1.2 Definition of Terms

1.2 Definition of Terms

1.2.1 The following definitions are for use in understanding the terms as used in

the Bylaws of The Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod:

(a) Agency: An instrumentality other than a congregation or corporate Synod, whether or not separately incorporated, which the Synod in convention or its Board of Directors has caused or authorized to be formed to further the Synod’s Objectives (Constitution Art. III).

(1) Agencies include each board, commission, council, seminary, university, college, district, Concordia Plan Services, and each synodwide corporate entity.

(2) The term “agency of the Synod” does not describe or imply the existence of principal and agency arrangements as defined under civil law.

(b) Chief executive: The top staff administrator of a separately incorporated agency of the Synod, who may be referred to as president.

(c) Commission: A group of persons, elected or appointed as prescribed in the Bylaws, rendering a precisely defined function of the Synod and responsible, as the case may be, to the Synod in convention, to the President of the Synod, or to the Board of Directors of the Synod.

The commissions of the Synod are:

(1) Commission on Constitutional Matters

(2) Commission on Doctrinal Review

(3) Commission on Handbook

(4) Commission on Theology and Church Relations

(d) Concordia Plan Services : Concordia Plan Services is a controlled entity of The Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod created to manage the Concordia Plans.

(e) Concordia Plans: The Concordia Plans, while operating under the supervision of the Synod Board of Directors, are trust agencies whose assets are not the property of corporate Synod.

(f) Corporate Synod: The Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod, the Missouri nonprofit corporation, including its offices, boards, commissions, and departments.

(1) “Corporate Synod” is not an agency of the Synod.

(2) The Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod, in referencing the laws of the State of Missouri in these Bylaws and in the Synod’s Articles of Incorporation, intends to acknowledge its responsibility to be subject to civil authority. In all such references, however, the Synod intends to retain all authority and autonomy allowed a church under the laws and Constitution of the United States and the State of Missouri.

(g) Council: An officially established group elected or appointed as an advisory body. The council of the Synod is the Council of Presidents.

(h) District: A division of the Synod as determined by a national convention of the Synod.

(i) Ecclesiastical oversight: The responsibility, primarily of the district president, to monitor; to make inquiry and receive a response thereto;

to make suggestions; to bring concerns to the attention of a higher authority, namely the Synod status granting office, as relates specifically to the ecclesial relations of a recognized service organization operating within his district, and the impact and/or reflection of its work on the mission and ministry of the church.

(j) Ecclesiastical supervision : The responsibility, primarily of the President of the Synod and district presidents, to supervise on behalf of the Synod the doctrine, life, and administration of its members, officers, and agencies. Such supervision, subject to the provisions of the Synod’s Constitution, Bylaws, and resolutions, includes visitation, evangelical encouragement and support, care, protection, counsel, advice, admonition, and, when necessary, appropriate disciplinary measures to assure that the Constitution, Bylaws, and resolutions of the Synod are followed and implemented. Thus, ecclesiastical supervision is also the presenting, interpreting, and applying of the collective will of the Synod’s congregations. Ecclesiastical supervision does not include the responsibility to obser ve, monitor, control, or direct the day -to-day activities of individual members of the Synod, whether in the conduct of their work or in their private lives (cf. Bylaw

2.14.1 [a]). Further, those constitutional articles and bylaws pertaining to ecclesiasti cal supervision shall determine the full definition of ecclesiastical supervision.

(k) Governing board: A board that directs a separately incorporated agency of the Synod. Governing boards are such as a board of directors,

a board of trustees, a board of regents, a board of managers, or a board of governors.

(l) May: Permissive, expressing ability, liberty, or the possibility to act.

(m) Member of the Synod : See Constitution Art. V. Members of the Synod are of two classes: corporate members (congregations that have joined the Synod) and individual members (ministers of religion— ordained and ministers of religion— commissioned on the roster of the Synod).

(n) Mission board: An officially established group of persons elected and appointed as prescribed in the Bylaws, charged with developing and determining policies for a ministry function of the Synod as prescribed in the Bylaws. These policies shall establish boundaries, parameters, and principles that guide the respective mission office in determining present and future activities and programs. The mission board shall have oversight of the implementation of these policies. The President of the Synod shall be responsible for supervising the implementation of mission board policies in accordance with his responsibilities under Constitution Art. XI and Bylaws 3.3.1.1.1 – 3.3.1.3.

The mission boards of the Synod are:

(1) Board for National Mission

(2) Board for International Mission

(o) Officer: Those positions identified in Constitution Art. X A or Art.

XII 3 or Bylaw sections 3.3 and 3.4 unless qualified by a modifier.

(p) Oversight: For the purpose of these Bylaws, to monitor; to make inquiry and receive a response thereto; to make suggestions; to bring concerns to the attention of a higher authority.

(q) Praesidium: The President and the vice-presidents of the Synod.

(r) Property of the Synod: All assets, real or personal, tangible or intangible, whether situated in the United States or elsewhere, titled or held in the name of corporate Synod, its nominee, or an agency of the Synod. “Property of the Synod” does not include any assets held by member congregations, the Lutheran Church Extension Fund — Missouri Synod , or by an agency of the Synod in a fiduciary capacity (including, for purposes of example, the funds managed for the Concordia Plans by Concordia Plan Services and certain funds held by The Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod Foundation).

(s) Region: A division of the Synod for the purpose of regional elections.

(t) Shall: A word of command that must always be given an imperative or compulsory meaning.

(u) Supervision: For the purpose of these Bylaws (other than those pertaining to ecclesiastical supervision) to have authority over, to direct actions, to control activities.

(v) Synod: Refers collectively to the association of self- governing Lutheran congregations and all its agencies on the national and district levels. The Synod, as defined herein, is not a civil law entity.

(w) Synodwide corporate entity: A separate corporation established by the Synod for business and legal reasons. For the purposes of these

Bylaws, the “synodwide corporate entities” of the Synod are the following corporations:

(1) Concordia Historical Institute

(2) Concordia Publishing House

(3) Lutheran Church Extension Fund— Missouri Synod

(4) Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod Foundation

(5) Concordia University System The term “synodwide corporate entity” is not used in these Bylaws to include foreign corporations created by the Synod in order to undertake foreign missions.

(x) Task force: An appointed group that has an ad hoc assignment to accomplish a specific task and whose duties have a definite expiration date.

(y) Voting member: A member congregation of the Synod (see Constitution Art. V A).