Illogical Logic

The congregational nonimations for President of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod (LCMS) have been counted and posted. And the numbers overwhelmingly reveal that the congregations want a change in leadership.

Rev. Matthew Harrison, executive director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care, received 1,332 nominations. Dr. Gerald Kieschnick, incumbent LCMS president, received 755 nominations. To put those numbers in perspective, consider the following facts:

• Harrison’s 1,332 nominations is the most ever for a non-incumbent.
• Kieschnick’s 755 nominations is the least ever for an incumbent.
• Kieschnick’s 755 nominations is 28% fewer than the 1,055 he received in 2007.

And yet, despite the facts, President Kieschnick offered this explanation in a recent newspaper article:

“I’ve been a part of this church long enough to know that if someone in office is doing a very poor job, we’d have more than 30 percent of them weighing in. ... Call it apathy or satisfaction, but they see no need to make a change.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4/24/2010]

This was quickly followed up by a group of Kieschnick supporters, who made the same claim:

The main news from the nominations result is that only about one third of the eligible 6,000 congregations participated in the process. One interpretation is that by far most congregations are satisfied with the present leadership and thus did not participate. Their non-participation says nothing about how their delegates will cast their vote. Along that same line of reasoning, congregations that took the effort to make nominations are more likely to want change. There is website evidence this year that groups of dissatisfied pastors made a strong effort to organize to have their candidate(s) nominated. Thus one could conclude that a nomination total of 1,300 for a non-incumbent means only a quarter of the congregations are dissatisfied and want to change leadership. [Jesus First, Issue 62, April 2010: Putting Convention Nominations into Perspective]

Low numbers = high approval. How’s that for illogical logic!

LCMS, if you want to continue with this type of illogical leadership, your decision flies in the face of the majority of the congregations who cared enough to send in their nominations. There is a better leader in Rev. Matthew Harrison. May our gracious Lord bless the LCMS through the faithful leadership of President Harrison beginning this summer!