Matthew Harrison

Matthew Carl Harrison (born March 14, 1962 in Sioux City, Iowa) is the 13th and current president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). He was first elected to the presidency on July 13, 2010 at the synod's 64th regular convention in Houston, Texas. Harrison officially took office on September 1, 2010, and was formally installed in a service on September 11, 2010, at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. He was elected by a 54 - 45% margin on the first ballot. He was elected to a second three-year term following a first ballot victory in the church body's first online presidential election in July 2013 . He was elected to a third three-year term in June 2016, having received 56.96 percent of the vote on the first ballot. In June 2019, Harrison was elected to a fourth three-year term with 51.76 percent of the vote on the first ballot. In June 2023, he was elected to a fifth term with 52.32% of the first ballot vote. He is the first LCMS president elected to a fifth term since 1947. Harrison had previously served as the Executive Director of the Department of LCMS World Relief and Human Care, and as founding president of the LCMS Housing Corporation (also known as Lutheran Housing Support). Early years Harrison was born in Sioux City, Iowa, on March 14, 1962. He was baptized at Bethel Lutheran Church in Lawton, Iowa, and grew up in Sioux City, where his family belonged to Redeemer Lutheran Church. He graduated from Sioux City East High School in 1980 and Morningside College in 1987. Harrison then attended Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, from which he earned a Master of Divinity in 1989 and a Master of Sacred Theology degree in 1991. In 2011, he received honorary doctorates from Concordia Theological Seminary and from Concordia University Ann Arbor in Michigan. Ministry Harrison's first parish was at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Westgate, Iowa, where he served from 1991 to 1995.