# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S155
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 155

OBJECTIVES OF MINISTERIAL TRAINING
I, Basic Assumptions

A. The objectives of an educational process— Christian in
sponsorship, purpose, and method—converge upon a single end
totally opposed to the end upon which are focused the aims of
an educational process essentially secular in character. For, the
ultimate end of the one is exclusively the satisfaction of the will
of God; and the final end of the other is only the satisfaction of
the will of man. Between the two, therefore, no rapprochement
is possible.

B. Essentially, the process of Christian education is the pro-
gressively effectual interaction of three vital, personal phenomena:
an awareness of the complete relevance of Divine will and truth
to all areas of life; a love~motivation to apply the Divine will
and truth unreservedly in all experiences of life; and a knowl-
edge of significant areas of life gained through an organized
heritage of experience.

C. Ideally, the process of Christian education begins in the
home, continues in the school, and matures in adult life, at all
times under influence of the Church. Manifestly, the process
is not limited to the school. Indeed, the process of Christian
education cannot attain its full vigor and development until the
awareness, the motivation, and the knowledge, identified in para-
graph two, have received the impact of broad and matured ex-
perience with the problems and the responsibilities of adult life.

D. Thus, schools may sponsor a portion of the educational
process, but not the whole of it. Actually, the insurmountable
difficulties of demonstrating life to students whose experiences
are at best relatively limited, prevent the school from providing
even a major portion of the educational process.

E. Consequently, the function of the school is limited neces-
sarily to the important work of furnishing the student with per-
sonal equipment which will be useful to him throughout the whole
educational process of learning to do the will of God, the larger
portion of which will not take place until the maturing effect of
experience permits it to take place.

F. Because it must be centered on the satisfaction of the will
of God, Christian education must be utterly pragmatic. All of its
means must yield effects which will bé useful in doing the will
of God. No other means have any legitimate place in a Christian
school.

G. The pursuits of an individual, particularly during his adult
life, tend in many ways to condition the educational process to