Official Handbook Source Text
Handbook page 199
Source: LCMS Handbook 2023, page 199.
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.
professional church workers; the need for maintenance of purity of doctrine; the strengthening of the bond of Christian fellowship; and the provision of resources, opportunities, and assistance so God ’s people can grow in their faith, hope, and love.
(f) The jurisdiction of the district president shall include non-member congregations whose pastors are members of the Synod. However, for the purpose of official visits in such a congregation the consent of the congregation shall first be secured. The district president may appoint the circuit visitor in whose circuit such a congregation is located to be his official representative.
4.4.5 Each district president, in accordance with the Constitution of the Synod,
shall supervise the doctrine, the life, and the official administration on the part of the ordained or commissioned ministers who are members through his district or are subject to his ecclesiastical supervision, and shall inquire into the prevailing spiritual conditions of the congregations of his district.
(a) As often as possible he shall attend the conferences of ordained and commissioned ministers held in his district, advise the congregations of his district as to the calling of ordained and commissioned ministers, give counsel, and respond to requests and inquiries.
(b) He may call upon circuit visitors to assist him.
4.4.6 The district president, even without formal request therefor, may through
the proper channels arrange for an official visit or investigation when a controversy arises in a congregation or between two or more congregations of the district or when there is evidence of a continuing unresolved problem in doctrine or practice.
(a) He shall ask for a full report on the case in order that he may have a clear understanding of the situation.
(b) If he authorizes anyone to represent him in such matters, his representative shall be accorded the same rights as the district president.
4.4.7 The district president shall be responsible for maintaining the official
rosters of his district.
(a) He shall add the names of those ordained or commissioned ministers initially placed in the district and those accepting a call to or otherwise transferring to the district.
(b) He shall remove the names of those who have died or have resigned their membership or have had their membership in the Synod duly terminated.
(c) An ordained or commissioned minister accepting a call shall immediately report such decision to his district president and shall request his district membership be evaluated (Bylaw 2.12.1.1) . The district president shall forward any requisite transfer to the president of the receiving district.
(d) Upon receipt of the transfer and of a request for installation from the minister of religion, the district president of the receiving district shall install or authorize installation of such minister.
(e) He shall regularly forward roster reports to the Secretary of the Synod for publication in The Lutheran Annual.
