Delegate Newsletter -- No. 11

NEEDED: AN EVANGELICAL TEAM

As a delegate to the last Synodical convention, I watched a somewhat strange event unfold. After electing Dr. Kieschnick to the office of President, the convention turned around and elected Pastor Daniel Preus to the office of First Vice-President. Knowing that Pastor Preus was a known opponent of Kieschnick’s for the presidential office, one had the feeling that the arrangement was not going to work. It hasn’t and it can’t.

One was hoping Preus would support Kieschnick as, accompanied by their wives, they ascended to center stage together in a display of unity. One hoped that the First Vice-President, would spend the next triennium lending support and strength to Dr. Kieschnick’s mission-aggressive agenda, as he is constitutionally required to do.

Synod’s Constitution spells out clearly that the duties of the First Vice-President as a full time position, with the rest of the Vice-Presidents, are to be supportive of the Synodical President. “The Vice-Presidents shall upon request of the president represent him in all his functions.” (C.1.) The By-laws equally state about the First Vice-President’s job: “The First Vice-President shall be a full-time executive and shall be responsible to the President at all times.” (Bylaw 3.121)

The idea is clear that especially the First Vice-President is expected by the Synod to be the extra set of hands, feet, and voice as a trusted and supportive person to the President. To have a First Vice-President who is undercutting the Synodical President is the last thing the Synod has in mind for the position. Historically in the LCMS, the First Vice-President has been the quiet and strong hands for the President. It is profoundly unseemly for the First Vice-President to be running against the man whom he’s supposed to be supporting as his full time job.

It is painfully evident that as Preus has mounted his campaign for Synodical President, the supportive and trusted voice has for the last triennium been lacking for the President. Delegates this time around have to understand that for President Kieschnick to be effective for all our sakes and for Christ’s sake, we cannot elect one of Kieschnick’s chief opponents as the First Vice-President who has used his office to advance his own campaign for President Kieschnick’s position.

 

Rev. Steve Krueger is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in San Diego, California