The Rev. Dwayne Lueck of Wausau, Wis., is the new president of the LCMS North Wisconsin District.
Delegates to the district’s 50th convention, meeting June 10-11 in Rothschild, Wis., on the third presidential ballot elected Lueck — who served the last 25 yea
He and the other officers elected were installed during the convention.
Lueck, 59, was pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bartlesville, Okla., for three years before joining the North Wisconsin District staff in 1987. A 1979 graduate of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, he first served as pastor of a dual parish in Martinsburg and Newcastle, Neb. (1979-84). He and his wife, Cheryl, are the parents of three grown children.
As district president, Lueck succeeds the Rev. Paul A. Weber, who served for a year to fill out the term of office of former district President Rev. Joel A. Hoelter.
Convention delegates also elected the following to three-year terms of service:
- the Rev. Dr. Timothy W. “Tim” Roser, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Junction City, Wis., and St. John Lutheran Church, Dancy, Wis., first vice-president;
- the Rev. Steven A. “Steve” Hulke, pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church, Marquette, Mich., second vice-president; and
- the Rev. William C. Plautz, senior pastor of Faith Lutheran Church, Chippewa Falls, Wis., third vice-president.
Plautz and Hulke previously were the district’s first and third vice-president, respectively. This was Roser’s first election to a district vice-presidency.
Delegates also adopted 15 resolutions, including measures of support for the Lutheran Malaria Initiative (LMI), the LCMS Post-Seminary Applied Learning and Support (PALS) program, and for helping pastors in the district with “taking time to rest.”
LMI is a joint effort of the Synod and Lutheran World Relief, Baltimore — supported by the United Nations Foundation — to heighten awareness of the disease and raise $45 million for the effort to eliminate malaria deaths in Africa by 2015.
The resolution endorses LMI “as a priority in the ministry of the [district],” calls for establishing a district task force “to plan a servant event to Africa in 2013 in cooperation with LMI leaders” and “encourage[s] congregations and pastors in the district to participate in … LMI in whatever ways feasible.”
As explained in the resolution concerning PALS, that Synod program provides opportunities for pastors in their first three years after seminary graduation — as well as their wives — to meet regularly with trained facilitators to enhance parish-ministry learning experiences and “facilitate successful transition … from seminary life to parish life.”
That resolution asks the district president to urge congregations calling new seminary graduates to encourage and facilitate their participation in the PALS program, asks the two LCMS seminaries to continue promoting the program among those about to become pastors, and also calls on the district president to “ensure that new pastors to our district and their wives be encouraged” to participate in PALS.
The action memorializes the Synod’s 2013 convention to “encourage all districts to participate in PALS.”
The adopted resolution titled “To Assist Pastors in Taking Time to Rest” notes that North Wisconsin congregations recognize that the district “has been blessed with faithful pastors” by “including vacation time in their compensation packages,” but acknowledges that some pastors do not take vacations when they are not able to locate others to preach and lead services for them while they are on vacation.
The resolution asks the district president’s office to compile by Sept. 1 and update yearly a list of those willing to preach and lead services for vacationing pastors, and to mail the list to pastors in the district and post it on the district’s website.
Among other actions, delegates to the North Wisconsin District convention adopted resolutions:
- memorializing the 2013 Synod convention to “set the support of missionaries and seminaries as top priorities and goals for the next triennium.”
- encouraging district congregations and circuits to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 by making it “a priority to refresh, renew and expand their knowledge and understanding of our Lutheran doctrine,” using the “numerous resources” available. The resolution also encourages congregations and circuits to “use the opportunity … as an occasion for outreach with the Gospel of Jesus Christ to their local communities.”
- encouraging “evaluation, study and use of the LCMS Stewardship Primer and other biblically-based stewardship resources.”
- encouraging and supporting district congregations “in remaining faithful to the historic orthodox and biblical Lutheran teaching and practice of the role of women in the Church,” and memorializing the 2013 Synod convention to prepare a new document on the scriptural relationship of man and woman.
- urge each congregation in the district to reach out to its community with the Gospel and to study with its circuit where it might start such new work, and that circuits and the district seek ways to bolster the Gospel work of small and declining congregations.
Before offering the two “resolveds,” the resolution states that the Synod’s 2004 convention adopted Resolution 3-08A, which affirms the conclusions of a 1994 report of the LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations titled “the Service of Women in Congregational and Synodical Offices.” However, it also observes that “the 1994 report … did not adequately address the place of ‘the order of creation.’ ”
LCMS Fourth Vice-President Rev. Daniel Preus preached for the June 10 convention opening worship service at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, Weston, Wis.
Synod President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison addressed the convention June 11 and the Rev. Dr. David Maier, president of the LCMS Michigan District, was guest speaker.
The 2012 North Wisconsin District convention’s theme, “Shine Your Light,” was based on Eph. 5:8.
Posted June 14, 2012 / Updated June 27, 2012
