LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2026, Page 144

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144

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS

or upper limit (other than practical ones) on the size of a visitation circuit, other than that one should ordinarily not exceed the
upper bound for the related electoral circuit, either in number of
confirmed members or of member congregations, and that it should
ordinarily take no more than two adjacent visitation circuits to form
one electoral circuit. Practical limits, lower and upper, may be inferred from the functions—important in their own right—described
in Bylaw chapter 5.
The 1973 report of the Committee on Organization to the convention dealt with questions raised about the voting rights with
some consideration given to a more equitable division of delegates
among districts, allowing large congregations more than one lay
vote, giving a second and third lay vote to the other congregations
of a multi-congregation parish, and allowing advisory pastors and
campus pastors, too, to vote. The committee rejected all as incompatible with the essential principles of voting rights in the Constitution: that the Synod consists of equal congregations or parishes,
no matter the size, that possess the franchise, and that there be a
balance of lay and clergy vote (1973 Workbook, 208–9).
Another task force had been established by the 1975 Anaheim
convention that was to study and propose revisions to the Constitution, Bylaws, and organization of the Synod. Several overtures
to change the franchise within the Synod were submitted to the
1977 Synod convention. Two new issues were added to the charge
given to the task force formed in 1975: one was to consider the
way delegates were elected, and the other was to consider allowing
advisory delegates to vote, with a proportional increase in the lay
votes (1979 Workbook, 59–63). The task force in 1979 proposed
significant wording changes to several articles of the Constitution,
and in addition proposed changes to the eligibility of the delegates
who would cast the two votes of the congregation or parish. One
vote was to be cast by a pastor or teacher in full-time office in the
congregation, and the other by a duly elected lay delegate of the
congregation (1979 Proceedings, 111, 137).
At the 1981 convention, the President of the Synod, in his address to the convention, recommended the proposed changes both
to allow teachers to vote (Proceedings, 64) and Res. 2-14, which
proposed that the delegates of an electoral circuit be a pastor and
anyone else from a congregation of that circuit. Preferably, it
should be a layman, but any teacher or ordained minister who was
not the pastor of one of the congregations would also be eligible.
After lengthy discussion, this was referred to a committee to be
appointed by the President of the Synod for a report to the 1983
Synod convention (1981 Proceedings, 141).
In its report to the 1983 convention, the task force formed by
the 1981 convention gave a report detailing the length of its research and the various possibilities that have been suggested with
the advantages and disadvantages of each. In the end, it concluded
that the disadvantages of any of the suggested ways to change the
exercise of the franchise in the Synod outweighed what would be
gained by such a change. It termed the current exercise of franchise
a long-established and well-working procedure (1983 Workbook,
213–15). The floor committee’s Res. 5-23 resolved that no change
be made in the Constitution or Bylaws pertaining to the franchise.
However, no action was taken, and it was apparently not brought to
the floor of the convention (1983 Proceedings, 190). Another overture submitted to the 1995 convention of the Synod was declined
by inclusion in “Omnibus B Resolution,” declining to act on it and
simply referencing the past action of the Synod, specifically that of
1983 (1995 Proceedings, 160).
2026 Convention Workbook

By 1998 the decline in the number of congregations and parishes and the number of communicant members had resulted in an
increasing number of exceptions requested of the Synod President.
The number of exceptions has ranged from 3 percent and 9 percent,
in 1998 and 2001, respectively, to 14 percent in 2004, hovering
between 10–12 percent since, apart from a low 7 percent exception
ratio in 2016. Absent a bylaw to define on what basis or criteria
exceptions may be granted, the decision has been largely subjective
and not without its own controversy at times. By the time of the
creation of this task force, predictions based on the trends observed
in the decline in both congregations and communicants expected
larger and larger numbers of requests for exceptions from visitation circuits that did not meet the current bylaw criteria as electoral
circuits. Assuming a uniform 8 percent triennial drop in confirmed
membership, this would have anticipated that 22 percent of 2023
electoral circuits could require exceptions for the 2026 convention—a number that could approach 30–40 percent in the 2029 and
2032 conventions.

Work of the Task Force
The task force commissioned several surveys to determine the
health and viability of the current visitation circuits and the opinions of pastors, circuit visitors, district presidents, and Praesidium
on the size and effectiveness of Synod conventions in view of their
purpose “to afford an opportunity for worship, nurture, inspiration,
fellowship, and the communication of vital information.” The general conclusions from these surveys both set the direction for the
work of the task force and undergirded the recommendations made
in this report.
The surveys revealed a profound desire on the part of all to
strengthen visitation circuits and the functioning of winkels (circuit pastors’ conferences) and indicated that the optimum number
needed was five actively serving pastors with the emeritus pastors
who reside in the circuit. When the numbers of active participants
dropped below that number, it directly impacted upon the health
and effectiveness of the visitation circuit. With respect to the electoral circuits, the surveys needed to be flexible enough to provide
adequate and fair representation at the Synod convention and yet
maintain a viable connection to the visitation circuit wherever possible. The discussions and proposed changes in the Bylaws recommended by the task force flowed from the concrete data of the
white paper, the opinions of 1,682 parish pastors, 772 candidate or
emeritus pastors, 393 circuit visitors, and 27 district presidents, and
the combined experience of the members of the task force across
the regions of the Synod and within the districts and circuits where
they reside.
Even early on, the task force felt the urgency of the task and the
consequences of making no change to the status quo. Although this
is not the recommendation of the task force, the failure to make any
changes would create an untenable situation due to the the rise in
the number of exceptions for electoral circuits from triennium to
triennium and the increasing difficulties in forming circuits within the current parameters of the Bylaws. An increasing number of
electoral circuits for the 2026 Synod convention and beyond are
approaching the minimum numbers of communicant members required to constitute an electoral circuit (1,500) and others are very
close to the maximum number of congregations allowed (20). Details of these trends are outlined in the white paper along with projections for the situation three to six years beyond the 2026 Synod
convention.
Already the districts have realized and begun to address the situation by realigning circuits at their 2025 conventions and by work-