Dear Pastors & Member Congregations of Circuit F of the SD ...

Dear Pastors & Member Congregations of Circuit F of the SD District of the LC-MS,

On July 9-14th, I served as your Circuit Lay Voting Delegate at the National LC-MS Convention in Milwaukee, WI. Our convention theme was Upon This Rock. It was a week filled with wonderful worship, highlighted by beautiful music and encouraging preachers. (Anyone interested in watching videos of these services, as well as those wanting to see video of any of the convention business sessions, is invited to go online and view them. They are all available at ). However, it was also a week packed with the `business' of the Church and many prayerfully considered resolutions that needed to be voted upon. The following information is my report to you on these matters.

What is this report? As delegates representing our Circuits, we are all encouraged to report back to the Churches we represent. However, in today's day, with all our technology and access many of you already interested in the convention business, may have watched coverage live online or may have read one of the many reports already out there. People with a casual interest in the business conducted at the convention have many resources available to them, including stories written by The Reporter (which does a good job of covering all the floor committees in its August edition) and The Lutheran Witness (which features a nice recap in their August issue by Sarah Ludwig of Cresbard, SD). My thought is, that with all these other options out there for you, why would anyone bother with my report when they could read one of these others? Well, the most honest answer is I was already over half way done with this report by the time these others were printed and being both a South Dakotan & a Lutheran with lots of German in his lineage; I am just too stubborn to not finish it at this point and send it out to all you wonderful people. But also, mine is a much more detailed report covering each individual resolution for those that really want to read the details of what transpired. I know that that makes my report a long (and more than likely boring) read, but I think it is worth taking the time to look it over. Pastors are likely interested in most the information, while I might recommend to my fellow laity that at the least you read the first and last few pages for my thoughts/observations and just skim through the resolutions section as you see fit.

First I would like the preface this report by mentioning that in addition to the video coverage I mentioned above, the website , also contains a great deal of other resources about the convention that you may be interested in looking into. Copies of our many documents can be found here ( ) including the Convention Handbook, the Synodical Handbook, Minutes of each day's sessions, biographies of all the nominees for office and each day's edition of the `Today's Business' workbook. As I

attempted to do my best to summarize each resolution here in my report, if you would like to read the complete resolutions in their entirety, feel free to contact me and I will do my best to direct you toward the correct document you seek.

There are a great number of elections that are held at the convention, including everything from positions on the Board of Directors for our Concordia Publishing House, our Concordia University System & the Lutheran Church Extension Fund to members of the Commission of Theology & Church Matters, the Board of National Mission, the Board of International Mission and even the Board of Regents for each individual Seminary & University in our Synod. I will not go into the long list of each position here, but I will report on the top elections and those most relevant to our district. If you have interest in more election results, I urge you to look at for more information.

During the month leading up to the convention, Pastoral & lay delegates that were sent by

congregations to last year's District convention voted in an election to determine our synodical

president for the next triennium. Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison was re-elected to a third term after

receiving the majority vote on the first ballot during the June 11-14 election period. All other elections

were held at the convention. Rev. Herbert Mueller Jr. was re-elected as the First Vice-President of the

Synod. The rest of the Praesidium was established with the election and subsequent ranking of the

regional vice-presidents; South Dakota's Rev. Nabil Nour was re-elected as our Great Plains Regional

Vice-President. The Regional VPs were ordered as follows...

2nd VP -

Rev. Scott Murray

3rd VP -

Rev. Nabil Nour

4th VP -

Rev. John Wohlrabe

5th VP -

Rev. Daniel Preus

6th VP -

Rev. Christopher Esget

Several other elections of note: Having served in the Office of Secretary of the Synod for an unprecedented 18 years, Rev. Dr.

Ray Hartwig (a former SD District President I'm sure many of you know) will be retiring soon. Rev. John Sias was elected to be his successor in the Office of Secretary.

Rev. Dr. Michael Kumm, from South Dakota, was re-elected to another term as an `at large' member of the LCMS Board of Directors. Rev. Kumm currently serves as the chairman of the Board. Also of note, elected to the LCMS Board of Directors as Layperson member from the Great Plains region was a Mr. Larry Harrington. If you have been following the news & praying for Wyoming Judge Ruth Neely, an LCMS member who is under attack for her Biblical views on marriage ( read the following to learn more - ), Mr. Harrington is Judge Neely's attorney.

On to the resolutions that were presented and considered at the convention. This year there were 18 floor committees that were assembled to review all the overtures that were submitted to the

convention. They then took the overtures and eliminated, added, compiled & reworked them into the resolutions that were eventually presented for vote. I will report on these resolutions by the floor committee that presented them and not necessarily in the order they were presented or adopted, but by numeric order instead.

Omnibus Resolutions: Omnibus Resolutions A, B & C.

There are a large number of overtures submitted to convention and a good number of them are duplicitous or are in part covered by other overtures. Some overtures do not require action by the voting body of the convention and need to be referred to the person or office appropriate to it. Many of these are overtures are bundled together by the floor committee into Omnibus Resolutions to be dealt with in mass. Omnibus Resolution `A' referred, in bulk, about 55 overtures to the designated board, commission or individual appropriate to study or to implement. Omnibus Resolution `B' offered up a group of 6 overtures that referred to actions already acted upon by previous conventions or synodical by-law and were deemed to show insufficient rationale to make change. These overtures are referred to the previous action or by-law. Omnibus Resolution `C' presented 5 overtures that make request for recognition of noteworthy labors of love. This resolution receives the overtures as expressions of encouragement or gratitude & asks for them to be approved together in thanksgiving. All 3 Omnibus Resolutions passed.

Floor Committee 1 ? National Witness: Resolution 1-01 : To Expand Evangelism and Encourage Use of Every One His Witness.

This resolution resolved to reaffirm the Synod's commitment to the Great Commission, to reaffirm North America as a mission field, to commend current evangelism efforts of our districts & congregations and finally to adopt the Every One His Witness evangelism program and commend its use to all districts & congregations. Resolution passed.

Resolution 1-02 : To Encourage Church Planting throughout the Synod and Supporting the "Mission Field: USA" Initiative. This resolution resolved to equip & support Mission Field USA church planting initiative with an emphasis on encouraging districts of the Synod to try to plant 150 new congregations and to send 18 new `domestic' missionaries in the new triennium. There was some discussion regarding how this would work with districts church planting efforts and it was clarified that the initiative works with districts and at districts request. There was also discussion in regards to the nature of the domestic missionaries. Resolution passed with only 75% in favor, likely due to some of the confusion that was debated.

Resolution 1-03 : To Expand the Work of Revitalization and Encourage the Use of re:Vitality Program. The resolution called to continue the re:Vitality program and encourage congregations to use the resources made available through the program to help in efforts to revitalize our own congregations. Resolution passed.

Resolution 1-04 : To Encourage Immigrant and Refugee Outreach. Resolution encouraged congregations to witness to immigrants and refugee and to make outreach a high priority. In correlation to the previously passed Resolution 1-02, it also called for the Synod to work

through districts to identify at least 12 locations over the next triennium where there is a significant immigrant and refugee population in which to send national missionaries. Resolution passed.

Resolution 1-05 : To Give Thanks and Praise to God for 40th Anniversary of HMong Ministry and Encourage Synod Support. Simply, this resolution gave thanks & praise to God for 40 years of HMong ministry (in which LCMS congregations sponsored many HMong & other Southeast Asian families as they resettled them in the United States as a result of the Vietnam War). It also resolved that the Synod continue to encourage & support districts & congregations with HMong outreach and that they also address need for trained workers in this ministry. Resolution passed.

Resolution 1-06 : To Celebrate Legacy of Rosa J. Young and Encourage Launch of Rosa J. Young International Academies. Dr. Rosa J. Young's accomplishments have been well documented in the recent film produced by the LCMS (If you or your congregation have yet to see it, DVDs should have already been sent to each church. ). The Rosa J. Young International Academies' are in the early stages of being established. This resolution thanked God for what He has accomplished through the work of Dr. Young and commends the development of the proposed Academies'. Resolution passed.

Floor Committee 2 ? International Witness: Resolution 2-01 : To Thank God for Faithful Service of LCMS Missionaries.

This resolution gives thanks to God for His blessings upon LCMS mission work, thanks all who have served in international mission ministry and asked for funding to coordinate a reunion of LCMS missionaries to reunite, give thanks and to foster conversation that would enhance future mission work. Resolution passed.

