To Memorialize Synod to Change its Mind About 2004 Res. 8-01A

Rationale: In 2004 Res. 8-01A the Synod adopted new procedures for ecclesiastical supervision and dispute resolution. It was acting on recommendations of a presidential task force that had been made widely available only a few weeks before the synodical convention via the 2004 Convention Workbook (pages 25-43). Adopting such a large and complex set of bylaw changes on short notice rarely, if ever, yields good results. The bylaws approved under 2004 Res. 8-01A have shown themselves to have a number of very serious flaws.

First, these bylaws require that a face-to-face meeting must precede any and all public rebuke of a public sin such as teaching false doctrine (which would be a cause for expelling a member from the Synod). Citing Matthew 18:15, the new Bylaw 2.14.3(c) asserts that the face-to-face meeting is a biblical requirement which must be carried out also in “public” cases -- despite biblical counterexamples such as Gal. 2:11ff. and the affirmation of the Lutheran Confessions that “where the sin is so public that the judge and the whole world are aware of it, you can without sin . . . testify publicly” concerning the offender (Large Catechism I 284). Under 2004 Res. 8-01A, our Synod adopted bylaws which contradict Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions.

The new bylaws adopted under 2004 Res. 8-01A are unwise as well as theologically unsound. They establish panels to hear cases in which members of the Synod might be expelled from synodical membership. These panels are composed entirely of district presidents. Thus a basic element of wise jurisprudence -- trial by a group of one’s peers -- has been all but removed from our Synod’s process for handling expulsion cases. Only if a district president were in jeopardy of removal would the case be heard by a group of his peers.

There is at least one other theological problem with the bylaws adopted under 2004 Res. 8-01A. Hearing panels are composed entirely of district presidents. They have no other members, clergy or lay. These panels hear all cases in which members of the Synod might be expelled, including those involving false doctrine. So with the adoption of 2004 Res. 8-01A, and for the first time in the history of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, there can be no lay participation in deciding cases of false doctrine at the synodical level. Did the Synod really think this matter through? At its previous convention in 2001 the Synod reaffirmed its first doctrinal statement, C.F.W. Walther’s Church and Ministry, which says: “To the ministry of the Word, according to divine right, belongs also the duty to judge doctrine, but laymen also possess this right. Therefore, in the ecclesiastical courts and councils they are accorded both a seat and vote together with the clergy” (thesis 10 on the Ministry). Thus, 2004 Res. 8-01A contradicts the Synod’s oldest and most recently reaffirmed doctrinal statement.

Resolved, that the 2006 South Dakota District convention memorializes the Synod (a.) to change its mind about Resolution 8-01A, rescinding all the bylaws adopted under that resolution and reinstating all the previous bylaws superseded by Res. 8-01A in 2004 and (b.) to assign the Commission on Structure to review the entire matter of ecclesiastical supervision and dispute resolution and report to the Synod any recommendations for needed change at least one calendar year before they are to be considered at a synodical convention.