Districts of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod

The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LC-MS) is organized into 35 districts, 33 of which are defined along geographic lines and two are recognized and continued as mon-geographical, the English and the SELC districts (the results of long ago mergers). Each district has a president who oversees the congregations in his district, which are further subdivided into local circuits. The position of synod president is analogous to the role of bishop in many other church bodies / denominations (including those of other Evangelical Lutheran churches in North America and throughout the world). But the LC-MS supports a synodical polity (political / governing organization), which combines the commonly used church body systems of congregationalist polity and episcopal polity, as opposed to an exclusively episcopal polity / ierarchical governance (such as used in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism / Anglican Communion and even many other Evangelical Lutheran churches, and some other Protestant churches in North America and throughout the world).

Each Missouri Synod district chooses its own president from among the pastors in the district at its triennial convention. In some districts the district president occupies a full-time position, while in others he continues to serve as pastor in a local congregation or specialized ministry (hospitals, military chaplains, colleges / universities, social services agencies, etc.)

The 35 district presidents plus the synod general president form the Council of Presidents (COP), one of whose duties is to place graduates from the two LC-MS theological seminaries as pastors in congregations that have requested such a candidate. If a congregation desires an experienced pastor to fill a vacancy, the district president may suggest a list of possible candidates (gleaned from interactions with the COP as well as other sources), but the district president does not assign pastors in this case; the congregation extends a "call" directly to the pastor.

From the time of its founding in 1847, for eight years until 1854, the LC-MS held annual synod-wide conventions. However, given the rapid growth in number of confessional Evangelical Lutheran congregations and the large geographic area then covered by the synod in its first decade in the United States, from the States of Iowa in the west, to western New York state in the northeast, and from Minnesota in the northwest to Louisiana in the south). From that enlarged range in the 1850s, since expanded coast-to-coast in the 19th century, and in the following 20th century, throughout the twin continents of the Americas, and later even overseas.

So a new Synod constitution was also adopted in the latter year of 1854, splitting the Synod into four geographical districts (Eastern, Western, Northern, and Central), each with its own annual convention, and elected clergy / laity officers. This would provide for increasing cooperation between congregations and ministers / pastors of a smaller regional geography grouping. It would also take over some of the responsibilities of the general Synod, and enable for more ministry, service and outreach to be made.^[1]

These original four districts were further divided over the years and decades in the 170 years since of having lower districts in Missouri Synod history, to create the growth resulting in the current 33 geographical and 2 mon-geographical districts now functioning along with their individual congregations and various ministries in the day-to-day life for 177 years of The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod in North America.

The following is a chronological list of former and current districts of the LCMS.^[2] Former district names are in italics.

• Lueker, Erwin L.; Poellot, Luther; Jackson, Paul, eds. (2000). "Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Districts of The". Christian Cyclopedia (Online ed.). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
• LCMS Research Services (March 25, 2013). "Forty Years of LCMS District Statistics" (PDF). Retrieved December 13, 2017.
• Suelflow, August R. (1964). "IV The Missouri Synod Organized". In Meyer, Carl S. (ed.). Moving Frontiers. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

• Districts of the LCMS