Freeing the Synod for Mission

It is clear to everyone that the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod is not structured in the most efficient way to carry out its mission of faithfully proclaiming the forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus to the world. We applaud those who call for a restructuring in order to improve our ability to proclaim the Gospel. We were clearly told at the 2007 convention that the structure of our synod is hindering the financial ability of our synod to meet its goals. The administration of synod after taking parts of three days of the convention to push for it has decided that having a special convention in 2009 would be hasty. We agree. We do wish it had been thought through before wasting so much convention time on the issue. We stand ready to support any significant restructuring that places our synod in a better financial position to faithfully proclaim the Gospel. We trust that the call for restructure to improve the finances is the only agenda and will not be used as cover to change our doctrine and practice.

We do not know what will be recommended. A number of ideas have been floated. We believe that there is one idea that has been floated that should be rejected out of hand. That is the non productive idea of “Taxing.” The proponents have not called it taxing but that is what it is. The basic idea is that any Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS) associated entity would have to pay a portion of its budget to LCMS Inc. for the privilege of the association. The LWML, LLL, the seminaries and colleges, local human care agencies, CPH, etc., yes, and perhaps even the local congregation would all have to pay. The idea is to take resources away from organizations that already proclaim the Gospel and give it to LCMS Inc. so they can proclaim the Gospel. That is what we believe to be a non productive recommendation. We believe that dollar for dollar these organizations are more effective in proclaiming the Gospel then LCMS Inc.

We hope careful attention will be given to our district structure. The vast majority of money sent by congregations for “missions” never gets past the district coffers. Is our district structure with all of the professional and auxiliary staff the best stewardship of the offerings that Grandma Schmidt faithfully places in her envelope every week? Is keeping some our most talented people in bureaucratic positions best for the proclamation of the Gospel? Perhaps the answer is yes. If the next synodical convention wants to do something serious about the financial structure of synod it should look first at its burdensome bureaucracy before considering taxing the people and organizations that are being faithful in carrying out the work of the Gospel.

Rev. Roger Gallup

River Grove, IL