“Don’t pit missions against ministerial education.” That was the message the delegates heard and acted on at the WELS 60th Biennial Convention, held July 27–31 at Michigan Lutheran Seminary, Saginaw, Mich.

In the months before the convention, all areas of ministry had made serious and painful reductions in their budgets. But looking ahead suggested additional cuts. In the preconvention meetings of the Synodical Council, the council had adopted a budget proposal for the 2009–2011 biennium that offered two options—each with significant cuts to all areas of ministry. The options allowed the convention to choose between further funding missions or ministerial education. One of the options would balance the budget by giving Ministerial Education an additional $1 million but only by cutting $500,000 from World Missions and $500,000 from Home Missions (Option A). The second option split $1 million between Home and World Missions and cut that amount from Ministerial Education (Option B).

In a straw poll after the open hearing on budgetary issues at the convention, the majority of delegates indicated that they did not like either Option A or Option B. Instead, they were looking for another alternative. With that information Pastor Joel Otto, chairman of the Finance and Budget Floor Committee, and other committee members went back to find a way to fund both. Somewhere they needed to find an additional $1 million in other budgetary cuts so neither missions nor ministerial education would be cut further.

Members of the committee had come to Saginaw early to work on the budget and spend long hours poring over budget documents and discussing financial issues with advisory delegates. Convention delegates waited for no other committee’s resolutions more than the Finance and Budget Floor Committee. When the resolution was finally completed and passed to the delegates, the wait was over.

The committee’s resolution suggested that “budget Options A and B negatively impact ministries previously identified by synod in convention as core ministry” and recommended balancing the budget by avoiding the choice between A and B. Instead, it recommended cutting the budget in other places to provide the money to fund both missions and ministerial education. After a considerable amount of debate, the resolution was adopted by a vote of 291 to 69—or 80 percent of the delegates supporting the resolution.

Budget cuts recommended in the resolution included $50,000 from Communications, $100,000 from Financial Services, $150,000 from Technology, $200,000 from Parish Services, $100,000 from mission counselors, and $400,000 from corporate travel expenses. Making these cuts meant that neither missions nor ministerial education would be cut more than the severe cuts that had been already made.