# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S179
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 179

1. That any extension of our work must serve to enhance the
depth and strength of our students’ spiritual concepts as
well as to enlarge cultural backgrounds and the under-
standing of contemporary fields of labor.

2. That the present system of Junior Colleges should remain
intact.

3. That it would be in the best interests of the Church if we
could arrange the mechanics of ministerial education in such
a way that students who wish to specialize in a particular
field might more easily transfer credits. In this connection
it is perfectly clear to the Board and to the consultants that
the desired ease of transfer of credits to graduate schools
will be achieved neither by full regional accreditation of
existing or proposed facilities nor by possession of any B. A.
degree. Both of these conditions are relevant and requisite,
but the possibility of graduate university study in any
given field will be determined exclusively by the number,
quality, and type of prerequisite studies satisfactorily com-
pleted by the applicant in question.

Your Board studied all of the proposals at length and examined
them in terms of the accepted objectives of ministerial training.
It attempted also to identify and evaluate the practical implica-
tions for ,

1. The future welfare of the Church.

2. The effectiveness of the product.

3. The present system of training.

The attempt to propose practical means of implementation in
harmony with the principles expressed, invites consideration of
three additional basic questions:

1. Should not the primary consideration be focused upon the
quality rather than upon the quantity of schooling provided?
In other words, is it not necessary to weigh accurately and
to examine critically every potential improvement in in-
formational and professional training and every possible
expansion of cultural background or deepened understand-
ing of contemporary conditions upon the basis of the degree
to which it can potentially contribute to the strength and
depth of the students’ spiritual concept and attitudes?

2. May not an unintentional overemphasis on the degree (B.A.)
itself lead indeed to a parallelism with the current American
administrational pattern without achieving the crucial ob-
jectives indicated as desirable for our purpose?