I had a conversation with a friend the other day who asked me what a Synod is and what it does? She pronounced it “sin node”. So there must be some confusion out there. The dictionary says it is an ” assembly of the clergy and sometimes also the laity in a diocese or other division of a particular church.” The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod was formed as congregations banded together to do what one congregation alone could not do. Districts in our church are considered “synod” in that place. But what was the point of these types of “partnerships” if I can use that word”. Matthew Harrison in his blog “Mercy Journeys” quotes C.F.W. Walher the first President of the LCMS at the Iowa Synod of the Missouri Synod (I guess it can be confusing).
“We come here not for the sake of ourselves. We stand in the faith and with this faith we hope to be saved! But how many millions are there still who have no faith! We exist and have founded a synod in order, as much as possible, to bring men to salvation, and thereby to check the misery in Christendom and the number of the lost in the poor blind heathen world. If we do not do this, if we fail to seek the honor of Christ and the salvation of souls, Luther fears, as he says, ‘then may the dear God convene a synod, namely a “council of angels” in order to carry out his judgment.’ ” (Iowa Synodal-Bericht, 1:113)
So Synod’s and Districts exist not for self preservation but for witness, to bring men to salvation; mercy, to check misery in Christendom and the number of the lost in the poor blind heathen world; and to figure out how to make these happen in our life together. If we gather together
