During the May 23–24 meeting of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Board of Directors (BOD) and a follow-up meeting held June 9, the BOD’s key item of business was the consideration and adoption of the LCMS budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026, which runs from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026.
After a series of in-depth mission and ministry presentations from Synod leaders, LCMS Chief Financial Officer Nathan Haak presented the FY26 mission and ministry operation budget, reflecting anticipated base revenues and net asset releases of $81.440M and a base spending plan of $85.215M. The base proposal does not include the 2025 LCMS Youth Gathering, for which revenues and spending mostly offset one another.
Factoring in Gathering expenses ($565K of which are expected to be covered with funds held in reserve), the total proposed budget amount was $94.944M. The plan as presented “balanced” the budget by requesting $3.775M of board-designated funds. With it, Haak shared multi-year projections reflecting a cautionary tone, indicating that simple inflation growth on current spending, without greater revenue increase, would result in significantly deepening deficits over time.
At the May meeting, the Audit Committee offered, and the board labored over, a budget amendment and corresponding policy statement that ultimately:
- Set as a strategic target unrestricted reserves equal to one year’s Synod expenditures (excluding expenditures in specified areas with a year of restricted funds in reserve), to be accomplished no later than the end of Fiscal Year 2035 (which means an accumulation, through budgetary discipline, of approximately $20.5M in additional reserves);
- Charged LCMS executive staff, with support from unit leadership, with creating a detailed three-year plan aligned with the 10-year target indicated above;
- Released certain funds once set aside by the board for specific purposes to unrestricted, undesignated net assets, reflecting the effectiveness of new financial controls at managing deficit spending; and
- Required amendment of the FY26 operating budget proposal to reduce the draw on unrestricted, undesignated net assets from $3.95M (excluding capital projects and including a new director of Mission Operations position) to $2M.
Given the need to reduce expenses comparably, adoption of a budget was postponed to allow time for Haak to identify necessary cuts. The finalized budget proposal, consistent with the above and reflecting a $300K increase in anticipated revenues, a $550K increase in restricted net asset released, a $300K increase in usage of specific board-designated funds, an $850K reduction in expenditure, and a reduction in the draw-down of “unrestricted reserves” by $2M, as requested, was adopted by the BOD during a virtual meeting on June 9. The adjustments were specifically crafted to avoid, at the board’s request, impact on staff. The total spending plan wound up at $94.269M, reflecting a $1.95M net deficit, excluding application of specific board-designated funds ($300K generally and $565K in Youth Gathering reserves).
In other business, the BOD at its May meeting approved:
- A capital budget of $945,000 for a list of items including sealing of the LCMS International Center parking lot, chapel organ repair, roof repair and IT needs, among others, subject to adequate funds being available;
- An update to the master plan for Concordia University Chicago, River Forest, Ill.;
- The purchase of a property adjoining the LCMS-owned Old Latin School in Wittenberg, Germany, with a plan to develop the property for use as an event and dormitory space;
- Appointments for several entity boards;
- Construction of capital projects on the campus of Concordia International School Shanghai; and
- Creation of legal entities in Germany and Honduras for the purpose of supporting the mission work going on in those countries.
Minutes, when available, will be posted at lcms.org/bod.
The BOD next meets Aug. 29–30 in St. Louis.
Posted Aug. 8, 2025
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