LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — February 2–3, 2018, Page 18

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With regard to the bylaws and their preamble, the commission identified the following points needing
attention:
•

The commission questions the relative relationship of the articles, preamble, and bylaws, as well
as the Constitution of the Synod. The preamble seems to elaborate certain features typically found
in articles (but absent in this district’s articles), but it is not typical for a district to have, in addition
to its articles, the Constitution of Synod (which is the district’s constitution) and bylaws, a
somewhat independent preamble. What is the relative precedence of these documents? The
commission renews a previous commission’s suggestion (Op. 12-1640) that “the district give
consideration to replacing the existing preamble section with a true preamble which elaborates on
the relationship of the district to the Synod’s Constitution and Bylaws and defines the district’s
goals and objectives.”

•

One practical application of the above observation regards membership, which is nowhere
addressed in the articles and preamble (other than the confusing statement in Art. II, “as
congregations and as individual members of such congregations).” This statement is confusing
because individual members of the Synod are the ordained and commissioned ministers, not all the
individual members of the congregations. All those individuals are not included in the membership
(in the technical sense) of the corporate body of the district. The lack of clear relationship language
(indicating the force of the Constitution of the Synod, other than that it “shall not conflict”) may
introduce significant uncertainty.

•

Preamble, Art. V: The membership of the district consists of congregations as voting members and
ordained / commissioned ministers as individual members. This article is therefore both incorrectly
named and incorrect.

•

Preamble, Art. VI: Circuit visitors also need to be ordained ministers.

•

Bylaw 1.011: Appointment of circuit visitors to vacancies by the district president does not require
ratification by the board of directors (LCMS Bylaw 5.2.2.1).

•

Bylaw 1.057 [f]: This language is of uncertain meaning and calls for clarification.

•

Bylaw 1.075: The district personnel manual needs to conform to Synod’s human resources policies
(LCMS Bylaw 1.5.5) as provided by the Board of Directors of the Synod. It would be helpful to
state this as part of the review and revision to be conducted by the district board of directors.

•

Bylaws 4.005 and 4.015: Electronic distribution of convention materials is an option, but is subject
to the requirements of Synod’s Bylaws (LCMS Bylaw 4.2.1 [g]).

•

Bylaw 5.001 [d][1]: The commission notes that “professional church worker,” in the language of
the Bylaws, means “ordained or commissioned minister.”

•

Bylaw 7.007 [a]: The commission notes an unclarity in the number of members of the Board of
Mission Administration that are elected by the convention, as opposed to the number to be
appointed.

•

Bylaw 16.001: The incorporation of LCMS Bylaw 3.9.2.2.3 [b] as a separate item (and apparently
distinct option) to LCMS Bylaw 3.9.2.2.3 [a] may cause confusion. If the agency itself (the district
or its board of directors) intends to amend the articles or bylaws, these must be presented and
approved by the commission prior to presentation to the convention. Bylaw 3.9.2.2.3 [b] is
incorporated only to deal with article or bylaw amendments that arise or change spontaneously in
the course of a convention. This may call for clarification (see CCM Op. 17-2863).

The district is asked to resubmit a bylaw proposal addressing these issues for the commission’s further
review and approval prior to its submission to the district convention.
CCM Minutes – February 2, 2018 – Page 106