day three at the convention

Dear Fellow Saints of St. Paul’s,

The day began early with a breakfast at 6:30 am for all the delegates of the Southeastern District. Today I finally saw all of the members of my flock from St. Paul’s who are delegates to the convention. They include Tony Hansen, Troy Bauer, and Rev. David and Susan Maack.

The convention opened at 8:00 with a prayer service. I fear that this convention is going to need a lot of prayers. It took them almost 40 minutes to agree on the standing rules of the convention. Then there was a challenge to the “orders of the day.” (The agenda for the day.) That lasted another 40 plus minutes before we could agree on what we wanted to do today. I must confess that about then I began to think of all of you back in Glen Burnie worshipping together and praising our God and Savior at St. Paul’s. I pray you had a wonderful time in our LORD’S House today.

The convention was designed to spend the first two days discussing and then voting on the purposed changes to the structure of our church body. The voting for the President and other positions would follow on Tuesday. This made perfect sense to me because depending on the outcome of the structure issue, the positions to be filled could be different. Call it a major victory for the President of Synod, the convention finally agreed to follow the purposed “orders of the day” and keep the agenda as he had purposed.

We had a wonderful Bible study today on the topic of “Forgiveness.” What joy it is to be certain that in Jesus Christ we are forgiven. And how much more will life be enjoyed and be meaningful when we forgive others. It was a tremendous study.

I ate lunch with my good friend Butch Almstedt, chairman of the Board of Missions. Butch served on the Foundation Board with me for nine years. The Foundation still raises gifts for the Mission Board through its gift planning efforts.

After lunch Rev. Dr. Bill Dickelman led a very good devotion. You might remember that he was the guest preacher at my 30th year in the ministry anniversary three years ago.

Throughout the afternoon session the committee on structure presented its proposal to change the structure and governance of the Synod. Every 45 minutes or so, time was allowed for questions and discussion. The afternoon went fairly smooth. Tomorrow things will begin to heat up when the proposals are actually voted on.

True to the agenda, the session ended around 6:00 pm. (Shortly thereafter!) Then it was off to dinner and networking for the Foundation until bed time.

Keep me in your prayers, as you are in mine.

Pastor George