An interesting idea for confessionals to think about via Lutherquest

The other concern that I have is that following a liberal victory in '04, that the Confessional/conservative men and congregations will simply flake off one man and/or congregation at a time rather than stand together to take a very needed concerted action in the face of such a possibility.

It seems to me that the process, (should things go south), would be to organize a large, broad-based, concerted statement declaring the signers in statu confessiones against the synod.

Secondly, this group of men, women, and congregations would serve as the organized voice of decent and set a deadline for the righting of the wrongs itemized in the statement (say 2007). It must be clearly understood that should the false teaching not be corrected, that there will be a new synod following the '07 convention and that mechanisms to bring that about will be on-going from the conclusion of the '04 convention to the '07 convention.

Should satisfaction not be received, the organization would then find it necessary to bring forward a overture seeking the formal dissolution of the LCMS and a dividing of the resources proportionate to the size of the groups dividing.

Concerted action is the way to go, should it become necessary, but for now, we must concentrate in making sure it is the other guys who will find it preferable to take a hike.

and

[T]he hoops one must jump through to call a special convention make it nearly impossible. As I understand it, such a convention requires:

a. A three-fourth majority vote of the delegates to the 2004 convention.

b. A three-fourth majority vote of the Council of Presidents.

I could be wrong on the exact percentages above, but I'm not far off.

The other advantage of waiting until 2007 would be simply a logistical one. It will take a good three years of hard work to put into place the mechanisms of a new synod so that we are not scrambling around and have our act together. Additionally, during that time, there are many things that could be done to work around the synod, in effect, acting as our own synod while in a state of confession. We could provide alternative ways to call pastors circumventing the adverse actions of negative DP's. We could do the work needed to set up retirement and health insurance for those coming along with us. We could put into place screening mechanisms for accepting pastors, teachers, DCE's etc., into our group and finally into our new synod. It would provide us time to put together a governmental structure that would, then be fully functional by 2007. All the while, we can impact the synod in a more organized fashion and bring more along with us without having to leave the synod during that three year period. Additionally, during that three year period we could encourage all participating congregations to discontinue their funding of the synod and instead send their funds to the organization to impact the LCMS in a Scriptural/Confessional way and/or to provide the resources necessary to establish a new synod.

It is not logistically realistic to just declare a new synod and think it will function right off the bat. It would require a huge investment in time, energy and resources.

Both posts were by Pastor Richard Bolland and the originals can be found here.