Resolution 2-02 : To Thank God for Increase in Number of LCMS Career Missionaries and Invite Further Increase and Support for Synod's Mission Work. This resolution resolved prayers & thanksgiving for many things related to mission work and encouraged increase of giving toward missions in proportion to the increase new missionaries. Resolution passed.

Resolution 2-03 : To Commend and Support Synod's International Schools and Their Role in the Church's Mission This resolution resolves to encourage our 3 international schools to find ways to sustain and broaden their impact in their respective countries and regions, encourage LCMS educators to apply to work in the international schools and to establish policies that will foster intentional, collaborative partnerships between the 3 schools, the Concordia University System and Lutheran elementary & high schools; provide means of centralized advocacy & coordination in the international schools in the recruitment of educators; and consider & support appropriate opportunities to plant new international schools. Resolution passed.

Resolution 2-04 : To Reaffirm LCMS Military Chaplains' Right for Free Exercise of Religion in Face of LGBT Inclusion in Armed Forces. In addition to giving thanks to God for calling LCMS clergy into the Armed Forces & reaffirming the LCMS's willingness to continue to call clergy to the Chaplain Corps, the resolution supports section 533 of the National Defense Authorization Act that no member of Armed Forces or public official may require a chaplain to perform any rite, ritual, or ceremony that is contrary to the conscience, moral

principles, or religious beliefs of the chaplain; or discriminate or take any adverse personnel action against a chaplain, including denial of promotion, schooling, training, or assignment, on the basis of the refusal by the chaplain to comply with a prohibited requirement. The resolution also re-affirms the Synod's stance against the espousing or promoting of LGBT matters so that chaplains might be free either to "perform or provide" for pastoral care to all servicemen, servicewomen, and children in accordance with their own religious and moral beliefs and in accordance with the publicly stated doctrinal positions of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. Resolution passed.

Note: Resolutions 2-05 and 2-06 never made it to the floor & therefor died due to no action.

Floor Committee 3 ? Mercy: Resolution 3-01 : To Commend and Encourage Work of LCMS Disaster Response.

Pretty straight forward here, this resolution gives thanks for the mercy work of LCMS Disaster Response, resolves that they continue to produce training & resources to serve and that the Synod encourage members to continue to support its work with both financial assistance and prayer. Resolution passed.

Resolution 3-02 : To Commend Work of LCMS National Housing Support Corporation. Much like the previous resolution, , this resolution gives thanks for the work of LCMS National Housing Support Corporation, thanks God for His blessings and gifts and resolves LCMS members to support it & engage its expertise in strengthening of neighborhoods near LCMS congregations. Resolution passed.

Resolution 3-03 : To Encourage Synod to Educate and Advocate for Persecuted Christians. Resolves that the Synod encourage pastors & congregations to be better informed about the issue of world-wide persecution of Christians. It also resolves that our LCMS publications (such as The Lutheran Witness, The Reporter and Lutherans Engage the World) become sources of information & direction in ways to help. Resolution passed.

Resolution 3-04 : To Create Task Force for Study of Issues Relating to Procreation, Fertility, and Care for Unborn. As many of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) documents and reports on life issues are now decades old, and the applicable science and technologies addressed therein have greatly, rapidly, and considerably changed, even as other new science and technologies have emerged in the same intervening time period, even in the last few years and Christians are seeking guidance from the church based on the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions regarding the use of contraception, in vitro fertilization (IVF), other reproductive technologies, and the use of aborted fetal tissue for medical purposes; this resolution resolves that the President of the Synod appoint a task force within the Office of National Mission consisting of the Director of LCMS Life and Health Ministries and representatives from Lutherans for Life, the CTCR, each of the Synod's seminaries, and rostered LCMS church workers or lay members of the LCMS congregations who are respected for their expertise in the fields of medicine, procreative science, theology, ethics, and the like to study issues surrounding fertility and procreation; and it further resolves that this task force gather and arrange points for consideration, coordinate discussion, and identify actions leading to the production of appropriate LCMS responses to these issues (reports, study documents, essays, other media, etc.) with the CTCR; and it finally resolves that this task force make its recommendations in the form of appropriate overtures to the Synod's 2019 national convention. Resolution passed.

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