LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — September 26 – 27, 2014, Page 6

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3.9.2.2 [b]) and invited their submission of information regarding the matters at issue. After the questions
were discussed at the September 20–22 Council of Presidents meeting, the Director of Church Relations
in a September 24 letter withdrew one of the questions as requested during the council’s discussion,
leaving four questions for response from the commission.
In a September 25, 2014 emailed letter, the chairman of the Board for International Mission submitted an
additional question for the commission’s consideration: “If a congregation or other synodical entity
besides the BIM has issued [a] call, what guidance can the CCM provide in approaching the situation?”
This question will be added as a fifth question below.
Because the questions beg a historical understanding of the bylaw in question and request its application
to districts, congregations, auxiliaries, and recognized service organizations, the commission offers the
following considerations before addressing the questions.
A. History of Bylaw 3.8.3
Bylaw 3.8.3 is a reiteration of much of the content of 2007 Bylaw 3.8.8.2.2, which was a compilation of a
number of actions taken by the Synod over the years to provide and maintain good order in the area of
foreign mission work. As early as 1911, a concern for efficiency and proper channeling prompted the
Synod to ask the Saxon churches not to solicit funds individually or on their own authority, but to go
through the channels established by the Foreign Mission Board (1911 Proceedings, p. 120, as reported in
“Synodical Survey Commission Reports Dating from 1959–1962,” Book 1 of 3, p. 49). The Synod also
experienced difficulties within its own mission departments, prompting the 1932 convention to create the
office of Secretary of Missions “[t]hat our missions may be conducted in a more uniform and efficient
manner” (1932 Proceedings, pp. 110–111, Ibid., Book 2 of 3, p. 111).
After the 1979 Synod convention adopted a series of resolutions “to move forward in taking the Gospel
overseas,” the 1981 convention adopted Res. 1-05A, “To Go Forward in Overseas Missions,” calling the
spread of the Gospel to all the world the “primary mission of the church.” The convention directed the
Board for Missions to “continue its efforts to take the Gospel to every open door overseas,” encouraged
districts to “increase the percentage of their budget for the Synod,” encouraged congregations to “increase
their support of the district and the Synod prayerfully and financially,” and instructed that districts
“consult with the Board for Missions before directly funding a synodical overseas mission” (1981
Proceedings, p. 131).
The same 1981 convention greatly expanded the bylaw section governing the Board for Mission Services.
Newly adopted Bylaw 2.213 required the Board for Mission Services to “formulate, recommend, review,
and supervise the mission policies of the Synod, recommend and monitor budgets, review organizational
effectiveness, and provide for an aggressive and united mission effort for the Synod,” as well as to “call,
appoint, assign, withdraw, and release missionaries (pastors and teachers) and other workers for the
ministries and areas within its direct responsibility, always safeguarding the rights of the partner churches
and workers involved” (1981 Handbook, p. 66).
Res. 5-37 of the 1983 convention, “To Add Bylaw Paragraph to Board for Mission Services,” inserted a
new paragraph “c” into the bylaw adopted two years earlier, instructing that the mission board “[s]erve as
the only sending agency through which districts and other entities send at their expense workers to the
mission areas of the Synod.” According to the resolution, “[s]ome confusion has existed in the past when
districts and other entities have sent missionaries (clergymen, teachers, and others) to foreign mission
fields at their expense,” noting that there has been the assumption “that this is to be done through the
[Synod’s] Board for Mission Services” (1983 Proceedings, p. 195).

CCM Minutes – September 26–27, 2014 – Page 36