Brothers,
Below is a summary of the recent off-site meeting of the COP. As always,if
there are any questions about the things you read in the summary, do not
hesitate to e-mail me or give me a call.
DOUG
Wisconsin
Evangelical Lutheran Synod
Conference
of Presidents
January 7-11,
2012
San Juan,
Puerto Rico
A G E N D
A
Saturday, January 7
8:30 a.m. Bible study (wives
welcome!) Joel
Petermann
District
President Joel Petermann led us in a devotion based on Matthew 9:9-13. The title of his devotion was:”Battling With Jesus For The Basement Of My
Heart”. He pointed out that we need to battle together
with Jesus (not battling against Jesus, but along with Him),
empowered by the Holy Spirit, against the attitude that may lie at the bottom of
our heart that we are not necessarily in the same category as the tax collectors
and “sinners”. Through daily
confession we can remind ourselves of the fact that we are among the sinners
that Jesus came to call, and that we are not “the righteous”, for no one is
righteous apart from Christ. We can
find great comfort in the fact that Jesus came to call sinners such as we, and
that He is the physician, who alone can cure us of our sinful condition. We closed our devotion with the singing of What Grace Is This! (CWS 715) and
prayer.
9:00 a.m. Plenary session – preliminary
business
Consent
agenda
CA.01 Minutes, October 2011 meeting
and November and December
2011
teleconferences1
A motion was
made and carried to accept the consent agenda.
P.01 Approval of the
agenda
A motion was
made and carried to accept the agenda as presented.
P.02 President’s
report
President
Schroeder gave an oral report on things going on in the
synod:
·
An ad hoc
committee is working on putting both of the synod buildings that we now have up
for sale to resolve the problem of having two properties; there is great
commercial value in the 2929 property, but the timing is not the best right now,
although there is some interest from several parties. The Pewaukee property is very marketable
and would be listed at present value, which is above the short-sale purchase
price. The former prospective buyer of
the 2929 property would have had to put down earnest money at the end of the due
diligence period, but backed out the day before that period was up.
·
CMO
subscriptions to date (only 20% in at this point in time) are up from last year;
2011 gifts are considerably lower than budgeted; the “lock box” closes on Monday and the hope
is that year end receipts will come in strong.
·
There are a
number of personnel changes taking place at the SAB due to retirements and
people accepting other positions; more “pooling” of staff is being considered;
Jon Flannigan, who has handled HR duties previously, is taking care of the HR
matters until someone is hired to replace former HR director, Roger Crawford,
who resigned for health reasons.
P.03 Preview and initial discussion of committee
tasks
P.04 Future meetings and significant
dates
March 26-28 @
SAB 8:30 AM Monday to Noon
Wednesday
May 17-19 (at
MLC)
May
17-18: Assignments
(begins 8:00 am)
May 18 MLC Commencement
concerts (4:00 &7:30 PM)
May 19 MLC Graduation (10 AM) and call
service (2:30 PM)
May 21 Meet at
SAB
May 22-25 (at
WLS)
May 22: Vicar assignments
(begins 8:00 am)
Vicar call
service (7:00 pm)
May 23: Pastor assignments
(begins 8:00 am)
May 24: WLS Call day service
(10:00 am)
May 25: WLS Graduation (10:00
am)
October
8-11 COP meeting in
Milwaukee
January
11-16 Off-site COP
meeting
P.05 Green sheet review and update 1
The district
presidents went through the list of men in their districts who could benefit
from a call, listed those who should be considered CRM, and presented the names
of those who should not be considered for calls at this time due to health
concerns, family concerns, or special situations.
P.06 Interviews, inquiries, and colloquy
update
P.07 Special
situations
A number of
special situations were discussed, including the Milwaukee Hope Schools and
congregations in other districts with special needs or problems.
P.08 Retirement
calls
P.09 Vacancy profile
The district
presidents presented the pastoral vacancies that they have in their districts as
well as vacancies for theologically trained individuals in institutions, world
missionaries, and synodically called individuals. Totals are:
37 vacant parishes, 3 semi-
retired, 1 foreign missionary, 3 professors, and 3 other.
There are
approximately 22 vicars and 34-35
graduates that will be available in May for assignment.
1:30 p.m. Plenary discussion (see
list)
Sunday, January 8
Morning Worship at area
churches
San Juan
(times unconfirmed)
Guayama
2
vans 3
vans
9:30 a.m. Worship
service 9:15 a.m. Bible
study
10:30 a.m.
Fellowship
10:00 a.m. Worship service
11:00 a.m. Bible
study
Schroeder
Rutschow
Buchholz
Guse
Treptow
Huebner
Naumann
Prahl
Engelbrecht
Lambert Seifert
Degner
Voss
Pasbrig Petermann Glaeske
The trip to
Guayama at the south end of the island to worship with our brothers and sisters
in Christ there was very uplifting.
District President Jon Buchholtz, who was a former vicar in Guayama,
preached the sermon in Spanish. After
the worship service, we were invited to join in fellowship with the members and
stay for the noon meal before returning to San Juan. We had a chance to
meet with many of the members, including the two sons of Pastor
Sergio
Cortijo, who are studying to be pastors in the Lutheran Church of Puerto Rico.
