In October 2008, Pastor Harrison (Later President Harrison) laid out a vision of life in the LCMS. Instead of bylaws, procedures, and worldly ideas of corporate governance, he argued for a churchly approach. He painted with a broad brush; it was not a policy document, it was a vision of what the church could be…
At the 2010 convention, the synod made two choices:
One was to elect Matthew Harrison as president to implement a new structure. The second was a new more corporate structure, instead of President Harrison’s churchly model….
Bylaws, policies and procedures are the go-to documents, not the Word of God in Holy Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions. The way we think about the work of the church must change – and it now appears that it must change quickly.
The COVID crisis and sudden drop in funding at the synod level is only an acceleration of a long-standing trend. Cutting positions at the International Center buys us time. It will not save us. We need to change how synod functions. Rather than a hierarchical and worldly business model we need a scriptural, service model.
How do we return to faithfulness, and what would that look like?
