Along with many mainline denominations, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has seen a gradual, but persistent, decline in membership in recent decades. One exception to this trend in the LCMS has been the Texas District, where membership has remained more or less steady over the last decade. I recently sat down with Rev. Ken Hennings, president of the Texas District of the LCMS to discuss what accounts for its different experience. (I should note that I am a lay representative on the District’s Board of Directors.)

It’s a sign of the times for the LCMS that one can be excited about a district merely not shrinking over a decade. Still, the Texas District is the LCMS’s second largest district (after Michigan), having around 360 congregations, with...