“How good it is and how pleasant to live
in unity and peace. How good it is and
how pleasant to live together in one Lord!”
(CWS 773)
Monday, January 9
8:00 a.m. Bible study
Joel
Petermann
District
President Joel Petermann continued with the theme “Battling With Jesus For The Basement Of My
Heart. His second study was based
on Matthew 12:1-8. The devotion brought up the subject of rules
obscuring the mission. The Pharisees were more concerned about following the
”rules” and not very concerned about the purpose of the Sabbath, because they
did not see Jesus as the Lord of the Sabbath.
We closed our devotion with the
singing of hymn # 737 “God’s Own Child I
Gladly Own It” and prayer.
The members of
the COP had the opportunity to spend Monday afternoon with their wives touring
various places on the island.
Tuesday, January 10
8:30 a.m. Bible study
Joel
Petermann
In the third
devotion District President Joel Petermann brought out the matter of “pretense”
and how the type of pretense displayed by the Pharisees in Matthew 23:25-28 is
actually there in all of us. Because
pastors want the Gospel to be seen in a good light, we tend to wear a mask that
does not let our people see what we are actually like, i.e. sinners like
everybody else. The cure for such
pretense is confession and trust in the blood atonement of Christ. We closed our devotion with the singing of
hymn # 738 “In Hopelessness And Near
Despair”. [GJ - Appropriate.]
9:00 a.m. Presentation and discussion on Ministry
Issues Paul
Wendland
Since the
parameters of our off-site meetings each year call for them to involve elements
of leadership training,
Seminary President Paul Wendland was invited to lead us in a presentation
entitled “Walking Together, In Step With The Truth Of The Gospel” (Reclaiming
the “E” in WELS). Details of that
discussion and various exercises that we went through are summarized in the
section below entitled “Discussion on Ministry Issues”.
10:00
a.m. Open discussion with area
pastors
We were
thrilled to have time to meet with the pastors and leaders of the Lutheran
Church of Puerto Rico with whom we share fellowship in the gospel. The men from the Island of Puerto Rico
introduced themselves:
- Sergio
Cortijo, the president of the Lutheran
Church of Puerto Rico, who also serves three congregations.
- Raphael
Alvarez, president of the Lutheran church in Guayama, and treasurer of the
Lutheran Church in Puerto Rico.
- Manuel
Munroig, the pastor at True God Lutheran Church in San Juan.
- Jean Rivera
Monthouel, a member of the church in
Guayama.
It was a joy
to hear their confession of faith as well as the challenges that the Lord has
placed before them and the victories He has granted them through the
gospel. It was interesting to note that
many of the challenges to ministry that they face in Puerto Rico are the same
ones we face in the United States.
12:00
noon Lunch with area pastors and
church leaders
1:00 p.m. Presentation and discussion on Ministry
Issues Paul
Wendland
President
Wendland continued his presentation to the COP. We discussed the difference between
DOCTRINE, PRACTICE, and APPLICATION, utilizing an exercise that helped us
discuss various practices/applications by rating them E – Essential, D –
desirable, N – neutral, or U – undesirable.
Several other exercises helped us discuss the efficacy vs. the
stewardship of the Word. An important
question in connection with these discussions was: what does a church body do when
individuals/minorities adopt different practices than “the norm”? It is clear that communication is vitally
important among brothers. It is also
clear that the solution to the issues we face in this respect is not to
establish a set of rules or make policies for everything, but to continue to
talk brother to brother as members of the COP in order to come to consensus and
a resolution if at all possible.
3:30 p.m Continue Presentation and discussion on
Ministry Issues Paul
Wendland
Or Committee
time
Wednesday, January 11
8:30 a.m. Bible study
Joel
Petermann
The last of
devotions was based on Matthew 22:34-40, the story of the expert in the law
trying to trip up Jesus by asking which, in His opinion, was the greatest of the
commandments. Jesus’ response to the
question the Pharisees asked brings out the need to fight against love of
self. The great commandment is to love
God, the love we have for our neighbor is the application of the great
commandment. It is comforting to know
that Jesus not only spoke these words, but also did what they say…in our
place! We closed our devotion with the
singing of hymn #727 “There Is A Higher
Throne” and prayer.
9:00 a.m. Plenary discussion and/or
resolutions
- The members of
the COP summarized the leadership sessions it had with President Wendland and
further discussed issues related to the material we went through.
- We discussed
the procedure for replacing MCG director Dave Liggett, who has announced his
retirement in the fall of 2012.
- VP James
Huebner gave us an update on the plan to have an every member visit by every
congregation in the WELS in the fall of 2012 or spring of 2013. The program will be introduced at the
district conventions.
12:00
noon Adjournment
Plenary
Discussion items:
PD.01 Vicar selection priorities (Called
Workers: W.4)
The seminary
has a committee working on a recommended list of places where they feel the best
possible situation would exist for training a vicar. We are in a transitional phase. Self-supporting congregations requesting and
fully supporting a vicar are can no longer be the criterion that guarantees a
congregation will receive one. The
seminary and the COP are more interested in the quality of the vicar experience
than in congregations providing the support for the program. The hope is that all the funding for the
vicar program can become part of the regular allocation of budgetary funds given
to the seminary for its over-all program.
