Actually it's Saturday! Yesterday was spent voting on still more elections and resolutions, and I felt the need to hurry some of these things along so that we can get to all of the agenda yet to be covered. Today (Saturday) is our last chance. But so much has been done. You can see all the news about this convention by clicking here.

I got most of my packing to go home done last night. Today we will be heading to our flight, taking off at 3:45 this afternoon and landing in Chicago at 6:21. Then there's still the bus trip back to Milwaukee. I'll be traveling with Pastor Dan McMiller. We're hoping to get the earliest bus available out of Chicago, hoping to get home by 10:00. Can't imagine that I'll want to go straight to bed. Peg will want to hear all about everything, and I'm guessing that it will be days before I can cover it all. It's been a memorable experience and a great privilege!

See you all soon!
~Pastor Raabe

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The convention had a real treat today. The church leaders from the Lutheran Church of Haiti visited us to show their appreciation for everything that LCMS has done, and is still doing, to help them survive and rebuild after the horrific earthquake that they suffered. It was truly heartwarming!

Discussions and further voting on the synod restructuring resolutions continued today. We also had more elections to boards and various ministries. I can't express enough to you how gracious our volunteer hosts in the red shirts have been to us. These volunteers come from LCMS congregations in the Houston area. Hats off to them!

The highlight of the day today will be the reception for our new president, Rev. Matt Harrison. I'm on my way to the festivities!
~Pastor Raabe

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It's been a very long day of many other elections and an endless stream of nominations from the floor. It's also been a day of reflection on what just happened yesterday. As our new president, Rev. Matt Harrison said, "If one member suffers, all suffer together.  If one rejoices, all rejoice together.  Right now there are many rejoicing and there are many suffering.”

My feelings are these: When all is said and done, the Holy Spirit was at work here. He wanted a change for our synod, even though many people that I've asked could not put their finger squarely on the reason why. And I'll say it again, everyone is going to leave here with some wins and some losses. But nothing has changed in what we stand for, what we proclaim, and what we teach. We stand on God's infallible Word. How we administrate the business of the church changes nothing of what we believe as "One People--Forgiven!"

Lights out for tonight; just three more days before I see home again!
Pastor Raabe

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Well, here we are. It's "E" day at the convention--E for election, that is. While there are many elections that took place, the one that was on every one's minds for months was the election of the President.

It's rather ironic that this morning, at our SWD delegate breakfast, Rev. Matt Harrison was our guest. He was rather somber, and so were other delegates at the tables. Not everything had been going their way so far. Rev. Harrison's position at the LCMS headquarters as head of World Relief and Human Care did not exist anymore, nor his board of directors and some staff. Now that ministry is under LCMS Missions. Other changes had been voted on and passed. The mood was not up-beat, shall we say?

Then the slate of candidates for LCMS president was presented to us this afternoon for the vote. With one ballot--one ballot--Rev. Matthew Harrison was elected! Pres. Kieschnick was very gracious in his comments, and the new Pres. Harrison was extremely humble with his. He said that some of us will be mourning now, and some will be rejoicing. But we must rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn. All in all, I do think that Harrison will be a unifying agent in our synod.

I cannot express enough to you how extremely impressed I have been with the attitude and the general amicable attitude that pervades this convention. I commented to another delegate later that although we are only half finished with this convention, it seems to me that everyone will go home with some wins and some losses, but it will all balance out. In the end, we may not all agree on the way we do business in our new structure, but we are NOT divided in doctrine. And that IS our main mission. Every devotion, and all of the emphasis has been on God's Word. For me, it is such a worship-ful experience and I am so blessed to be a part of it. In a short time I will be attending a reception for the new President Harrison!
~Pastor Raabe

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The discussion and voting of the synodical structure resolutions continued all day today. Even though I voted to save the money and have synod conventions every four years, that Synod Structure resolution did not pass, and we will continue with conventions every three years. Actually, that's okay, as four years is a long time between conventions. After that vote was taken, things got a little more "heated."

While the details of how all of these other synodical structure resolutions will be carried out are not completely worked out yet, so far they have all passed by a very close margin. Basically they are all following a 51% "for" to a 49% "against" voting pattern.

