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LCMS 2026 Convention Workbook: Reports and Overtures, PDF page 178

2026 Convention Workbook
143
OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
lect delegates to conventions of the Synod to determine if they are 
adequate as they are or should be changed” and “to clarify some of 
the ambiguity in the Bylaws regarding multi-congregation parishes 
which cross district or circuit lines.” The task force was to include 
“the Secretary of [the] Synod, the Commission on Constitutional 
Matters [CCM], the Commission on Handbook [COH], and three 
district presidents and three district secretaries (from different dis-
tricts) chosen by the Council of Presidents.” Realizing the difficulty 
of accommodating so many individuals, the CCM and COH each 
designated three individuals to serve as their primary represen-
tatives to the task force. In preparation for the first meeting, the 
Secretary of the Synod drafted a white paper with the history of 
selecting delegates, the trend in delegate numbers to the convention 
and exceptions requested and granted, and a view toward the shape 
of the future based upon past and current demographics. The task 
force met nine times from October 2024 to December 2025 to re-
view the charge by the 2023 Synod convention and to offer a report 
and to recommend to the Synod changes to the Bylaws to address 
the concerns raised.
Background
In its founding, the Synod defined its own polity, giving each 
congregation an equal vote (the equality of congregational votes is 
known as Stimmengleichheit). The office of pastor being a divine 
institution conferred through the congregation as the possessor of 
all ecclesiastical authority, the Synod determined to have each con-
gregation receive two votes, one by its pastor and the other by its 
lay delegate. Before growth necessitated a change and the division 
into districts had been adopted, the Synod left it to the individu -
al congregations to select a lay delegate to accompany the pastor 
and the matter was relatively simple. The franchise was given to 
the congregation, exercised by the pastor and a lay delegate to the 
Synod convention. The basic principles of this franchise gave con-
gregations or parishes equal representation, no matter what their 
numerical size, and a “balance of power” was maintained by equal 
representation of clergy and lay. The Synod is conceived as an aid 
and, indeed, an extension of such congregations or parishes without 
any other constituencies or units.
When it was no longer feasible because of size, and after the di-
vision of the Synod into districts in 1854, beginning with the 1872 
convention, the congregations and parishes of the Synod were rep-
resented by a circuit delegation consisting of one pastor and one lay 
vote at the Synod convention. The Constitution did not change and 
was applicable to both district and Synod conventions. The practice 
for conventions of the Synod was that each pair of delegates, one a 
pastor of a Pfarrgemeinde (that is, the collection of congregations 
regularly served by one pastor: 2019 Res. 9-12, Bylaw 2.5.5) and 
the other a layman, now came from a group of congregations (cir -
cuit). Since the 1969 convention of the Synod (due to 1967 Res. 
5-18), electoral circuits have consisted of “either of one or two ad-
jacent visitation circuits, as shall be determined by the district board 
of directors on the basis of the following requirements: each pair 
of delegates shall represent from 7 to 20 member congregations, 
involving an aggregate confirmed membership ranging from 1,500 
to 10,000” (Bylaw 3.1.2 [a]). “Exceptions to these requirements 
may be made only by the President of the Synod upon request of a 
district board of directors” (Bylaw 3.1.2 [b]).
The visitation circuits themselves are established by districts 
(that is, by district conventions, unless a district convention has 
explicitly authorized a district board of directors to carry this out) 
“according to geographical criteria.” There is technically no lower 
terminology related to sexual orientation and gender 
identity, along with a guide for the recommended use 
of such terms in Synod publications.
o
 Countercultural 
resources: There is a need for cul-
turally relevant literature that addresses these issues 
in plain language. The task force has begun this work 
by developing publishable resources that would tar -
get the temptations, peer pressure, and media sub-
versiveness associated with homosexuality, gay mar-
riage, transgenderism, pornography, and casual sex.
o
 Apologetic resour
ces: There is a further need for 
resources that would specifically counter intellectual 
and theological arguments in support of these sexu-
al errors. The task force has begun working with Dr. 
Armin Wenz, longtime professor in our German sis-
ter church, SELK, to revise his earlier pamphlet ex-
posing the theological errors of homosexuality based 
upon the New Testament. The task force encourages 
the completion of this work. It also commends the 
CTCR’s responses to ReconcilingWorks (and its 
document, “Lutheran Introduction to Sexual Orien-
tation, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression”), 
an organization that has misrepresented Lutheran 
theological principles and biblical passages to sup-
port homosexuality. These are available at resources 
.lcms.org/reading-study/ctcr-library-individual-  
opinions-for-study-and-consideration.
o
 Catechetical r
esources: Finally, the task force be-
lieves there is also a need for persuasive, biblically 
based literature that might be used in congregational 
settings to help the Church better understand the theo-
logical reasons for the positions the Synod has taken 
on marriage and sexuality, as well as express pastoral 
concern for those who may be misled by opinions 
at odds with Scripture. To that end, the task force 
recommends that the CTCR, in consultation with the 
ONM and the seminaries, consider if and how studies 
might be produced on the family as a unit and the 
foundation for a healthy society (man and woman, 
husband and wife, parents and children, procreation 
and sexual chastity, vocation and the three estates), 
biblical anthropology, the vocation of singleness, 
same-sex attraction, and gender dysphoria.
Christopher S. Esget, Chairman
R59
Task Force on Electoral Circuit 
Parameters (2023 Res. 9-06A)
Introduction
2023 Res. 9-06A, “To Appoint Task Force to Evaluate Current 
Electoral Circuit Parameters,” was adopted with the acknowledge-
ment that “due to demographic changes over the past several con-
vention cycles, it has become necessary for more and more visita-
tion circuits either to request an exemption from the President of the 
Synod or to be combined in order to qualify to meet the parameters 
for an electoral circuit. The result has been a gradual decrease in 
the number of electoral circuits within the Synod and the number 
of delegates attending conventions.” The charge to the task force 
was to “consider the parameters for the electoral circuits which se-