Official Handbook Source Text
Handbook page 136
Source: LCMS Handbook 2023, page 136.
This page reproduces text from the 2023 LCMS Handbook for study and navigation. Readers should verify procedural, legal, parliamentary, or governance questions against the official LCMS Handbook and appropriate LCMS authorities.
work or the sessions of the board as they relate to the ecclesiastical visitation of any individual college or university.
3.6.6.2.1 Persons elected or appointed to the Concordia University System Board of
Directors should have demonstrated familiarity with and support of Synod colleges and universities , shall strongly and demonstrably articulate and support the confession and doctrinal positions of the Synod, and shall have demonstrated a high degree of two or more of the following qualifications or background experiences : theological acumen, an advanced degree, higher education administration, higher education accreditation, professional church worker education, administration of or legal counsel to complex organizations, religious nonprofit law, higher education law, or the strengthening of the mission of the Synod’s congregations and schools.
The President of the Synod (or a designee) and the Secretary of the Synod (or a designee) shall review and verify that nominees are qualified to serve as stated above.
3.6.6.3 The presidents (including interim presidents) of Synod’s colleges and
universities in good standing shall, along with two nonv oting members designated by the Concordia University System Board of Directors, comprise the Concordia University System Institution Advisory Council.
The Institution Advisory Council shall, as specified elsewhere in these bylaws and upon request, provide advice, consultation , and access to information as necessary to facilitate Concordia University System ecclesiastical review, on t he Synod’s behalf, of the schools’ Lutheran identity and mission outcomes under the Standards (Bylaw 3.6.6.1 [a] and
3.6.6.4). It shall also, as bylaws elsewhere specify and upon request, advise Concordia University System in its responsibilities as they relate to programs leading to candidacy for commissioned ministry and to seminary enrollment.
Lutheran Identity and Mission Outcomes Standards, Ecclesiastical Visitation
3.6.6.4 The Concordia University System Board of Directors shall, after input from
its Institution Advisory Council, define and adopt the Lutheran Identity and Mission Outcomes Standards (“Standards”), a regularly published policy document containing standards for ecclesiastical visitation and affirmation of institutions and of programs leading to candidacy for commissioned ministry or to preparedness for seminary study.
(a) The Standards shall express the Synod’s expectations for its college or university, including fidelity of campus curriculum and culture intended to propagate the faith, strong theology and campus ministry programs having positive and intentional interaction with the entire faculty and student population and with all curricular programs, and success in preparation of church workers for the Synod and of Lutheran laypeople for distinctively faithful lives of service to church and neighbor and in conveying to all students a clear understanding of the essentials of the faith, generally and in specific relation to their particular vocations.
(b) The Standards shall be elaborated to support both formative and summative functions. They shall engender local development and provide for outside monitoring of formative processes, engaging all institutions fully in intentional and measurable programs int ended to advance their expression of Lutheran identity and accomplishment of
