LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Page 182

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182 ADMINISTRATION

istrative Officer of the Board of Directors, the Executive Secre-
tary of the Board for Stewardship, and two District Steward-
ship Executives. The committee was supplemented by the
Synod’s Treasurer and the Director of Planning and Budgeting.
Meetings were held in St. Louis on Dec. 2, 1974, Feb. 26, March
4, and March 19, 1975.

The committee agreed on the following as basic assumptions
to be considered in revising the process of budgeting in the
Synod:

Theological Assumptions

1. Because God has sent us on His mission, every function
in which we engage as His church (budgets, work programs,
Bylaws, etc.) must serve the cause of God’s mission.

2. The doctrine of the priesthood of believers commits the
church to a strategy of recognizing the people of God as being
unique and varied gifts of God to His church, for fulfilling His
mission in the world. Both by their baptism in Christ and their
talents, God has called them and equipped them to work re-
sponsibly and fruitfully.

3. The carrying out of God's mission on all levels is a re-
sponsibility and a joy which belongs to all of God's people and
therefore should involve them as fully as possible.

4. Because God calls us to walk by faith and not by sight,
carrying out His mission requires more than just the human
skills we bring to our task. It also involves the vision, the daring,
and the risking that faith in God’s promises requires.

Organizational Assumptions

1. The Synod and its Districts are servants of the congre-
gations, aiding them to be in mission both locally and to all the
world. Districts are the Synod functioning in a given geograph-
ical area and are therefore essential to the general well-being
and effectiveness of both Districts and the Synod.

2. National and District synodical leaders, including leaders
of sister churches, can bring full expression to their respective
callings by seeing themselves as partners in God’s mission.

3. The Synod, as a voluntary organization of congregations,
requires (a) involvement and support of the constituency in
establishing mutual goals, (b) assignment of responsibility and
accountability to leadership, and (c) support of the constituency
in carrying out its work.

4. Sister churches are autonomous units.

Environmental Assumptions

1. Institutional loyalty is increasingly less hereditary and
more and more must be earned (cultivated).

2. A growing number of people are demanding a more
significant voice in the mission, ministry, and action of the
Synod. They vote with their participation and their dollars.
These kinds of votes are extremely significant in carrying out
the directives of conventions and assemblies.

3. Synod devotes far more time to the expenditure side than
to the income side of the budget.

4, The broad involvement of people is an important and
necessary investment of time and money.

5. Synodical conventions have insufficient time to consider
mission and ministry concerns in detail.

6. The services provided by the church and the levels at
which they are performed need to be continually evaluated. It
is essential in this process that all elements of the church be
consulted in order to properly respond to the needs and to
generate support for the various ministries.

7. Unless congregations and committed Christians are pro-
vided sufficient options for mission and ministry in the Synod,
they will elect options for expressing their Christian commit-
ment for mission and ministry outside of the Synod.

While the committee designed several possible programs
for planning, programming, and budgeting, it did not settle
on one plan for recommendation, chiefly out of the realization
that a workable plan can be developed only over several years
of experience and should be done during the next biennium
in coordination with the work of the Synod’s Committee for
Reorganization.

However, the committee also agreed that any new plan
should contain the following ingredients:

a. As much as possible, methods and procedures should be
devised to involve congregations both in the development and
evaluation of the programs of the Synod and the Districts.
Greater involvement will help people identify more closely
with programs, thereby resulting in greater support both in
prayer and deed.

b. The process must allow for better coordination of the
Synod and the Districts’ budget development procedures,
since shared priorities and objectives influence both.

c. Proper planning requires the coordinated definition of
synodical and District program needs early enough to allow
the fund-raising agencies sufficient time to communicate the
financial requirements to the constituency.

d. Sound fiscal management requires that the constituency
respond with financial commitments early enough to permit
setting budgets so that the spending agencies may react re-
sponsibly to the budgeting decisions.

e. Neither the Fiscal Review Commission as presently
structured, the Boards of Directors, nor conventions should
set the budget. A new and representative group should be
developed which can address itself to the consolidated needs
of the Synod and its Districts. Consideration should be given
to the involvement of both District and synodical Boards of
Directors and District and synodical convention delegates
(between conventions) as communication links with the circuits
and congregations.

f. A more equitable allocation of mission contributions for
District and synodical programs needs to be devised. This per-
haps can be achieved by a coordinated budgeting process or
through a percentage division of funds as preset at District
conventions.

Recommendations

The committee presents its recommendations to the Ana-
heim convention in the form of the following proposed reso-
lution:

WHEREAS, The present method and timetable for setting
the budget is inadequate to meet the needs of the Synod and
its Districts; and

WHEREAS, Developing a new planning, programming, and
budgeting system requires time for reflection, development,
and experiment: therefore be it

Resolved, That the present work program-budget process
as detailed in Bylaws 2.85 a 2, 9.01, 9.13 c, and 9.15 be held in
abeyance for the next 2 years, during which time:

a. The Ad Hoc Committee to Revise Bylaws for Budget
Preparation, in consultation with the Committee for Reorgani-
zation, will develop proposed Bylaws for presentation to the
1977 convention.

b. Fiscal conferences will be held before the fall District
and congregational stewardship visitations for the purpose
of developing plans for both income and expenditures for the
following year: sharing ideas on objectives, programs, fore-
casts, priorities, and communication devices for the Synod and
Districts; and making appropriate recommendations to the
Synod and District Boards of Directors for their consideration
in future fiscal and programmatic planning and fund-raising.

c. The Board of Directors will set the synodical budget after
consultation with the Council of Administrators and the Council
of Presidents.

John P. Schuelke, Chairman
Vern Aurich, Secretary

4-13

Report of Ad Hoc Committee to
Study Supplemental Funding
(New Orleans Res. 12-01)

The New Orleans convention adopted the following reso-
lution: