I will be flying out this Friday to do something that I have ended up doing once every 3 years – going to the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod National  Convention. I have learned that not a lot of people understand what this event is about. So I’m going to spend a little time outlining what it is and why it is important.

What it is: The LCMS’s first convention was in 1847. It was attended by 12 pastors representing 14 congregations. At that convention, they agreed to become a part of a fellowship together that believed the same things and worked with one another. Starting Saturday morning, this next convention will feature about 1,476 delegates (both pastors and lay people) who will represent about 5,767 congregations with a combined total of about 1.7 million congregants. 

Those 1,476 delegates will gather together to hear reports and vote on things like the leadership of our church body for the coming three years and on 106 proposed resolutions (items of legislation for our church body, like a bill in congress). Those resolutions are on many different topics including things like supporting campus ministry possibly with a full time worker overseeing it for Synod, addressing requirements and preferences for who should be reading Scripture publicly, potentially limiting or defining how would-be-pastors are trained, and many other items (you can check out a full list at https://lcms2026.adcrucem.news/resolutions ).

All of this is “denomination work,” which sometimes gets a bad rap. We feel kind of icky sometimes about having a “denomination” because we know that Jesus has called us to unity in His Body the Church, and “denomination” feels like the opposite of “unity” sometimes. But I’ll never forget hearing a Baptist pastor explaining the strength of denominations. Denominations are there to help focus and unify like-minded people around like-minded causes. They actually help to organize us together so that we can get some good things done for the good of the whole of the Church. So when we get together to do this work every 3 years – it should result in us being clearer and more freed up about the good that we are doing in the world to bring glory to God and bring more people to His Son, Jesus Christ.

As Paul said, not everyone in the body of Christ is an eye or an ear. We need each other. The Southern Baptist Convention needs the LCMS. The Presbyterian Church in America needs the Anglian Communion of North America. So and and so forth. We gather together to be who we are so that the whole of the Body of Christ can be built up and more people can hear the Gospel of Jesus.

So please include the delegates to the National Convention in your prayers this coming week. Consider the leaders who have allowed their name to stand for election in your words with God. Pray that this Convention would be a good one so that we can be the best Lutheran Church Missouri Synod that we can be, not for our own sakes, but for the sake of the Body of Christ and for those who still have yet to hear the Gospel.