# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S154
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

154 SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

present popularity of the Junior College indicates a general change
in the academic requirements for professional education. The
movement does make a very popular and necessary contribution
in the field of general, terminal, and vocational education. It also
provides local schooling for the first two years of professional
training of traditional length, but the Junior College development
has not significantly affected the duration or the content of recog~
nized professional training programs nor does it list any objectives
which propose to do so.
‘ Synod’s Objectives

Recognizing the validity of many of the arguments advanced,
the Board felt that it could reach no sound conclusion on the
advisability of a change before it made a thorough study of our
present system of training in the light of the exact objectives which
motivate Synod’s educational projects.

Referring to this subject, the Saginaw Proceedings state that
Synod reaffirms “the training of pastors and teachers as the basic
and primary purpose of its academies, colleges, and seminaries.”
Accordingly, the Board undertook to formulate the educational
objectives for ministerial and teacher training and then proceeded
to an examination of the practical conditions under which a product
trained to fit the Church’s needs might, under God’s blessing,
be produced.

The materials offered in the Objectives constitute the Board’s
effort to carry out the Saginaw Convention's directive that the
Board formulate a statement of the fundamental objectives of
ministerial training as a specific guide to Synod in the future
operation of its Colleges and Seminaries. A careful study of the
Scriptural definitions and of the historical and practical experiences
of the Church leads to the conclusions here presented as a basic
philosophy which continues to motivate the Board’s judgment of
all relevant educational proposals. Your Board is convinced that
all the Senior College suggestions and any problems related to
a more efficient operation of our present system of schools must
be judged in the light of these Objectives.

This statement of Objectives has been endorsed by the presi-
dents of Synod’s educational institutions. It is our hope that
every appraisal of proposals for change or for retention of Synod’s
present educational system will attempt to derive its validity solely
from recognition of and devotion to such clearly defined Objectives
which stand and will continue to build upon the-rock of Scripture
and experience,

The Beard accepted the following statement of The Objectives
of Ministerial Training as basic to its evaluation of every phase
of the Senior College problem: