Official Handbook Source Text
Handbook page 57
Source: LCMS Handbook 2023, page 57.
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.
admitted to their respective ministries in accordance with the rules and regulations set forth in these Bylaws and have thereby become members of the Synod; (2) candidates for the pastoral ministry who have satisfied the qualifications and requirements for assignment of first calls by the Council of Presidents acting as the Board of Assignments; or (3) ordained ministers who are members in good standing of church bodies that have been formally recognized to be in altar and pulpit fellowship with the Synod when agreements for such calls are in place.
2.5.3 Congregations that are members of the Synod and their association schools
shall call only (1) commissioned ministers who have been admitted to their ministries in accordance with the rules and regulations set forth in these Bylaws and have thereby become members of the Synod; (2) candidates of LCMS colleges and universities who have satisfied the qualifications and requirements for assignment of first calls by the Council of Presidents acting as the Board of Assignment s; or (3) commissioned ministers (or those holding positions comparable to commissioned ministers) who are members in good standing of church bodies that have been formally recognized to be in altar and pulpit fellowship with the Synod when agreements for such calls are in place.
2.5.4 Congregations that violate these requirements and persist in such violation
shall, after due admonition, forfeit their membership in the Synod.
Calls and multi-congregation parishes
2.5.5 The total number of congregations regularly cared for (served) by a pastor
or pastors constitutes a parish as it applies to bylaws dealing with representation at circuit forums (Bylaws 3.1.2.1 [c]; 5.3.2) and district conventions (Bylaw 4.2.2; Const. Art. XII 10 A), and in voting for the Synod President (Bylaw 3.12.2.3). However, the called service of a pastor in a designated assisting capacity (Bylaw 2.5.6) does not render the congregation(s) that he assists part of a parish with any other congregation(s) he serves, whether in an assisting or non- assisting capacity.
2.5.6 The call of an ordained minister to a congregation may be designated as in
an assisting capacity if the call entails service under the supervision of another called pastor of that congregation. A pastor serving in an assisting capacity is a (supervised) pastor of the congregation but not “ its [supervising] pastor” (Const. Art. XII 10 A). An assisting capacity call does not, therefore, confer that congregation’s pastoral vote or eligibility to serve as circuit pastoral delegate, or cause the congregation assisted to constitute a parish with other congregation (s) served by the assisting pastor. Those rendering assisting service on a regular basis shall be called, installed, and rostered as such. A pastor serving a congregation in an assisting capacity is, with regard to that congregation, an assisting pastor.
2.6 Individual Membership
2.6.1 “Ministers of the Gospel,” designated by the Synod as “ministers of religion— ordained” (ordained ministers) or “ministers of religion — commissioned” (commissioned ministers), are eligible for membership in the Synod.
