Official Handbook Source Text
Handbook page 41
Source: LCMS Handbook 2023, page 41.
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.
(a) Disputes concerning property rights (e.g., real estate agreements, mortgages, fraud, or embezzlement); and
(b) Disputes arising under contractual arrangements of all kinds (e.g., contracts for goods, services, or employment benefits).
Even in the case of disputes concerning property rights or disputes arising under contractual arrangements, this dispute resolution process may be used if both parties to a dispute sign written statements agreeing to use and honor the outcome of the process.
Definition of Terms as Used in this Bylaw Section 1.10
1.10.4 In order to communicate effectively and avoid misunderstanding, it is
critical that terms be carefully defined:
(a) Administrator: The secretary of a district or of the Synod or an appointee (Bylaw 1.10.6) who manages the dispute resolution process but who does not take leadership, declare judgments, advise, or become involved in the matter in dispute.
(b) Appeal Panel: Three district presidents selected according to these bylaws to determine whether the decision of a Dispute Resolution Panel should be reconsidered or reviewed.
(c) Blind draw : Selection of names according to the procedures set forth in the Standard Operating Procedures Manual.
(d) Complainant: A party and/or parties to a dispute who initiate an action to settle a conflict under the provisions of the Synod ’s dispute resolution process.
(e) Dispute Resolution Panel: Three persons who are reconcilers selected according to these bylaws and one person who is a nonvoting hearing facilitator selected according to these bylaws, who shall hear matters in dispute between parties and assist in reconciliation or provide for a resolution of the dispute by rendering a final decision.
(f) Face-to-face: A meeting face-to-face in person between the parties in dispute in the manner described in Matthew 18:15. Email, regular mail, fax, or telephone call (or any combination thereof) does not satisfy this requirement. (Note: Failure to conduct a face -to-face meeting within 30 days or within such extension as may be established by the involved ecclesiastical supervisors shall result in dismissal if the fault lies with the complainant or movement to the next stage if the fault lies with the respondent.)
(g) Formal: Efforts to resolve the dispute toward reconciliation beginning with the formal reconciliation meeting.
(h) Hearing facilitator : One selected according to these bylaws and trained to serve as a facilitator for hearings before panels.
(i) Informal: All efforts toward reconciliation prior to the formal reconciliation meeting.
(j) Party and/or parties to a dispute or the matter (Party to the matter in dispute): A “party and/or parties to a dispute” is either a complainant or a respondent. A reconciler, panel member, hearing facilitator or ecclesiastical supervisor is not a “party and/or parties to a dispute.”
