LCMS President Calls Convention to Focus on Love, Unity Amid Challenges

LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison opened his July 19 report to the 69th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod with a boisterous Easter greeting. Based on a text from the same chapter as the convention theme verse (1 Cor. 15:20–22), Harrison’s remarks emphasized the joy of the resurrection, the hope of the Gospel, and the need for repentance, forgiveness, and unity within the church’s life together.

Throughout his third and final report to the 2026 convention, Harrison reemphasized “two main goals” that have been foundational throughout his 16-year tenure: retaining “our clear confession and practice” and “urging and training for witness and outreach.” Grounding his remarks in the sure reality of the empty tomb and the fact that “what happened there is delivered to us today” through Word and Sacrament, Harrison also acknowledged long- and short-term challenges facing the Synod, including ongoing patterns of demographic decline.

“The LCMS enjoyed 150 years of growth, and now it has experienced 50 years of decline. No Synod president, no program, no district president (no matter how missional), no board of directors, no band of pastors (no matter how zealous) has been able to reverse that trend,” Harrison said.

Speaking more directly into current controversies, Harrison addressed the recent downsizing of Concordia University Ann Arbor, tension between those who support the Synod’s two residential seminaries and those calling for a fully online Master of Divinity program, and the disproportionate growth of the Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) program. “Forgiveness and charity are needed throughout this convention on all these issues,” he said.

Despite the challenges, Harrison highlighted a number of positive developments in the LCMS, especially the return of adult confirmation rates to pre-COVID numbers. “The LCMS has one of the highest rates of adult conversions — 30% — of all denominations,” he said. “We also know that the LCMS has a larger core of young families producing children than any other mainline denomination. We know that our adult retention rates are much higher than evangelicals. We know that young men and families are showing up in our congregations in increasing numbers, as reported to me across the nation.”

Source: Read the original report