# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S175
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 175

a general education program. It now appears too late to return
these schools to the exclusive pursuit of their original purpose, nor
‘ig there unanimity of opinion on the desirability of doing so. The
pressure for such accommodations is illustrated by the fact that at
one of the remaining three schools the general education enroll-
ment. has actually jumped from 17 per cent to 29 per cent of the
total enrollment in the past year. 41 per cent of the new enroll-
ments in 1946 in this school were non-ministerial students. This
situation does not violate any synodical directive, since the school
undertakes no program adjustments in order to accommodate these
students. It does illustrate the demands for this type of educa-
tional service by the constituencies of a majority of Synod’s schools.

General Education Expanded

_ During the past triennium more than three million dollars for
capital investments have been made available to our Colleges and
Seminaries through local and synodical funds. It is obvious that
the sum total of these funds will not be absorbed in the construc-
tion of education facilities for ministerial students. In addition,
there is little to indicate that the ministerial product of capacity
operation of the enlarged educational plant could be absorbed if
the new funds were used to provide such facilities. Finally, it is
true that many of these financial offerings were made specifically
in the expectation of broadened service in the area of general
education. These three considerations are of crucial significance as
we consider the question whether sharply increased spiritual and
academic growth of ministerial students may be achieved within
the present or future framework of our present preparatory in-
stitutions.

It is entirely reasonable to assume that when this expanded
physical capacity becomes available, the schools and their several
communities will consider it their duty to fill this capacity, and the
general Lutheran public will demand, as it did in 1935—40, that the
full capacity of the schools be utilized. Under normal development
and continuing the present trend, available facilities will then be
filled by admitting additional general education students,

The impact of general Christian education on a given campus
will, no doubt, broaden the experiences of the ministerial student’s
school life and will also make valuable contributions to the cause
of future lay leadership, but it does not enhance the opportunity
to give concentrated, undivided attention to the vital and specialized
task of preparing ministers of the Gospel. The objectives of gen-
eral education and'of ministerial education are basically not the
same. The listed objectives demonstrate that such a difference
is more than a matter of degree. While it is still possible to achieve