Road to convention: Lining up convention business

By John W. Sias

The “march” toward convention continues. As I noted last time, the deadline for submission of overtures and reports passes on Feb. 28 and the work of sharing these “impulses” toward convention action with the Synod and with the convention delegation gets underway in earnest. The convention’s second nomination process — covering the president and vice-president positions — is now also complete, and the results will be shared soon.

Floor committee process

The 2023 Synod convention received well over 270 pages of reports from the officers, boards and commissions of the Synod; from the Synod’s agencies (like districts, universities, seminaries and Synodwide corporate entities) and auxiliaries; and from task forces and committees established by previous conventions. These comprise “statements of work performed or contemplated by those who are [so] charged …, communications to a convention with respect to studies that may have been made …, or other types of communications to the Synod” (Bylaw 3.1.6.1).

It also received some 322 overtures, or “recommendations in the form of proposed resolutions requesting action on the part of the convention,” from the member congregations; district conventions, boards of directors and official conferences; faculties; boards and commissions of the Synod; and committees established by prior conventions (Bylaw 3.1.6.2).

With 303 overtures received as I write this in early February and most of the reports in, including some special ones on routes to ministry, I have no doubt the 2026 convention will have plenty of material to consider. And with all that material incoming, the convention has no prospect of accomplishing much if delegates have to pore over each item, as submitted, during the convention’s four and half business days.

This is why our convention does its preliminary work through floor committees (Bylaw 3.1.7) — this time, 10 of them. These receive all this material, as assigned by the president, and are charged to address each overture submitted in a resolution to be submitted to the convention. This can go a variety of ways. An overture or collection of overtures (as well as material from reports):

Can wind up more or less directly becoming a resolution, the committee proposing just what was asked;

Can identify a topic on which work is required but not (in the committee’s mind) a good solution, sparking the floor committee to propose in its resolution a different or even opposite approach to the same topic from that taken by the overtures received;

Can suggest some work already assigned to some board, office, individual or commission, and wind up in Omnibus A;

Can address something, in the committee’s judgment, already adequately addressed by some previous convention, and wind up in Omnibus B;

Can simply express encouragement or gratitude, and wind up in Omnibus C; or

Can simply — in the committee’s mind — be a bad idea, and wind up in an Omnibus D, “D” being for “decline.”

Some of the resolutions that wind up getting adopted by a convention are sparked by one overture or one line somewhere in a report. Many involve the confluence of several overtures — sometimes of radically different approach — and an assessment of broad reporting.

Particularly on those matters where there seem to be many ways forward — or no clear one — the convention relies on good work done by floor committees to chart a path the majority, hopefully a broad one, can accept. These floor committees have been formed by the Office of the President for the 2026 convention and will begin their work in earnest when the editing of overtures and reports is complete, sometime in March.

They will gather for an intensive work session on “Floor Committee Weekend,” May 29–June 1, assisted by the Commissions on Constitutional Matters, Handbook, and Theology and Church Relations, as well as the Today’s Business crew, at hand to perform all the necessary editorial work.

As I noted in the last installment of this series, when the Workbook is published, the whole Synod will have a chance to provide input to their work of milling and baking the many grains from overtures and reports into a few loaves worthy of adoption.

Nominations and elections update

The Committee for Convention Nominations has finished its work and produced the slate of candidates for secretary and for the board and commission positions up for election by the 2026 convention. My office is, as I write, in the process of obtaining consent, personal statements and photos from the candidates assembled, looking toward producing the Biographical Synopses and Statements of Nominees (BSSN) that will inform the delegates’ choices. These offices call for a variety of gifts — and perhaps most of all, in a church body whose authority was described by its founding president as “the Word of God and persuasion” — their being governed, and governing, by that Word, and being both able to persuade and subject to persuasion in all else, where prudence and charity ought to rule.

If the delegates prefer candidates other than those selected by the committee, the convention has reserved the right to make floor nominations (Bylaw 3.12.3.7). Instructions about this process will be included in the BSSN and posted on the convention website. On occasion, these can fill important gaps. Every nominations committee, though, hopes to provide the convention with a slate of well-qualified candidates with backgrounds and perspectives. And the process — which involved, this year, review of some 6,442 unique pages of material on the nominees alone and two solid and intensive days of work by a committee of 18 — provides a level of scrutiny and discussion that should not lightly be set aside.

The Synod’s other nomination process, that for president and vice-presidents, first and regional, as I write, is also now “all over but the calling.” This strictly numerical process, involving tabulation of ballots that can be submitted by each congregation, is conducted electronically. The process closed this year on Feb. 18, with the secretary charged within the next 10 days (Bylaw 3.12.21 [a]) to notify, and secure the consent to serve if elected of, the top five consenting candidates for president, the top 20 for vice-president (five of which will go to the ballot, Bylaw 3.12.2.6), and the top five for each regional vice-presidency, ties included. We’ll share the list as soon as we have it sorted out.

As I noted in the first installment of this column, I am always hoping that participation in these nomination and election processes will best previous conventions, as it’s an area in which full engagement is worth it. As I write, it’s too soon to prognosticate. Much seems to happen at the 11th hour. Time — and the convention publications yet to come — will tell.

President voter registration closes March 8. If your congregation registers by that date but has to change its voters later, it may do so until May 29. For information on actions your congregation can take part in now through the convention, see lcms.org/convention/governance/guide#phase4.

The Rev. Dr. John W. Sias ( lcmssecretary@lcms.org ) serves as secretary of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

Posted Feb. 20, 2026