LCMS Floor Committees Meet in St. Louis, Missouri, to Draft Resolutions for 2026 Convention

More than 150 LCMS (Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod) pastors, commissioned ministers and laypeople gathered at the LCMS International Center in St. Louis from May 29 to June 1 to begin their service on floor committees for the 2026 LCMS convention. The convention is set for July 18–23 in Phoenix under the theme “Christ Is Risen Indeed.” The floor committees are charged with working through the overtures and reports in the 2026 Convention Workbook and drafting the resolutions that will be considered at the convention.

Overture submissions were heavy this year. There were 464 submissions, amounting to 374 unique overtures, compared with 322 submissions and 279 unique overtures for the 2023 convention. By the end of the gathering, 106 resolutions and three omnibus resolutions had been drafted, compared with 96 resolutions and three omnibus resolutions in 2023.

The full list of resolutions appears in the first issue of Today’s Business, which is available for free download. A printed copy is being mailed to voting delegates, advisory delegates, officers of the Synod, and members of boards, commissions and the LCMS Council of Presidents. The first issue also includes late reports and overtures, the second part of the Synod president’s report, a tentative convention schedule, times and locations for floor committee open hearings, convention standing rules and official announcements. Six more issues are planned during the convention, two on July 19 and one each of the remaining four days.

The number of floor committees has changed over the years. In 2023 there were 12. This year there will be 10: National Witness, International Witness, Mercy, Life Together, Theology and Church Relations, Pastoral Ministry and Seminaries, University Education, Finance, Structure and Administration, and Ecclesiastical Supervision and Dispute Resolution. A separate committee, Registrations, Credentials and Elections, does not take part in the resolution process but oversees the elections held during the convention.

Erich Keller, a lay delegate from the LCMS Northern Illinois District, served on Floor Committee 7 (University Education). He had been a delegate in 2023, but this year was his first time serving on a floor committee. He described the weekend as “a wonderful opportunity to see how the work of the Synod in convention takes shape and to connect with pastors and laypeople from around the Synod,” and said the committee reviewed, discussed and synthesized resolutions from overtures submitted by districts, congregations and others. Keller said he was not looking forward to the heat expected outdoors or the cold indoors in Phoenix, but looked forward to seeing the process unfold.

The weekend’s schedule included chair and vice-chair meetings with the Synod president, floor committee secretary training, a report from the Synod president, and daily worship, including Divine Service with Holy Communion. At Vespers on May 29, a children’s choir from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and School in Collinsville, Ill., and St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, Ill., sang under the direction of Zachary Stegman, Good Shepherd’s director of children’s music.

In his report to those gathered, LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison pointed to 1 Corinthians 15, the source of the convention theme, as a guide for the Synod’s convention work. He said the convention’s labor is taken up into Christ’s work for his church and the world. Harrison also said the Synod’s task is “not to invent the church’s mission” but “to receive it, steward it and pass it on to those who come after us,” a charge to hand on what was received to the next generation (Psalm 78:4).

Floor committee members are appointed by the LCMS president in consultation with the Council of Presidents and Praesidium (Bylaw 3.1.7), and appointments are made from among voting delegates, advisory delegates and advisory representatives (Bylaw 3.1.7 [a]). A limited number of additional copies of the daily editions of Today’s Business will be available for visitors.

Source: Read the original report