Day Three Convention Wrap: Regents Break Ranks From United List
Delegates passed everything they took up today, and the United List won almost every seat. But late Tuesday, on the CUS boards, the slate lost three seats in a row, its first defeats of the week.
Tuesday was the down-ballot day at the 69th Regular Convention of the LCMS, when the Synod fills its boards, commissions, seminaries, and universities in bulk. It still managed to pass thirteen resolutions, platform a raft of speakers, and promote multiple initiatives. No resolution was defeated. For most of the day, the United List picked winner after winner until the afternoon reached the Concordia University regents, where the pattern that had held for fifty-two straight elections broke three times in quick succession.
Resolutions: thirteen decided, none defeated
Committee 6 cleared its docket. The pastoral-formation slate finished, with 6-09A, 6-11, and 6-13 carried by voice. Resolution 6-12B, the colloquy-bylaw reinsertion, passed by unanimous voice after a cloture motion failed at 62 percent. Resolution 6-10 came back from a morning referral, survived a Mark Stern amendment-to-an-amendment, and passed.
Fellowship carried unanimously. Committee 5 opened with 5-01 (Bolivia) and 5-02 (Lutheran Mission—Australia), both by voice without dissent. Both were the scripted doxology moments.
IVF was deferred rather than condemned, and was one of the only “wins” for the young confessionals chafing against some of the Monday losses. Resolution 5-11A referred the doctrine to the CTCR, and the Folks condemnation amendment lost after a two-stage fight. The amendment-to-the-amendment carried 59 percent, the amended amendment then died at 40 percent, and the committee text passed by voice. However, it was one of the most argued resolutions, with appeals from an adoptee and an adoptive parent on each side of the debate.
The digital-conduct statement passed quietly. Resolution 10-04A, the CTCR statement on the “God-pleasing use of digital communications,” carried by voice, and the speech-code fight some expected never forced a division. Nevertheless, it was evident from the discussion and content that the resolution would end up being a CTCR study saying all the same things that the Synod has previously said about online content and media.
The sexual misconduct response was near-unanimous. Resolution 10-03A carried 852 to 64, 93 percent, after a vote to end debate.
Public sin, public rebuke: tightest vote of the convention so far
Resolution 10-01A carried 502 to 396, at 55.9 percent. That is the narrowest margin any resolution has drawn all week, well inside the 68 percent every other adopted resolution has cleared.
The subject explains the margin. Resolution 10-01A asks the CTCR to study whether Matthew 18:15-20 governs church polity at all, which is the public-rebuke-of-public-sin question. Nearly four hundred delegates did not want it asked.
The mid-forties minority surfaced again. Two counted amendments died on Tuesday: the 5-11A amendment at 40.1 percent and a floor amendment to 10-05A at 45.9 percent. That makes the fourth and fifth time this week the losing amendment coalition has landed in the mid-forties, the same size on a different subject each time.
The ballots: the slate, then the swing
The morning was a rout. The United List took every seat on both mission boards, the CTCR, the Historical Institute, Concordia Publishing House, the Extension Fund, and the University System board, in every region and category.
The seminaries held. Fort Wayne (Maas, Ramirez, Meehl, Christian Preus) was fortified with UL names, while St. Louis reseated all its current regents and UL picks for new 6-year terms (Brondos, Keseman, Staub, Stern). David Ramirez, the list’s Fort Wayne floor nominee, took that seat after losing the Concordia Historical Institute race in the morning.
Then the universities broke. Three seats went to candidates the United List never named:
Chicago. David Walz beat the list’s Mark Wolfrum for a lay seat at 56 percent in a third-ballot run-off, after Wolfrum had finished last on the first ballot.
Irvine. Laura Hemminger beat the list’s Gary Nelson for one lay seat, and Nelson then lost the second lay seat as well. Brian Kachelmeier, author of one of the four printed amendments, won the ordained seat in a landslide; 65 percent.
Seward. Craig Ernstmeyer beat the list’s Jay Krause for the commissioned seat. Oddly, Krause led the first ballot and then lost the run-off, in the convention’s first break on a seat that was not lay.
What the swing means
The United List count stands at fifty-two of fifty-five. Across the fifty-five offices the convention has filled, fifty-two winners are UL names, and only three are not: Walz, Hemminger, and Ernstmeyer.
The breaks share a venue. All three came on Concordia University boards of regents, and all three came in the afternoon. The officer races, both seminaries, every Synod board, every commission, and every ordained seat remain a clean sweep for the UL.
The list runs thin on the universities. The defeated candidates were the list’s second-string lay picks (Wolfrum, Nelson) or its narrower ones (Krause), and the university boards draw locally-known lay and commissioned names.
The read is that the bloc holds on doctrine and loosens on personnel. The confessional majority remains total on the resolutions and near-total on governance, but on the university regent seats, the least doctrinal contests on the ballot, delegates will sometimes take the neighbor over the name on the card.
Footnotes worth keeping
Rudowske lost three in a row. Rev. Dr. Richard Rudowske was runner-up for Secretary on Monday and runner-up in both St. Louis ordained run-offs on Tuesday, making him the convention’s most-defeated candidate so far.
Business remains open. Committee 5’s theology docket is unfinished, with 5-04, 5-05, and the Snyder and Kachelmeier amendments among the holdouts. The ballot is unfinished too, with Nebraska’s second lay seat, St. Paul, Texas, Wisconsin, the Foundation, and the Commission on Worship all waiting for Wednesday.
Method and source. Resolution tallies and dispositions from the Tuesday, July 21 floor sessions, recorded on this publication’s decisions log. Election results from the same sessions on the floor election results page, with winners cross-referenced against The United List for 2026; the “U” badge on that page marks a winner named on the list. Figures are transcribed live and provisional until Today’s Business, Issue 5, and the official minutes are published.
Ad Crucem News is an independent publication. This analysis is editorial and carries no imprimatur of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod or its officers.
The IVF amendment votes were really bizarre. The delegates approved the amendment to the amendment, but then struck down the amendment. It seemed like no one knew what they were voting for.