Official Handbook Source Text
Handbook page 201
Source: LCMS Handbook 2023, page 201.
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.
4.7 District Nominations, Elections, and Appointments
4.7.1 Each district may adopt regulations for the nomination and election of its
president; the nomination, selection, election, ranking, and succession in case of vacancies of its vice-presidents; and the nomination or selection of any regional officers or regional board of directors members, as long as these provisions do not conflict with the Bylaws of the Synod.
4.7.2 A nominating committee of each district shall be elected by the district
convention. Nominating committees may not be employed in the election of the president and vice-presidents.
4.7.3 A majority of all votes cast by a district convention shall be required in
every election to all elective offices and elective board positions. The following regulations shall apply:
(a) Candidates receiving a majority on the first ballot shall be declared elected.
(b) In the election of the president and the vice -presidents, when a second or succeeding ballot is required for a majority, the candidate receiving the fewest votes shall be dropped from the ballot.
(c) In other elections, when a second or succeeding ballot is required for a majority, the candidate receiving the fewest votes and all candidates receiving less than 15 percent of the votes cast shall be dropped from the ballot, unless fewer than two candidates receive 15 percent or more of the votes cast, in which case the three highest candidates shall constitute the ballot.
(d) In every election balloting shall continue until every position has been filled by majority vote.
4.7.4 Terms of office shall be as follows:
(1) Elected officers, appointed board and commission members— three years.
(2) Elected board and commission members — three years. However, districts may adopt bylaws setting such terms at si x years instead of three years.
4.7.5 Limitation of tenure, if any, may be determined by a district.
4.8 Official District Conferences
4.8.1 Official conferences shall be conducted for the spiritual and profes sional
growth of their members.
(a) Conferences, whether official or unofficial, provide a means for ordained and commissioned ministers to relate together on a regular basis.
(b) Matters pertaining to Christian doctrine and practice, to professional problems, to the proper conduct in office, to private study, to the welfare of the respective congregations and schools, to the work of the Synod, including the district, or to any other professional matter should at all times receive due and sympathetic attention.
(c) The minutes and essays or a reasonably comprehensive summary of the essays accepted by the ordained and commissioned minister conferences in plenary and sectional meetings shall be mailed to the
