LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — May 27–31, 2026, Page 1

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MINUTES
COMMISSION ON CONSTITUTIONAL MATTERS
Internet Conference Meeting (Zoom.us)
May 27–31, 2026
178. Opening Prayer and Adoption of Agenda
With all commission members present electronically, Chairman Peters called the meeting to order and
offered prayer, the commission joining the IC chapel later in the morning. The commission proceeded with
its previously distributed agenda, as follows:
179. Participation in Nonapproved Pastoral Formation Routes (26-3076)
By an email of February 6, a member of the Synod, the president of an educational institution of the Synod,
requested an opinion of the commission on three questions (the latter two restated by the commission), to
which the commission responds as follows.
Question 1:

Acknowledging that, historically speaking, individual members of the Synod have taught
in institutions of mixed, other, or secular confession, it seems like there is a difference
between teaching, e.g., history or classics in such a setting and teaching theology for the
purpose of fulfilling the church’s charge to send pastors into the church and world. In other
words, is producing men (and women) together with those of a heterodox confession for
ministry in every manner of church body a violation of Constitution Article VI 2?

Opinion 1:
The Constitution of the Synod establishes as an objective of the Synod that it, under the
Scripture and Lutheran Confessions, shall “3. recruit and train pastors, teachers, and other professional
church workers and provide opportunity for their continuing growth” (Const. Art. III). Further, the Articles
of Incorporation of the Synod state (Article II, Objectives) that a purpose of the corporation is “d. to support
the establishment and maintenance of theological seminaries, colleges, universities, and other institutions
of learning to train ministers of religion—ordained, ministers of religion—commissioned, and laity for
service in the Evangelical Lutheran Church.” Even within the structure of the Synod, Bylaw 4.1.5 reserves
to the national Synod itself (and its agencies, including its established seminaries and colloquy committees,
in relevant part) jurisdiction over “general supervision of doctrine and practice; foreign missions;
institutions of the Synod; qualification for ordination, commissioning, and installation of ordained and
commissioned ministers and requirements for individual as well as congregational membership in the
Synod; publication of official religious periodicals; conduct of negotiations and affiliations with other
church bodies; and the like” (emphasis added).
For the purpose of serving member congregations of the Synod and their schools, Bylaws 2.5.1–2 set the
clear expectation that all church workers called to or serving in the Office of the Public Ministry, and all
church workers to be called to auxiliary offices, shall be those admitted to their respective ministries and to
membership in the Synod only via the definite mechanisms the Synod itself has set forth.
Bylaws 2.5.1–2 do not speak to the preparation of church workers for service outside the member
congregations of the Synod and their schools. The Office of International Mission and sister churches of
the Synod operate seminaries beyond the two that the Bylaws authorize to produce church workers for
Synod congregations, and participating in these efforts—with the basic presumption that such participation
is orthodox—is certainly not contrary to the standards of membership in the Synod, even though the result
of that preparation, plus a call, does not result in membership in the Synod. Members of the Synod also
have taught and teach in educational institutions that are not of the Synod, some of which have participated,
and do participate, in preparation of workers for the broader church but not for the roster of the Synod.
Review of the record for possible precedent reveals that the commission has previously found (Ag. 598 and
598A, Minutes of May 16–17, 1974), that a professor at Seminex could “be retained on the clergy roster of
the Synod as a candidate on a renewable annual basis under the terms of Bylaw 4.37” while at the same
CCM Minutes – May 28–31, 2026 – Page 152