Official Workbook PDF page source text

LCMS 2026 Convention Workbook: Reports and Overtures, PDF page 203

2026 Convention Workbook
168 
OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
In part, the preamble to the resolution, 1969 Res. 5-23, “To Reit -
erate in Bylaws that Member Congregations Must Be Served by 
Members of the Synod,” states (Proceedings, pp. 119–20): 
One of the very purposes of synodical fellowship is to pro-
vide guidance and help in the exercise of congregation’s right 
to call a pastor, and one of the very reasons why a synod 
exists is to set standards for the parish pastorate so that the 
individual congregation may be assured that the man whom it 
calls is qualified to serve as its parish pastor (Charter, Art. II 
b; Const., Art. III 3). 
To this end The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod establish-
es procedures for determining whether men meet the stan-
dards. One of the advantages which a congregation receives 
when it joins the Synod is the protection against pastors who 
do not meet such standards.
…
In order that there may be no misunderstanding or misin-
terpretation of the condition that the membership of con-
gregations in the Synod requires of a congregation that all 
pastors, as also all teachers, who are called to and who serve 
the congregations of the Synod must have been admitted to 
the ministry of the Synod in accordance with the procedures 
provided by the Synod for certification, recommendation, or-
dination, or commissioning of such pastors or called teachers, 
this committee deems it advisable to reiterate the basic con-
stitutional requirements in clear and unmistakable words also 
in the Bylaws:
The convention adopted Bylaw 4.02, below (printed in the 1969 
Handbook as 4.01; Proceedings, pp. 119–20):
4.02 Eligible Pastors and Teachers 
a. 
 Congregations which 
are members of the Synod, in con-
formity with Article III, 3 of the Constitution of the Synod, 
shall call and be served only by pastors and called teachers 
who have been admitted to these respective ministries in 
accordance with the rules and regulations set forth in the 
synodical Handbook and have thereby become members of 
the Synod. 
b. 
 Congregations which 
violate this requirement and persist 
in such violation shall after due admonition forfeit their 
membership in the Synod. 
While the Bylaws were renumbered in the following year, and 
the term teachers was eventually changed to commissioned min-
isters, this bylaw remained essentially unchanged until the 2001 
convention of the Synod. During this intervening period, the status 
of women who were graduates of colleges of the Synod and were 
teaching in the schools of the congregations of the Synod changed, 
so that they were allowed to become members of the Synod and be 
placed on the roster of the Synod. In addition, the use of teachers 
who were not trained in the institutions of the Synod and therefore 
not eligible for membership in the Synod greatly increased in the 
day schools of the congregations of the Synod, which placed them 
in violation of this bylaw. The result was that 2001 Res. 7-12, “To 
Separate Calling and Service of Clergy from Other Church Work-
ers” (Proceedings, p. 168), changed the bylaw to read:
2.45 Calling Ministers of Religion
a.
 Congregations shall 
seek the advice of the respective Dis-
trict President when calling ordained or commissioned 
ministers.
a. Serving congregations of mixed confession, as such, by 
ministers of the church;
b. Taking 
part in the services and sacramental rites of hetero-
dox congregations or of congregations of mixed confes-
sion;
c. Participating in heterodox tract 
and missionary activities.
3. Regular call 
of pastors and any commissioned ministers and 
regular election of lay delegates by the congregations, as 
also the blamelessness of the life of such.
In the original 1847 constitution, current Const. Art. VI 3 (in the 
1847 arrangement, as Const. Art. II 5) reads, “Proper [ordentlicher] 
(not temporary [nicht zeitweiliger ]) calling of the pastors and or -
derly [ordentliche] election of congregational delegates by the con-
gregation. The life of both minister and delegate must be beyond 
reproof” (Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, April 1943, p. 
3) This wording of today’s Const. Art. VI 3 was intended to reject 
two common trends then occurring in the Lutheran churches in the 
United States: The one was a mentality of “we hired the pastor and 
pay him, so we can tell him what to do and fire him at will.” The 
other was the practice of licensing candidates for the ministry for a 
set period of time as a trial period. The wording rejects these based 
on the nature of a call as a divine call, directed by God; as such, it 
should not have any preset time limitation. 
More recently, the Synod’s current understanding of the phrase 
“regular call of pastors” is described in 1969 Res. 5-23. The resolu-
tion states: “The term regular call as used in our Synod has always 
meant a call extended in conformity with the procedures adopted by 
the Synod as set forth in the Handbook” (p. 120).
Const. Art. VI 1 and 2 would also apply to the questions as asked. 
Const. Art. VI 1 refers back to the confessional statement of the 
Constitution and requires acceptance of that statement as a condi-
tion of membership. Const. Art. VI 2 requires congregations and 
individual members to reject all mixing of doctrine and practice 
with those who teach differently. There is to be doctrinal agreement 
between the congregation and the pastor serving it. This precludes 
an individual who is a member of a church body not in altar and 
pulpit fellowship with the LCMS from being called or serving a 
member congregation. 
Regarding Bylaw 2.5.2: Bylaw 2.5.2 currently reads: 
Congregations that are members of the Synod, as well as 
association schools, agencies, auxiliaries, and recognized 
service organizations shall call and be served only by (1) or -
dained ministers who have been 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.
A bylaw requiring congregations to call and be served only by or -
dained members and teachers who are on the roster of the Synod 
was first adopted by the 1969 convention partially in response to 
1969 Ov. 5-05, which referenced pastors who had resigned from the 
Synod but still wished to continue to serve the congregation which 
had called them (Workbook, p. 229).