Hey Ford, I also in the Central Illinois district, but am unfortunately stuck attending one of the non-conservative exceptions that you mention :) Interestingly enough, nothing's really been mentioned here about the Benke case; I guess our liberal pastor is sticking his finger in the wind to find out what side to take. What town are you in?
I am in the Decatur area, we have 8 LCMS congregations in the area, 2 of them are fairly liberal, 2 very conservative, the rest vary between moderate and conservative depending on the issue.
It has recieved a lot of attention here, because the local "conservative" morning talk radio host, Brian Byers, discussed it on his show.
I didn't hear the show, but I understand Byers said that the LCMS is as bad as the Taliban.
The interesting thing is, his station manager is LCMS and he has relatives in one of the local congregations.