Jesus’ words establish all our priorities: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

• We must uphold the Word of God to combat the errors of “wokeism” and keep them out of our Concordia universities and beyond. President Harrison has courageously engaged the fight and must continue as LCMS president in order bring it to a successful conclusion under God’s grace.
• We must make robust use of the Prior Approval process that ensured the appointment of new confessional Lutheran presidents at five different Concordia universities and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. With the right leaders in place, we must be ready to combat with biblical truths the errors in the “diversity, equity and inclusion” philosophies leaking into the Concordias from woke academia. Personnel is policy.
• We must address the problem of the church worker shortage through the Set Apart to Serve initiative. There is much more to do, especially to sustain and provide faithful pastoral leadership for small congregations.
• We must continue, although much progress has been made and there are many positive aspects, to bolster a stronger Lutheran identity and more faithful catechesis at the National Youth Gathering.
• We need to provide training and resources to enable congregations and circuits to plant daughter congregations and new mission starts in places starved of Lutheran theology.
• We can expect a summary report of President Harrison’s ecclesiastical visitation of CUWAA, where he helped correct the Board of Regents’ refusal to appoint a president from the prior approval list, as prescribed by the LCMS Constitution and Bylaws.
• We can expect a summary report of President Harrison’s ecclesiastical visitation of CTX. President Harrison’s team’s visit and subsequent joint letter with the Synod’s Board of Directors chairman exposed and confirmed serious doctrinal concerns (particularly issues of sexuality) and a long-standing push for independence from Synod oversight. Harrison will continue to work with the Synod Board of Directors to ensure that CTX abides by LCMS governance and lives out the LCMS’s Confession.
• We can expect a resolution regarding a proposed CUS governance model, which is coming to the 2023 convention for consideration.
• We must resist the push to prefer routes to ordination other than traditional, residential seminary education. President Harrison has spoken firmly on the value of residential seminary education and the need to prefer that over other routes to ordination, including SMP. The strength of LCMS seminaries here affects confessional Lutheranism worldwide.
• We must improve LCMS teacher colloquy programs; greater theological strength is crucial.
• We must expect the most out of the CUS. The Concordias belong to the congregations of the Synod. They are a treasure and a tremendous asset to face the onslaught of cultural pressures. President Harrison will see to it that they teach the Synod’s biblical doctrine for the good of their students and the preservation of the Synod for generations to come.
• We must increase support and encouragement for our congregations and church workers amid demographic challenges. We must balance the reality of demographics facing small and rural congregations with the encouragement to take advantage of mission opportunities.
• We must provide resources to enable district and congregational connections to immigrant and ethnic communities.
• We must build our capacity to engage with church bodies around the world amid this global, confessional revival, of which the LCMS is the leader.
• We must leverage the financial blessings of the last few years to take strategic advantage of new mission opportunities now and to prepare for the future.