Matthew Harrison has Spoken

 

LCMS President Matthew Harrison was the keynote speaker at the Southern District LCMS convention. The comments above occurred at roughly the one hour and forty-three minute mark, discussing relations with the WELS. Two big takeaways from this brief clip:

1. "The LCMS is never going to give up women's suffrage, nor should we": LCMS, Inc. has bought into the lies of the feminist movement. LCMS, Inc. is apostate. That doesn't mean there aren't individual LCMS churches that have better practices on the books or wish to operate in a more faithful manner - but the managerial overlords have spoken.

2. "They [WELS] are trying to find ways in which forms of government don't require much voting or any voting at all... structures that give women clear input." President Harrison is referring to consensus governance models which reduce the male-lead council and elders to a bare skeleton and instead form Ministry Action Teams and reduce or eliminate congregational voting altogether. What is particularly interesting here is the WELS, Inc. has yet to make a formal, public push for this - we see some individual churches restructuring their governance in line with Synod's behest, we saw the 2023 Lutheran Leadership conference presentation on "Rethinking Congregational Governance", we see the recommendation that 'merge for mission' consolidations restructure their constitutions, and the recent man and woman roles pastoral brief deleted references from our old statement regarding voting and headship, and suggests there are ways we can better incorporate women in decision-making. 

Again, the WELS hasn't made a formal push, but Harrison seems well aware of these things. I've published on the topic, but I'd be shocked if Harrison read the blog, the more likely explanation would be that WELS, Inc. is messaging these things to the LCMS in their annual meetings. Are we trending towards the LCMS position?