net operating results) that should be expected will
be varied due to the nature of revenue generation that each entity
uses to support their ministries. An action team made up of synod-
ical officers and representation from each of these entities should
be called together following the 2007 convention to determine the
implementation of this recommendation.

RECOMMENDATION #9: Support From RSOs.
The Synod has, through its boards, dozens of wonderful min-

istry partners called Recognized Service Organizations (RSQs).
Each of them derives blessings from their recognition by corporate
Synod. It is the recommendation of this task force that a “part-
nership fee” be built into each of the RSOs annual budgets to
be contributed to the support of Synod’s unrestricted budget.
Not the least of the blessings received by these ministry partners is
the right of calling professional church workers and the ecclesias-
tical supervision that comes with that rostered status. The profes-
sional and support staff of these RSOs are also eligible for the
Concordia Plans. The RSOs may also make use of the services of
the Lutheran Church Extension Fund, the Lutheran Foundation,
and are eligible for receiving LWML mission grants. Many other
district and national services are available to the RSOs. The exten-
sive ministry carried out by these RSOs is also celebrated through-
out the church.

Synod’s Secretary and Chief Administrative Officer have re-
cently produced a report that shows the following number of RSOs

under the supervision of the following boards:
Board for Mission Services 18

Board for Human Care ministries 131
Board for District & Congregational Services
Schools 118
Camps 14
Other 14