The 2026 Convention: Believe, Teach, and Confess; Reject, Condemn, and Oppose

The 2026 overtures arranged by their confessional verb structure, on the affirmative side and the negative side, by theme.

Lutheran confessional doctrine has historically been articulated in two paired registers: the affirmative one, in which the church believes, teaches, and confesses; and the negative one, in which the church rejects, condemns, and opposes. The Book of Concord moves between the two registers with deliberate symmetry, because the church's witness is incomplete if it states only what it holds and not what it also disavows. The 2026 LCMS Convention Workbook is unusual in the directness with which its overtures recover this paired structure, both in operative title language and in resolved-clause syntax.

Lead exhibit 5‑22 To Believe, Teach, and Confess Missio Dei, the only overture in the workbook to place the full affirmative triplet in its title, and which uses the formulation in six separate resolved clauses addressing the mission of God, the sending nature of God, the lens of Scripture, the person and work of Christ, the church's existence in mission, and the priesthood of the baptized.

The aggregate is recognizable in this year’s Convention Workbook. The 2026 overtures slate files in both registers, sometimes within the same theme, and in two cases (Missio Dei and the Bible's authority) explicitly invoke the full affirmative triplet "believe, teach, and confess" in either title or resolved language. The phrase "Resolved, That [we/the Synod] reject and condemn" appears in nineteen separate resolutions across the workbook, including in the women-lectors cluster, the worship-practices cluster, the Stone Choir condemnation, and the racial-ideologies cluster. Consequently, the 2026 floor is not merely making administrative or procedural overtures, but also echoing the historic Lutheran confessional voice, with both halves of the structure operative.