The seminary desires the input of the members of the COP as well when
recommending places for vicars to serve. The DP’s made a preliminary list of the three
congregations in their district, in priority order, that they feel would provide
the best place for a vicar to be assigned.
A summary will be provided by February.
PD.02 Translation issues, including discussion of
possible ballot format (for benefit of the Presidium); possible new translation;
reaction to ELS Doctrine Committee resolution (Doctrine: D.1)
District
President Petermann gave a report on the recent symposium held at the seminary
on translations. After the participants
did their own exegesis of various passages, they were asked to rate translations
of the passages that they had worked on, not being told what translation they
came from. The participants voted the
NIV 2011, by a wide margin, over the HCSB, the ESV, and the participants’ own
translations (in that order) as the
preferred translation. The TEC has
come to the conclusion that more time is needed to make a decision and would
prefer not to have a vote taken at the district conventions. There was considerable discussion on whether
or not it is wise to proceed with the resolution of the convention to take a
vote at the 2012 district conventions. [GJ - How best to manipulate this democratic process until we get the opponents to surrender?]
PD.03 Wider offering for 2017 (Congregations: C.2)
Though we are
hesitant to carry out special offerings in emergency situations as we have in
the past, the question is, is there value in having a special offering in
observance of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 if
there is a definite goal such as opening more missions, etc. Discussion was held, but no decision was
made.
PD.04 Biblical principles of divorce in light of
internet pornography (Doctrine: D.2)
President
Schroeder asked for input into appointing an ad hoc committee to study the
principles of divorce in light of the development of the internet and the
problems that it poses through internet pornography. The suggestion was made that a three-man
committee be appointed consisting of a COP member, a seminary professor, and a
parish pastor. The committee would be preparing their work at
the behest and for the benefit of the
COP so that a final COP document can be produced.
PD.05 Status of Andrew
DeGier 1 and Aaron
West
The discussion
of the status of these two previous seminary graduates, who requested deferment
of a call, led to further discussion about how to handle requested deferments of
seminary graduates for further study, special considerations, and personal
situations.
PD.06 Options for
providing assistance to the president (Presidium: PR.1)
PD.07 Time of Grace
update
President
Rutschow updated us on attempts of the SEW District Presidium to have a meeting
with the leaders of the LCMS to clarify statements in the RSO agreement. Scheduling such a meeting has proven to be
difficult due to the full calendars of those who would be participants, but
efforts are continuing. A motion was
made to request President Schroeder to be involved in further discussions. Representatives of the LCMS indicated that
they would like to have the presidents of each synod involved in the continuing
discussions.
PD.08 Update on MLHS
choir matter
PD.09 Women professors
at MLC
PD.10 More on Elton
Stroh and other similar efforts
PD.11 Other
items
PD.12 Pastoral
questions
a) general
reports from districts
b) issues in
leaving a congregation
c) communion
practices
President
Naumann will e-mail each of the DP’s with questions he has about unusual
communion practices that he has noticed have been cropping up due to unusual
circumstances, such as the use of gluten
free wafers, pastors communing themselves, use of something other than wine,
etc. He would appreciate comments from
the members of the COP when they review his e-mail.
PD.13 MLC
candidates/urban ministry
President
Rutschow spoke to us about the increasing need for urban teachers and the need
for MLC to have a more formalized program for producing teachers who are capable
of handling teaching in the inner city.
A week-end urban ministry experience is not enough to prepare a student
for what he or she will encounter in an urban setting. A motion was made and passed to recognize
that assignments made to urban schools may be
one-year calls at the discretion of the Assignment Committee in order to allow
the candidate/calling body to determine whether or not they can handle the
unique challenges of such a ministry, even though they may have indicated a
willingness to teach in an urban setting.
PD.14 Grace In
Action
Presidium
PR.1 Assistance for the
president
PR.2 District convention visits (final plans)
1
Doctrine
Committee
D.1 Translation issues
See PD 02.
D.2 Biblical principles for divorce
in light of internet pornography
See
PD04.
Called
Workers
W.1
Status of retirement guidelines
W.2
Principles and procedures for terminating called
positions
W.3
Every member visit plans (update on progress and plans for
implementation)
W.4
Vicar assignment process
Since the
number of vicars will be considerably smaller this year, each DP was asked to
send in a priority list of those
congregations that are either requesting a vicar or would be a good place for a
vicar to receive his
training.
Congregations
C.1
Status of CCC efforts (E12, possible director position,
etc.)
VP Jim Huebner gave us an update
on the efforts of the CCC program.
C.2
2017 synod-wide offering
C.3
Email request re: Youth and Family Ministry from Tom Schneider
1
The members of
the COP acknowledged the importance of a director of Youth and Family Ministry
as well as the value of finding
funding for continuing the Kid’s Connection videos. Requests for such additions to the budget, however, need to
be considered along with other requests and prioritized.
