Official Handbook Source Text
Handbook page 21
Source: LCMS Handbook 2023, page 21.
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.
BYLAWS
1. RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN AND THROUGH THE SYNOD
1.1 Purpose of the Synod
1.1.1 Committed to a common confession and mission, congregations of The
Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod join with one another in the Synod to support one another and to work together in carrying out their commonly adopted objectives. The Synod is organized to work in support of and on behalf of congregations to assist them in carrying out their ministries as they seek to serve our Lord Jesus Christ, the members of His body, and the world which stands in need of the Word and the impact of His redeeming love.
(a) The Synod functions in support of its member congregations by providing assistance as congregations conduct their ministries locally, as well as their ministries at large.
(b) The Synod on behalf of its member congregations administers those ministries that can be accomplished more effectively in association with other member congregations through the Synod. In this way member congregations utilize the Synod to assist them in carrying out their functions of worship, witness, teaching and nurture, service, and support.
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
