Pre Assembly Thoughts

Disclaimer - It would be virtually impossible to tell my fellow members of the events without you seeing the events through my eyes. In other words, my opinion on issues may slip into the dialog. So, if you don't want to see my opinion on these matters - STOP reading here. This will be a one way blog. If I allow comments, I'll be spending most of my time answering comments instead of observing and reporting.
If you are interested in seeing the entire plenary package, there is a link on the right hand side of the blog. I'll cover a summary of the major items to be discussed.


Synod Constitution Amendments
There are quit a few changes being proposed to the Synod Constitution. All are centered around a near complete reorganization of how the Synod organizes its committee structure. Most of the functions will be implemented through Ministry Teams and the term committee will fade away. The intent is to keep the Synod work flexible and be able to react to changes as needed. These Ministry Teams will be of three types:
1. Oversight ministry teams work on behalf of the synod. These are initiated by the ELCA, synod council or synod assembly. (e.g. Candidacy, Campus Ministry, Synod Council, Mission Outreach)
2. Catalyst ministry teams connect ELCA, Synod and Congregations. These groups are initiated by the synod council or synod assembly.(e.g. Congregational Ministries, Global Missions, Hunger Network, Advocacy Ministries)
3. Self-Organizing ministry teams are people with passion for an issue who connect and collaborate throughout the synod. They are initiated by volunteers and recognized by synod council as a synodical self-organizing ministry teams. (e.g. Health Ministries, Creation Care)

Many of our current constitutional boards/committees (ministry teams) are no longer appropriate. The following changes to ministry teams are recommended.
1. Remain in the constitution but make any changes as recommended by those groups: Campus Ministry, Candidacy, Congregational Ministries, Mission Outreach, Global Missions, and Finance Committee.
2. Removed from our constitution because they are not currently in existence and/or they have requested this action: Board for Church in Society, Commission on Multicultural Ministries, Outdoor Ministries, Continuing Education, Leadership Support, and Development.
3. Add to the constitution as Oversight or Catalyst groups: Congregation & Leader Wellness (new group established to address this synodical priority), Audit Committee (required by churchwide action), Hunger Network, and Lutheran Advocacy Ministries (formerly described under Board for Church in Society).

Synod Council will be reduced from 24 to 18 members. The representation of those members will also change.

Makeup of the Ministry Teams will no longer have hard targets to maintain diversity. (lay woman from conference x, pastor from Y, ethnic minority from Z). These hard targets were inflexible. Now the Nomination Committee will assure diversity across all the Ministry Teams. These changes are significant, but I don't foresee any of them being controversial.