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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2026, Page 143

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
terminology related to sexual orientation and gender
identity, along with a guide for the recommended use
of such terms in Synod publications.
o

Countercultural resources: There is a need for culturally relevant literature that addresses these issues
in plain language. The task force has begun this work
by developing publishable resources that would target the temptations, peer pressure, and media subversiveness associated with homosexuality, gay marriage, transgenderism, pornography, and casual sex.

o

Apologetic resources: There is a further need for
resources that would specifically counter intellectual
and theological arguments in support of these sexual errors. The task force has begun working with Dr.
Armin Wenz, longtime professor in our German sister church, SELK, to revise his earlier pamphlet exposing the theological errors of homosexuality based
upon the New Testament. The task force encourages
the completion of this work. It also commends the
CTCR’s responses to ReconcilingWorks (and its
document, “Lutheran Introduction to Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression”),
an organization that has misrepresented Lutheran
theological principles and biblical passages to support homosexuality. These are available at resources
.lcms.org/reading-study/ctcr-library-individualopinions-for-study-and-consideration.

o

Catechetical resources: Finally, the task force believes there is also a need for persuasive, biblically
based literature that might be used in congregational
settings to help the Church better understand the theological reasons for the positions the Synod has taken
on marriage and sexuality, as well as express pastoral
concern for those who may be misled by opinions
at odds with Scripture. To that end, the task force
recommends that the CTCR, in consultation with the
ONM and the seminaries, consider if and how studies
might be produced on the family as a unit and the
foundation for a healthy society (man and woman,
husband and wife, parents and children, procreation
and sexual chastity, vocation and the three estates),
biblical anthropology, the vocation of singleness,
same-sex attraction, and gender dysphoria.
Christopher S. Esget, Chairman

R59

Task Force on Electoral Circuit
Parameters (2023 Res. 9-06A)
Introduction
2023 Res. 9-06A, “To Appoint Task Force to Evaluate Current
Electoral Circuit Parameters,” was adopted with the acknowledgement that “due to demographic changes over the past several convention cycles, it has become necessary for more and more visitation circuits either to request an exemption from the President of the
Synod or to be combined in order to qualify to meet the parameters
for an electoral circuit. The result has been a gradual decrease in
the number of electoral circuits within the Synod and the number
of delegates attending conventions.” The charge to the task force
was to “consider the parameters for the electoral circuits which se-

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lect delegates to conventions of the Synod to determine if they are
adequate as they are or should be changed” and “to clarify some of
the ambiguity in the Bylaws regarding multi-congregation parishes
which cross district or circuit lines.” The task force was to include
“the Secretary of [the] Synod, the Commission on Constitutional
Matters [CCM], the Commission on Handbook [COH], and three
district presidents and three district secretaries (from different districts) chosen by the Council of Presidents.” Realizing the difficulty
of accommodating so many individuals, the CCM and COH each
designated three individuals to serve as their primary representatives to the task force. In preparation for the first meeting, the
Secretary of the Synod drafted a white paper with the history of
selecting delegates, the trend in delegate numbers to the convention
and exceptions requested and granted, and a view toward the shape
of the future based upon past and current demographics. The task
force met nine times from October 2024 to December 2025 to review the charge by the 2023 Synod convention and to offer a report
and to recommend to the Synod changes to the Bylaws to address
the concerns raised.

Background
In its founding, the Synod defined its own polity, giving each
congregation an equal vote (the equality of congregational votes is
known as Stimmengleichheit). The office of pastor being a divine
institution conferred through the congregation as the possessor of
all ecclesiastical authority, the Synod determined to have each congregation receive two votes, one by its pastor and the other by its
lay delegate. Before growth necessitated a change and the division
into districts had been adopted, the Synod left it to the individual congregations to select a lay delegate to accompany the pastor
and the matter was relatively simple. The franchise was given to
the congregation, exercised by the pastor and a lay delegate to the
Synod convention. The basic principles of this franchise gave congregations or parishes equal representation, no matter what their
numerical size, and a “balance of power” was maintained by equal
representation of clergy and lay. The Synod is conceived as an aid
and, indeed, an extension of such congregations or parishes without
any other constituencies or units.
When it was no longer feasible because of size, and after the division of the Synod into districts in 1854, beginning with the 1872
convention, the congregations and parishes of the Synod were represented by a circuit delegation consisting of one pastor and one lay
vote at the Synod convention. The Constitution did not change and
was applicable to both district and Synod conventions. The practice
for conventions of the Synod was that each pair of delegates, one a
pastor of a Pfarrgemeinde (that is, the collection of congregations
regularly served by one pastor: 2019 Res. 9-12, Bylaw 2.5.5) and
the other a layman, now came from a group of congregations (circuit). Since the 1969 convention of the Synod (due to 1967 Res.
5-18), electoral circuits have consisted of “either of one or two adjacent visitation circuits, as shall be determined by the district board
of directors on the basis of the following requirements: each pair
of delegates shall represent from 7 to 20 member congregations,
involving an aggregate confirmed membership ranging from 1,500
to 10,000” (Bylaw 3.1.2 [a]). “Exceptions to these requirements
may be made only by the President of the Synod upon request of a
district board of directors” (Bylaw 3.1.2 [b]).
The visitation circuits themselves are established by districts
(that is, by district conventions, unless a district convention has
explicitly authorized a district board of directors to carry this out)
“according to geographical criteria.” There is technically no lower
2026 Convention Workbook