I just got back from serving at the District Convention of the Florida Georgia District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. My role at this was not only as pastoral delegate (voter) but also as Secretary of the District, an elected position which I was elected to again. Along with our lay (non-church worker) delegate, Dr. Joel Holcombe, I spent a pretty active weekend in Orlando. But you didn’t. And you might be wondering what kind of a thing a District convention is, and happens at a thing like a District Convention. 
First of all, a District Convention is a business meeting for a District that happens every 3 years. A District is a grouping of churches, usually based on geography. Our District, the Florida Georgia District is all of the LCMS churches within Georgia and all of the Florida churches that are East of the Central Time Zone line. All in all, that’s about 215 churches and missions and about 50,000 members. There are about 35 different Districts of our church body, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod – comprising about 2 million members.
The Convention is the business meeting for this regional grouping of congregations. At it, we basically do three things: 1. Elect leadership for the next 3 years, 2. Discuss and decide upon business and goals for the District the next three years, 3. Discuss and decide upon recommendations we have for the national church body. In the midst of all of this, we have reports about the last three years and what all is happening in the church body both regionally and nationally.
The first night of our Convention we reelected our District President for his final term as president. We also elected and ranked our five regional vice presidents. Our new regional vice president for our region (approximately from Tallahassee to Jacksonville to just north of Orlando), Rev. James Rockey, who was ranked 3rd in succession. We also had a Bible study led by the District President of the Michigan District, and another one led by the President of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis.
The next day we passed a lot of legislation including an resolution to support campus ministry that was passed by the margin of 98.9% (176 votes), to 1.1% (2 votes). We haven’t found out who those 2 people are, but Jesus loves them too. We also passed some things where we tell our national church body how to operate, including one that encourages better financial transparency. Your pastor was elected for his last term as Secretary of the District, which means that I have one more of these conventions to work on (it’s been a LOT of work). We also elected some other representatives to the Board of Directors for the District. At the end of the day, the President of the Synod (National) visited with us and shared what is happening in the national church body.
On the last day, we worshiped together and did a little more voting, and then it was time to go home. But this still doesn’t give you the complete picture. This is because my minutes for the convention span 16 pages, but it is also because some of the most important time never shows up in my minutes. That important time was spent between members of different churches, sharing stories, information, and tips. That important time was spent by Christians building one another up and encouraging one another. That kind of stuff happens more often outside of the meeting than it does inside, and it is just as important if not more so.
So that’s a little of what a District Convention is, and what the District staff and servants have been working so hard to pull off. Hopefully it didn’t bore you to read about it…but if it did, that’s ok. It’s still important. It is important because it is who we are, the Body of Christ, working together to proclaim the Gospel. Just like any job, that job isn’t exciting 100% of the time, but the results and the reason behind the job….that’s worth eternity (and thankfully not an eternity spent in a District Convention either).