Lutheran Witness: February 2026

The February issue discusses pastoral vacancies and how congregations can weather them well.

From the President: ‘Decently and in Order’: The Pastoral Office and the Priesthood of All Believers

Life in the Church Year: The Lutheran Home Altar

Features:

Vacancies: Weathering them well — Stacey Eising

The Church in a Time of Vacancy: Carrying on as the church — John Zimmerman

Ten Tips for Vacant Congregations: Advice from a district business manager — Heather Williams

Can Laymen Lead Services During Pastoral Vacancies?: Guidance from the CTCR

The Divine Call: God is at work through the baptized — Brady Finnern

God’s Mission Here: A new Bible study helps congregations see their mission — Mary Henrichs

A Blessed End: Learning to number our days — Harold L. Senkbeil

Departments:

Snippets: News from around the LCMS and the world

Commonplaces

The Road to Convention: What Is Convention?

Searching Scripture: Following the Formula: Article I: Original Sin

From the editor:

Vacancies you will always have with you. In a church body where pastors are called by congregations — and in a world where pastors grow old, retire and finally die — our congregations have always faced and will always face times of pastoral vacancy.

However, specific challenges in recent years have led to a steady increase of vacancies across our Synod. According to 2025 data from LCMS Rosters and Statistics, the percentage of vacant LCMS parishes at a given time has increased from 16.1% to 19.4% just since 2020. As of the end of 2025, about 20% of our Synod’s parishes — 996, to be exact — were vacant, nearly 80% of these for longer than a year. And just 38% of vacant congregations are in the process of calling — the rest, without the means to call a pastor at this time, are in a state of indefinite vacancy.

There are a variety of intertwined causes. Fewer pastoral candidates have come out of the seminaries in recent decades. Our pastorate is thus aging — as of 2022, 57% of our pastors were over the age of 55 (and just 23% were under the age of 45). Retirements and deaths are, naturally, outpacing new pastors — in 2021, 135 new pastors came out of the seminaries, while 283 retired or passed away. (Thanks be to God, this trend has begun to reverse over the past few years due to the efforts of Set Apart to Serve and our seminaries and universities to encourage young men to undertake the difficult but crucial years of robust seminary education to prepare for the high vocation of pastoral ministry.)

Meanwhile, in the LCMS — as in church bodies across America — attendance has been declining for years. The majority of vacant congregations are small: As of late 2025, the average weekly attendance of served (not vacant) congregations was 110, while that of congregations in recent vacancies (a year or less) was 72, and that of long-term vacancies (over a year) 35. This influences how we consider solutions. In 2000, there was nearly one pastor for every 500 baptized LCMS congregational members. At the end of 2024, there was one pastor for every 325 baptized members. In other words, while the number of parish pastors has decreased, the number of members has declined at a faster rate. The solution, then, does not rest only with recruiting more pastors — but also with considering how smaller congregations might partner together and pool resources, and how our congregations can reach out to the unchurched with God’s Word.

This issue of The Lutheran Witness takes up the topic of vacancies. John Zimmerman discusses how vacant congregations remain a part of the church (p. 12). Heather Williams provides 10 pieces of advice for vacant congregations (p. 14). Brady Finnern reflects on the call process (p. 16). Mary Henrichs introduces a new Bible study that helps congregations examine their place in God’s mission (p. 18). Harold Senkbeil reflects on the natural lifespan of all things in this world, including congregations (p. 20). In preparation for this issue, I spoke to several district presidents, circuit visitors, vacancy pastors and laypeople about vacancies and how congregations can weather them well. I have summarized what I heard from them on p. 8–11. Among it all was one constant refrain: Christ is the Lord of the church, and He holds you always in His tender care. No matter what the numbers may look like, we can take heart — He will never let the testimony of His Word pass from the earth.

In the Hope of Christ,