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LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — January 20-21, 2003, Page 12

Source: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (files.lcms.org)

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

Question:

May a board in the LCMS adopt as a piece of its policy a document with doctrinal
associations that has not been approved for such use by the Synod in convention?

Opinion: The Commission repeats a portion of its response to a similar question in Opinion 02-2316:
Boards and commissions regularly identify materials that they find useful for their own
purposes, but they must abide by the Constitution, Bylaws, and resolutions of the Synod.
122. Review of Michigan District Bylaws and Proposed Amendments (02-2319)
In a December 4, 2002 letter, the President of the Michigan District asked the Commission to review
bylaw changes that his District’s Board of Directors intends to present to the District convention.
Upon review of the Michigan District Bylaws and the proposed changes, the Commission recommends
that the District board take into consideration the following:
§

Re Bylaw 1.1: Congregations and ministers of religion are no longer received into membership
by conventions. Congregations are received in special worship services held by the congregations
(Synod Bylaw 2.05) and ministers of religion are received upon installation following ordination
or commissioning, they having previously signed a statement which acknowledges subscription to
the Constitution of the Synod (Synod Bylaw 2.07 c).

Re new wording for Bylaw 3.6 f: For the sake of uniformity, the titles used by the Synod in its
Handbook for ministers of religion—ordained and ministers of religion—commissioned are
“ordained ministers” and “commissioned ministers” (Synod Bylaw 2.07 a), terminology that your
District also consistently uses elsewhere in its Bylaws.

Re Bylaws 4.1, 4.1, et al: The Commission calls attention to the fact that references to the name
of the Synod should capitalize the article “The,” i.e., The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

Re the proposed wording for Bylaw 5.8 d: The antecedent to “its” in the proposed wording may
be unclear. The wording “the District’s official publication” would be more clear.

Re Bylaw 6.1: Since the President is elected for a three-year term of office, it is unclear how the
President’s term would not expire at the time of a regular convention of the District.

Re Bylaw 7.1ff: In describing the duties of the Board of Directors, reference to Synod Bylaw
4.91 and its description of the functions of a District Board of Directors would be helpful.

Re Bylaw 8.6: Regarding signing responsibility and authority, Synod Constitution Article XII 9
d requires that District Presidents sign all official papers and documents of their Districts.

Re Bylaw Article XV: This bylaw provides for Regions and how they are established. Circuits,
included among the component parts of the Synod (Synod Bylaw 1.05 b), are not mentioned.
Furthermore, while the election of Circuit Counselors is covered by Bylaw 5.14 and their duties
by Bylaw 8.8, there does not appear to be any provision for how the District creates its Circuits.

123. Review of Nebraska District Proposed Bylaw Changes (02-2321)
The Bylaws Task Force of the Nebraska District, in a December 19, 2002 letter to the Commission,
submitted for review bylaw changes it intends to propose to the Nebraska District convention. The
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