Posted on 07/11/2004 9:23:40 PM PDT by sauerkraut
July 11, 2004 ………………………… LCMSNews – SC4DS
Synod re-elects Gerald Kieschnick president, elects William Diekelman first vice president
ST. LOUIS — Delegates to the 62nd Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod today (July 11) elected Dr. Gerald B. Kieschnick to his second three-year term as president of the 2.5 million-member church body.
The convention also elected Oklahoma District President William Diekelman to his first term as Synod first vice president. He currently also is pastor of Faith Lutheran Church, Owasso, Okla.
Kieschnick, 61, was elected on the first ballot on the opening day of the convention, with 52.8 percent of the votes cast.
“My belief is that this is not so much a vote for me personally as for the vision shared these past three years and for my ministry of the past 34 years,” Kieschnick said in remarks following his re-election.
Other nominees for the presidency included the incumbent first vice president, Rev. Daniel Preus, who tallied 391 votes; Dr. Dean O. Wenthe, president of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind., 107; Dr. Kurt Marquart, associate professor of systematic theology at the Fort Wayne seminary, 77; and Diekelman, 9.
Diekelman, 57, subsequently was elected to his first term as Synod first vice president on the second ballot for that office. He received 641 votes to 588 for incumbent Daniel Preus. A third nominee on that ballot, incumbent Second Vice President Wallace Schulz, received 12 votes.
Two other nominees were dropped after the first ballot. They were Wyoming District President Ronald Garwood and Rev. Vernon Gundermann, pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church, Kirkwood, Mo. Each received 30 votes.
Kieschnick acknowledged that “we have experienced a period of disagreement the past three years,” including among the Synod’s elected leaders. He said it is his prayer that this not continue.
The president also acknowledged the support of his wife, Terry, and his family. Terry Kieschnick walked to the podium as the assembly rose in applause.
Kieschnick is a graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary [then located in Springfield, Ill., now in Fort Wayne, Ind.] and received an honorary doctor of laws degree in 1996 from Concordia University, Austin, Texas. He and Terry have two grown children.
His installation, and that of other LCMS officers elected during the church body’s weeklong convention, will take place in September.
Prior to becoming the Synod’s president in 2001, Kieschnick served 10 years as president of the church body’s Texas District. Before that, he was with the Lutheran Foundation of Texas, first as director of development (1986-88) and then as executive director (1988-91). He also has served as pastor of three LCMS congregations, one in Mississippi and two in Texas.
Between 1998 and 2001, he served as chairman of the LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations.
Diekelman has been pastor of Faith, Owasso, since 1981, and president of the Oklahoma District since 1991. He and his wife, Carol, have six children.
*********************************** If you have questions or comments about this LCMSNews release, contact Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org or (314) 996-1231, or Paula Schlueter Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org or (314) 996-1230.
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Youch! a lot of us folks outside of LCMS were hoping y'all would manage to send that guy packing...sad day for the faith, no doubt.
Just don't start having folks bail out randomly - instead start organizing so that when it's time to go, not only does everyone leave together, but there is already an organization in place to handle what happens next.
Call out the Lutheran ping. Hopefully things don't get worse.
Can I get on the Lutheran ping list? I'm a brand-new LCMS member! Thanks :)
One thing the LCMS conservatives have going for them after the thrashing that Kieshnick and his political party, Jesus First, gave them yesterday is that they have the Episcopal model of what NOT to do. When women priests were approved by the Episcopalians, the conservatives decided to stay and fight the liberal tidal wave. In the interim, the liberals decimated the organization and last year approved a homosexual bishop. So now the conservatives are weaker than ever and in a much worse position than they would have been ten years ago. The LCMS conservatives need to get out NOW while they can still muster 48% of the convention votes for a conservative. That gives the new Confessional Lutheran Church (or whatever it will be called) a strong base from which to begin. Of course, convincing some lethargic conservatives that the LCMS is really dead might take some time, though I have faith that the liberals will crush the conservatives in every vote until the end of the debacle on Wednesday so that even the wishful thinkers may get the message at last.
The lib/growther coalition is running the table so far with about a 53% majority on votes.
The talk right now among my confessional brothers is that we keep on at the local level, in our congregations, preaching and teaching the gospel in its truth and purity. We continue to speak out against the errors--it is likely there will be some sort of protest, a statement that we are in statu confessionis ("in a state of confession").
The defunding of the synod will accelerate. The prattlings of the bureaucracy will be ignored. The International Center will become the Irrelevant Center.
And discussions will begin about the possibility of forming a new confessional Lutheran synod. The tough part would be bringing the congregations along--there could be plenty of pastors, but "institutional inertia" makes it harder for congregations to leave.
And what about the offerings of confessional Lutherans? The only input liberals want from conservatives is their money in the collection plate. This LCMS member has put in her last offering that goes to district and synod. I will give to the Lord for my local confessional congregation, but will make sure there is a mechanism in place for me to do that without it going to the budget where a cut is taken for those two rotten entities. Otherwise, I will support the confessional seminary in Ft. Wayne with my offerings. The only thing that liberals notice is a decrease in the take.
Members of other congregations like mine, where liberalism has not taken over, need to speak out to other members who are in the dark about what goes on at the top. It is up to us to make the truth known.
Many others have done the same. We have already paid for the organ, piano, and another octave of handbells. Currently I give my weekly donation to the parament fund.
Are you still at the convention? What else will be coming up for a vote soon?
This has been a long weekend of bad news.
However, I do know about the flight from liturgy of all too many LCMS congregations that emphasize the "church growth" movement. And I also know how utterly abyssmal the LCMS congregations are in our "blue state" area, and that the ELCA congregations are all either liberal or (as in my own congregation), "mixed" conservative and liberal. If the ELCA "goes gay" in 2005, orthodox Lutherans in our area (including several in my own congregation) will have essentially no Lutheran resources.
Please pray for all orthodox Lutherans in liberal ELCA synods. Most of them are in geographic areas with very poor LCMS representation as well.
About a block from where the LCMS convention is taking place, there is a shopping mall called St. Louis Centre. This four-story downtown mall is a local joke among St. Louisans. Built in the 1980s with grandiose aspirations, it now sits largely abandoned and deserted. They built it, but the people did not come. The money did not come. The mall has been dying a slow death, with more and more storefronts devoid of business. St. Louis Centre today is an empty, crumbling shell.
This is a picture of what will happen now to the bureaucracy known as the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The money will dry up. Congregations and individuals no longer will give to an a-theological facade they cannot trust. Instead, they will target their giving to entities and causes they can support in good conscience.
The lib/growther coalition may have won the keys to the building, but they will be presiding over a funeral. Offices at the IC will sit empty. Drastic downsizing will be the order of the day. If you think the last three years were severe, you ain't seen nothin' yet. The bureaucrats will continue to come up with their grandiose programs, but there will be no money to play with.
I guess I just don't understand the mindset of some of these people. They want to become more "open" and church growth oriented yet they don't acknowledge that this type of left leaning policies have driven the core of the LCMS away.
The Schwann Foundation has already cut off their support for this liberal crowd, but Thrivent continues to fill their stockings with the money they get from investors. The first bailout from Thrivent will mean I will transfer my accounts to another institution. If every conservative did this, maybe Thrivent, largely run by the ELCA now, would notice.
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