March 2022
Based on Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God,” The 60th Convention of The Northern Illinois District of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod adjourned in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit on Saturday, March 12, 2022 after two days of providing opportunity for worship, nurture, inspiration, fellowship, and the communication of vital information as it related to our District and Synod.
The convention took place Friday, March 11 through Saturday, March 12, 2022 at Concordia University Chicago, River Forest. Opening worship was held in the Chapel of Our Lord with guest preacher Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison.
A function of the convention was the election of the president, vice president, board of directors, and nomination committees among other roles. The delegates re-elected were Rev. Dr. Allan R. Buss (second term) as president, along with the Presidium, Rev. Steven Anderson, Rev. Michael Brown, Rev. Cory Estby, and Rev. Caleb Schauer. Rev. Dr. James Kellerman was re-elected as District secretary.
President Buss, in his address to the delegates said, “At that [2018] convention, I shared these words, ‘We are in this together.’ We had no clue what would lie ahead. We did, though, sing at that convention, ‘Let Us Ever Walk with Jesus’ and Jesus has led us through much. The Savior who put us together has kept us together. We are the body of Christ. We are the Church and we get to be the Church. Christ loves the Church! Even the world needs the Church to be the Church! The agenda is not mine or yours, it is His!”
Special guests and presenters included Dr. Russell Dawn, President, Concordia University Chicago; Northern Illinois District President Emeritus Dan Gilbert; Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison, President of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod; Rev. Dr. John Wohlrabe, Synod Regional Vice President; Rev. David Fleming, Executive Director for Spiritual Care at DOXOLOGY serving as chaplain; Rev. Dr. Scott Bruzek, St. John Lutheran Church, Wheaton and Rev. William Yonker, Immanuel Lutheran Church, East Dundee serving as essayists; LWML NID President Jan Gerzevske; Rev. Wally Vinovskis, SELC District President; Rev. Bart Day, LCEF President & CEO; as well as presentations from District staff Rev. Dr. Tom Johnson, Rev. John Prohl, Lois Stewart, and Rev. Kris Whitby.
Important to the District’s initiative on Word, four devotions were led by Northern Illinois District pastors throughout the convention. These devotions will be available on our website as podcasts as well as on YouTube as videos.
Word, Wellness, and Witness were adopted as the official focus of the District (Resolution 1-01). Videos were a part of the convention highlighting these pillars of our work together and will be available on our YouTube channel. (Search NIDLCMS on YouTube.com.)
Other resolutions included:
• Belize was designated as the District’s official international mission focus (Resolution 3-02).
• The District confessed that the church has the unique and essential task of preaching the Gospel and administering the sacraments, which alone can bring salvation. Although “the Church is not entirely independent of the Government’s left-hand rule as she deals with non-spiritual matters,” it does not have authority to interfere with “her God-given functions” (Resolution 1-05).
• The convention deplored the sin of racism, encouraged congregations to implement Resolution 11-04 from Synod’s 2019 convention, and mandated the appointment of a task force to study past efforts at multiethnic ministries and to propose ways “to move forward in our present and future outreach in multiethnic communities” (Resolution 3-03).
• That the Northern Illinois District would again allow a man to run for four consecutive three-year terms to be President of the Northern Illinois District (Resolution 2-07).
The convention was livestreamed and recordings are available on the District’s YouTube channel.
We are stronger together. This is our time to be the Church.
President Allan R. Buss
