I was a pastoral delegate to the 2023 Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) convention. The convention theme for this convention was, Christ Crucified. This gathering happens every three years, although because of COVID, the 2023 convention was delayed one year. As a delegate, one has the opportunity to assist the church decide important matters that arise during the previous three-year triennium.
In this post-convention reflection, my objective is to share what I experienced and what I heard and saw during the week that I was there. I will not ascribe motivation for I cannot read hearts and minds, but I will endeavor to be objective. Where I offer a subjective thought, I will make it clear that this is my perspective and not necessarily the reality.
I was a member of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) floor committee. The way business is brought to the convention floor is generally through the floor committees. The CTCR floor committee had the joyful task of recommending to the convention delegates establishing fellowship with several new Church Bodies, including Lutheran Churches in Finland, Ukraine, Uganda, Sudan / South Sudan, and Sri Lanka. We also had the less than joyful task of recommending severing church & pulpit fellowship with the Lutheran Church of Japan.
The CTCR floor committee also dealt with a number of issues – some societal, others of our own doing - that challenge our congregations and our church members. These issues ranged from dealing with marriage and sexuality, to the controversy caused by the publishing of a book titled, Luther’s Large Catechism with Annotations and Contemporary Applications. During the open hearings of my floor committee, intense comments and opposition were heard, with this issue being one of the lightning rods. So, my own sense of things was that when this issue came to the convention floor, it would cause division and strife among the various LCMS District delegations.
Another issue that had the potential to be contentious had to do with a resolution dealing with the separation of Concordia Texas – one of the universities that heretofore has come under the umbrella of the Concordia University System. This was perhaps the single most contentious issue coming before the convention. Not being able to attend the open hearings of the committee that dealt with this (because I was at the open hearings of my own committee), but hearing from a number of delegates that were, this matter apparently was a hot potato during the open hearings for floor committee seven (7).
Now, before I offer my thoughts on how the convention went, it may be useful for those reading to know a bit about how people in the LCMS view doctrine and the scriptures. We are, as a whole, convinced that the Bible is God’s Word. We don’t say that the Bible “contains” God’s Word – we say that “it is” God’s Word. The Bible forms the basis of our doctrine and our practice. As a denomination the LCMS strives to live within the freedoms and constraints of God’s Word. This is our Theology – how we see our life in Christ through the lens of the Bible.
If I could draw a picture of how the LCMS sees theology, I think that it would look something like this:
The part of this Gaussian Distribution (bell curve) that is in the color red represents the extremes. Please note that even if those views are extreme, the number of people in those extremes are relatively small – about 2% on each side of the theological spectrum. Those in the red area to the left would represent the most theologically liberal members of the LCMS. The red area to the right represents those who are most theologically conservative. The sections in yellow, both right and left, are the more moderately liberal and conservative. And the green represents the great majority of the members of the church – viewing theology from a biblical perspective that tends to trust the teaching of the church body.
North American Christianity also can be viewed from the lens of the “bell curve,” except that the extremes are much more extreme. I believe that if one compares LCMS perspectives on theology to the spread of theological belief in North American Christianity, the LCMS will look something like this in comparison. (Of course, this is only my assessment. Please take it with a grain of salt, because I haven’t done a survey of the LCMS population – so, I’m not even positive that the LCMS spectrum of beliefs can be described as a normal distribution. But it “seems” that way based on experience and based on the way the delegation at this convention voted.):
I described the LCMS theological posture to suggest to you that it would be an important consideration when thinking about the decisions that were made and how the delegates approached the process of voting on delicate matters that came before the convention. Please keep this in mind as you consider not only the perspectives that I will offer, but as well, what you will read and hear from others. As I prepare to write the second part of my delegate's report in the next few days, I will offer my thoughts based on this - my understanding of our church body - and how that affected the thinking and decisions of the delegation.
(Part II of my delegate’s report will follow in a few days, after my wife and I take a bit of time to celebrate our Anniversary.)
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