Nominations Are Not Representative

What does it mean that sitting President Gerald Kieschnick received only the second highest number of nominations for the election to the presidency of Synod to be held at the convention this summer?

The answer depends on an understanding of the nomination process in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.  It is not a random sampling from which could come the conclusion that the nominee with the highest numbers is more popular than the one in second place. 

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.

In American politics weekly political poll comparisons can show momentum.  This is not so with the LCMS nomination process, which is done only one-time and is not representative of the electorate.  All the process yields is the names of five men who will serve if elected.

We are confident that President Kieschnick’s fine leadership abilities have been and will be evaluated positively by the 1,200 delegates who produce the only number that counts:  votes cast.