It has been eerily quiet from the “Never Harrison-ers” corner of the Synod. By the time we were this close to convention last time around, shiny postcards had already filled personal and church mailboxes several times over. Given that this group had an extra year to prepare this time, I expected things to heat up much sooner. The silence has caused me to wonder if rather than “mailing out” this go around they’re “mailing it in” and preparing instead for a huge campaign ahead of the 2026 convention assuming that this will be President Harrison’s last term to run. It would not surprise me if 2026 is the target.

But as you know, the silence was recently broken from the newly dubbed “Coalition of the Dissatisfied.” They have chosen their candidate and have begun the push for the presidency with a campaign page and all! It’s interesting, isn’t it, that campaign pages and postcards exist in order to not only promote a specific candidate but more importantly, to push an agenda (Oh, I’m sorry…”vision.”) And like all worldly campaigns that are run, they are filled with real promises to friends and donors and empty promises to the people—people like you who are trying to faithfully care for your own every day.

Admittedly, politics exist in the LCMS. We would be naïve to act as if they didn’t But there’s a way business is conducted in candidacy for offices in the Church and a way that it is conducted if one is running for Mayor or Governor. We should be able to clearly distinguish between the two, but from what we got last go around and what has begun in the last few weeks from the “Coalition,” I’m not sure that we can make that distinction.

Now, this is not a post to bash the candidate. I don’t know him. We’ve never spoken or even been in the same room (that I’m aware of). My issue is not with him. It’s with the constant desire to change things within the Synod as if by changing things we will somehow start to see exponential growth. “If only we have the right leadership with the right vision, things will be better!” From the website itself, we have a “changing world” that “presents new challenges for our Synod.” And “We have lost sight of our mission.”

So what’s the answer? I wholeheartedly believe that now is not the time to play the game of the progressives and to act as if we’re in uncharted territory in our world. Times have changed. This much is true. But the challenges we face today are not new to the Church of God, so to act as if we need to do “new” things or come up with a different vision only marries us more tightly to the world around us. In order to faithfully proclaim the Word of God in this world is to see that everything we are dealing with has been done before (even gender issues! See the world of Plato and then Gnosticism.) and then to faithfully go forth as the Church did then—even unto death. To change along with the world is the wrong thing to do. The Church must be the constant as we confess a Lord who doesn’t change (Malachi 3:6)—a risen Jesus who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). If we are constantly trying to chase after the world, not only will we always be behind and having to change our game, we will eventually wind up worn out and killed. The world has no mind for Jesus. It hates Him, and it hates you, too (John 15:18). It is not our job to be friends with the world or to relate to it through programs and gimmicks. It doesn’t care. It will devour you.

As the “Coalition” will begin their push and may even pretend to say the right things like “Word and Sacrament” and “historic Lutheran theology and practice,” pay close attention to the “agenda” and how they are seeking to keep up with the changing world. If the intention is to get a “Concordia man” to do what many of our Concordias tried to do for the sake of increasing the membership numbers of Synod, watch out. We have seen what has happened to several of those institutions. They were devoured by the same world they sought to befriend.   

Even though things seem quiet now, it is not time to sit in apathy. Get your voters together and your nominations in. Pray for our Synod and especially for our children. Most of all, remain faithful to our Lord remembering all who have come before us and laid down their lives for the very thing so many want to toss to the wind for the sake of “love” and their idea of “unity.”