Synod Assembly - Southwestern Minnesota Synod ELCA

On Saturday, May 21, the Synod Council voted to cancel the 2022 Synod Assembly due to the inability to attain quorum.
Click here to read the full cancelation announcement.

Assembly Hearing Recordings

Please click the following links to view the Zoom Recording.

-2023 Proposed Compensation Guidelines Hearing Recording
-2024 Proposed SW MN Synod Budget Hearing Recording
-Assembly Resolution 22.01 - Reviewing On Leave from Call Removal Process Hearing Recording

Pre-Assembly Materials Assembly Offering Who can be a Voting Member? Short Video Contest

Pre-Assembly Materials

The pre-assembly materials consist of synod reports and proposals to the assembly with an informative guide to what voting members need to know about the online assembly. Reading these materials will make your experience and this assembly a success.

The pre-assembly book is still in the works. The downloadable link will be activated soon.
We will be posting reports as we receive them.

Pre-Assembly Materials:
Welcome
General Information
Assembly Speakers
Assembly Agenda
Assembly Procedures
Parliamentary Procedure
Robert's Rules of Order
Report of the Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton
ELCA Churchwide Report
Synod Staff Reports:
Bishop Dee Pederson
Rev. Stephen Cook, Synod Minister
Rev. Heather Culuris, Synod Minister
Rev. Troy Pflibsen, Director for Evangelical Mission
Rev. Andrew Hermodson-Olsen, Director of Gifts of Grace
We Remember
Compensation & Benefits Guidelines
Nominating Report
Resolution 22.01 - Reviewing On Leave from Call Removal Process
Narrative Budget
Proposed Budget
Treasurer's Report:
-Financial Statements & Schedules – Fiscal Year Ending January 31, 2022
-Operating Fund – Budget v. Actual Comparison - Fiscal Year Ending January 31, 2022

Committee Reports:

Mission Partners Reports:
Portico Benefit Services, A Ministry of the ELCA
Shetek Lutheran Ministries

Assembly Offering

We invite you to give an offering that will support the ministries of the synod. Congregations are encouraged to contribute $1 per baptized member. Congregations may make a contribution prior to the assembly but it will also be lifted up during our assembly worship service.

To give an online gift visit www.swmnelca.org/giving or make your check payable to SW MN Synod and mail to: SW MN Synod, PO Box 499, Redwood Falls, MN 56283. Please include the offering in the memo line. Thank you for your generosity.

Who can be a Voting Member?

The following persons are eligible to serve as voting members of the assembly:

Pastors on the roster of the Southwestern Minnesota Synod who are under call.
Deacons on the roster of the Southwestern Minnesota Synod who are under call.
Two retired pastors elected by their peers to represent the retired pastors on the roster of the SW MN Synod.
Lay members of the Synod Council.
Lay voting members from congregations of the synod.
Lay conference chairpersons who are not congregational voting members.
Retired pastors on the synod roster serving as interim pastors in congregations of the synod during the Synod Assembly.
Retired or on-leave-from-call Deacons elected by their congregation as voting members.
Persons serving in a Synodically Authorized Ministry (more than half time) in congregations of the synod during the Synod Assembly.

Advisory members of the assembly have voice but not vote during business sessions. Such persons must register and pay the appropriate fee. Persons who may register as advisory members include: ELCA churchwide staff, representatives of synodical shared ministries, retired rostered persons (with the exception of the two retired pastors elected to vote), and rostered persons not currently under call.

Congregational Voting Member Chart:

*Numbers represent BAPTIZED membership.
More than 3,500 baptized members, add one voting member for every additional 500 baptized members.

Congregation Size*	Voting Member #	Gender
0 – 174	1 or 2	If only one registers, either a male or a female. If two register, it must be one male and one female.
175 – 500	2	1 male, 1 female
501 – 1,000	3	1 male, 1 female + 1 either male or female
1,001 – 1,500	4	2 male, 2 female
1,501 – 2,000	5	2 male, 2 female + 1 either male or female
2,001 – 2,500	6	3 male, 3 female
2,501 – 3,000	7	3 male, 3 female + 1 either male or female
3,001 – 3,500	8	4 male, 4 female

Short Video Contest

It’s a first for the Assembly! Congregations and ministry partners around the synod are invited to enter an Assembly TikTok-Style video contest by creating a short video presentation under the theme verse, “For we are God’s servants, working together, you are God’s field, God’s building.” 1 Cor 3:9. (NRSV) Submissions will be accepted from April 1 – May 20.

The purpose behind the TikTok-Style vidoe contest is to give people across the synod the opportunity to get to know one another better and to show what God is up to in their ministries today.

The winning TikTok-Style video will receive a traveling trophy! Points for the following:

creativity (music, dance, art, humor).
intergenerational members (youth, young adult, senior).
using words from theme verse.
including Assembly voting members.
including your rostered leaders and/or staff.
indicating where you’re “planted” (town sign, pic from Google maps, etc.)
sharing on social media (congregation Facebook, etc.)

Criteria:

30 seconds – 2 minutes.

Deadline May 20.

Videos must be on in .mov, mp4, .m4v or a TikTok format.

Email [email protected] to share and upload your video.

Synod Assembly Coordinator:
Tamara Schacher
Admin. Assistant to Bishop Dee Pederson
[email protected]
507.627.9041 (Direct Line) 507.430.2367 (Cell)