We will have five geographical regions delineated, and each will have its own VP. In my mind that's a good thing as it will give equal representation for all geographical areas. But the longer discussion was regarding the election of the 1st VP. He is the one who works at the synod office along side and for the president. The delegates voted to allow for 20 nominations for this position, and the president shall be able to narrow the field down to five, two of which will be from the top five of the list. This insures that the president and his vice-president will be good working companions.

From here on after this convention, every congregation will have two votes to cast for electing a synod president--a pastor vote and a layperson vote--no matter the size of the congregation. This will be done before, and not at, the convention.

More information and details about all of these resolutions can be found at lcms.org, which even has a live video feed. It will keep you up-to-date as we move along.

Tomorrow afternoon will be very interesting--the election of the president. Come on back and find out the results!
~Pastor Raabe

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While  you were worshiping in church this morning, I was thinking about you and wishing you were all here to share in this huge assembly of LCMS Christians embarking on the business of our synod. Perhaps it is because this is my first time ever to attend the LCMS Convention--and as a delegate--that this all seems so very special to me. I am honored to be here to represent you! And I am also wondering how our car wash and hot dog give-away went yesterday, how was church this morning, and praying for the peace of the Lord for each and every one of you!

The first order of business today was a motion to change the tentative agenda that calls for the election of our synod's president to be taken on Tuesday. Normally it is the first order of business. But as I said earlier, this convention added two additional days to the front end so as to discuss the Synodical Structure first. Doing this saved the time and expense of calling for a special convention. The motion to change the tentative agenda was defeated by a fairly close margin, and so the election of our synod president will be held on Tuesday as planned.

Current President Gerald Kieschnick had what I considered to be a very impressive report to begin the procedings. In fact, I have been very impressed with everything so far! Wish that Peg could be here to share this with me!

This afternoon we started our work on structure and governance. A lot of time and study was put into this work by a lot of dedicated people. We will see how this shapes out in the future. More work will be done tomorrow.

After a dinner of pizza delivered to my room and a visit to the hot tub and sauna, I am ready for a good night's sleep. I'm looking forward to a big week in the big city!
~Pastor Raabe

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Before leaving home to come to this convention, I and all of the voting delegates received a deluge of information from many people and places. LCMS headquarters in St. Louis and the South Wisconsin District sent all of the important information as to where to be, when to be there, and how to get there. There were airline tickets to be purchased, hotel arrangements to be made, and a sundry of other preparations necessary for such a large and important event. The Lord has blessed us on our way--now we are here, and ready to start our business.

Today was a day of preparation of a differnt kind. I now have my room in order--all arranged so that I can be ready for anything. My carry-on bag, which is on wheels, has turned into a traveling briefcase. As you can see from the picture, the 3-ring binder that was sent to us, among other information, is a lot to lug around all day! So, I figured that a briefcase on wheels is the way to go. I have a good, comfortable pair of walking shoes, too. Even though it is HOT here in Houston, it's pretty cool--bordering on cold--in the conference center. I am prepared and ready to go!

Today was also a day when the delegates could see some of the exhibits and have orientation this afternoon. At 4:00 we had our opening worship service with Holy Communion. What a great experience thatwas! Imagine, worshiping and communing with over a thousand fellow LCMS Christians, united in faith, confession and in song! Awesome!! Dinner followed with more fellowship.

Now I'll go to bed with a prayer of thanksgiving and a request that our Heavenly Father will watch over this convention and give it His blessing in all that we do!
~Pastor Raabe

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I'm on my way as a delegate to the 64th Regular LCMS Convention in Houston, TX under the theme, "One People--Forgiven."  This convention is going to be a little longer than usual as there is a lot of business at hand. For the first two days, we will be considering the proposals from the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synod Structure and Governance. This will have a bearing on the elections, including the president, that will occur later on.
 
I am one of 1,218 voting delegates. Half of the delegates are pastors, the other lay delegates. Together with advisory delegates, staff, exhibitors and spectators, there could be more than 2,500 in attendance!

It's been a good trip so far--everything went well with the flight out of Chicago O'Hare. Tomorrow is primarily set for delegate orientation most of the day. Then we will have an opening convention worship service with Holy Communion before supper.

I'll be checking in with a new blog tomorrow. I brought along a camera and hope that I can get some pictures posted from time to time so that you can see this from my personal point of view! I'll be interested in hearing from you, too!
~Pastor Raabe

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