LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 241

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PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION 241

Resolved, That the following process be recommended to Synod
for adoption in order to allow teachers, DCEs, and commissioned
ministers an opportunity for representation, and in order to con-
tinue equal representation of laypersons and professional workers.

For District Conventions

A. At the district commissioned workers’ conferences in the year
following the Synod convention, each conference will nominate
at least one commissioned minister as delegate for each 60 com-
missioned ministers (or fraction thereof) in that conference.
From these nominees one delegate and alternate delegate for
each 60 commissioned ministers will be elected by ballot of
these commissioned ministers to serve at the upcoming district
and Synod conventions. These delegates will have a vote at
these conventions.

B. When these commissioned ministers are chosen, in the circuits
where a commissioned minister will be voting in the conven-
tion, each congregation will select a layperson who would be
considered for additional circuit lay delegates. The pastors’ con-
ference will choose from this list of names to elect circuit lay
delegates equal to the number of commissioned minister dele-
gates from that circuit.

For Synod Conventions

A. At the district commissioned workers’ conferences in the year
following the Synod convention, each conference will nominate
at least one commissioned minister as delegate for each 60 com-
missioned ministers (or fraction thereof) in that conference.
From these nominees one delegate and alternate delegate for
each 60 commissioned ministers will be elected by ballot of
these commissioned ministers to serve at the upcoming district
and Synod conventions. These delegates will have a vote at
these conventions.

B. When circuits meet to elect delegates to the Synod convention,
the same process will continue to be used to select circuit pas-
toral delegates, alternate pastoral delegates, circuit lay delegates,
and alternate lay delegates.

C. In those circuits where a commissioned minister will be serving
as delegate for the Synod convention, the circuit will elect an-
other lay delegate who will not be a member of the congrega-
tions from which the pastoral delegate, alternate pastoral dele-
gate, commissioned minister delegate, lay delegate, or alternate
lay delegate have been elected.

Northwest District

7-10

To Allow Commissioned Ministers
to Serve as Voting Delegates

WHEREAS, God has richly blessed His Church with workers who
have chosen to participate in their service to the Church in local
churches, fulfilling their calling as professional church workers,
(teachers, directors of Christian education, family life ministers,
etc.); and

WHEREAS, At times God calls these same individuals away from
professional church service, and they take upon themselves voca-
tions in agencies other than churches and schools; and

Wuereas, In nonchurch-related vocations many desire to keep
their commissioned minister status while offering their volunteer
service in local congregations, serving as laypeople within these
congregations; and

Wuereas, The Synod’s Constitution does not allow such indi-
viduals to serve in such a capacity because they still have their
commissioned minister status; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Northwest District convention memorialize
the Synod to revise bylaws that prohibit such activity, so that if a
local congregation wishes to elect a commissioned minister who is
a member of that particular congregation to serve as its lay dele-
gate, it may do so. .

Northwest District

7-11

To Study Voting Delegate Representation

Wuereas, The convention polity and method of determining
voting delegates to Synod conventions was established at a time
when most congregations were of similar size and were staffed by
a pastor and perhaps a called teacher to assist the pastor in the one-
room school; and

WHEREAS, Art. V of the LCMS Constitution includes as mem-
bers of Synod “congregations, ministers of religion-ordained, and
ministers of religion-commissioned, such as teachers, directors of
Christian education, directors of Christian outreach, directors of fam-
ily life ministry, directors of parish music, deaconesses, parish assis-
tants, and certified lay ministers of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
who confess and accept the confessional basis of Art. IT”; and

WHEREAS, Presently only sole, senior, or associate pastors and
congregational lay representatives may vote in conventions of the
Synod held at the district or national level; and

WHEREAS, Groups of “members of Synod,” namely called
teachers, lay ministers, and other categories of called church work-
ers whose existence could not have even been imagined by our
forefathers in the faith, have only token and advisory representa-
tion at best; and

WHEREAS, Our Synod in convention, if it is to speak the heart
and mind of the people of the LCMS, should include a fair repre-
sentation of the members and congregations of the Synod; there-
fore be it

Resolved, That the 2007 LCMS convention establish a commit-
tee elected by the districts to study our district and Synod polity
and to make recommendations for a constitutional amendment to
the Synod when it next gathers in convention to establish a process
of election of delegates to the convention that will assure a fairer
convention representation of all the members and congregations of
Synod; and be it further

Resolved, That this “fairer convention representation” will not
preclude as voting representatives any “member of Synod” includ-
ing all ordained pastors and ministers cf religion—commissioned
(such as teachers, directors of Christian education, directors of
Christian outreach, directors of parish music, deaconesses, parish
assistants, and certified lay ministers of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church who confess and accept the confessional basis of Art. II).

Trinity, Roselle, IL; Lord of Life, Leawood, KS

7-12

To Amend Bylaw 3.1.2 re Delegate Representation

WHEREAS, The current Synod bylaw presents the opportunity
for widely disparate sizes of electoral circuits such that one circuit
could be 566 percent larger than another; and

WHEREAS, The convention polity and method of determining
voting delegates to Synod conventions was established at a time
when most congregations were of similar size; and

WHEREAS, By the latest figures available from the national of-
fice, half of the communicant members of the LCMS (approxi-
mately 938,000 of 1,876,466 communicant members) belong to a
declining 17 percent (1,014 of 6,053) of our congregations; and

WHEREAS, Today the largest 5 percent of the congregations (308
of 6,053) have 25 percent (460,661) of the communicant members
of the LCMS, and the smallest 25 percent of congregations (1,513)
have 4 percent (82,492) of the communicant members of the
LCMS; and

WHEREAS, A fairer representation is desired, seeking to avoid
both the control of smaller circuits and congregations by larger cir-
cuits and congregations as well as larger circuits and congregations
by smaller ones; and

WHEREAS, Congregations in visitation circuits have developed
working relationships in regional ministry that should not be dis-
turbed by constant reorganization to achieve a fairer representation;
therefore be it