From time to time we receive questions about Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod (LCMS) convention history, e.g., what was the theme for the 1969 convention? where was the 1923 convention held? how many times have we held a convention in Cleveland? is there a listing of LCMS conventions?

In order to answer these questions, we would first turn to The Lutheran Annual, where under LCMS General Information there is a listing of LCMS convention history. Sometimes we could just direct the patron there, since most LCMS churches have a copy in their church office. But we found that in order to answer some of the questions we needed to do more research. The table in The Lutheran Annual only provides the convention number, the year the convention was held, and the city in which it was held.

In an effort to answer the questions posed we started compiling a list of each question, but soon realized that it would more efficient to create a table which built on the listing in The Lutheran Annual.

We decided to add not only the year, city and number of each convention, but also the dates when the convention was held, the actual location of the convention, the president who was elected, and if applicable, the theme of the convention.

The table below is our answer to these frequently asked questions (FAQ). Please note that you can sort each column by clicking on the heading, you can expand the number of entries displayed, and you can search for a term.