# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S919
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 221

limited range of opportunity for curriculum differentiation.
Furthermore, economic as well as educational considera-
tions virtually compel Synod to confine the elective possi-
bilities of the senior college curriculum to an extension of
only a few of those fields of subject matter which in some
measure are already included in the curriculum as re-
quired fields.

If Synod finds it possible to approve these basic assumptions
and aims, then the Board will be prepared to construct a senior
college curriculum on the basis of such approval.

Spiritual Growth: a Major Function of the Senior College

Since the senior college has been authorized by Synod as an
additional unit in its ministerial training program, it must be as-
sumed that the senior college will not at all be regarded as the
upper division of a liberal arts program and that the senior col-
lege, however it may be organized, is not to.be confused with the
concept of a university. In other words, the synodical senior college
will be and remain wholly and exclusively an instrumentality of
_ preparation for admission to the theological seminary and, through
_ ‘the latter, for entrance into the work of the holy ministry in The
Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod.

It will be perfectly clear that several additional years of train-
ing in subject matter can do little to improve the quality of our
ministerial training, for such additional schooling can only impart
information and skills while expanding the student’s mental ca-
pacity and maturity. The primary and lasting advantage, then,
which the Church may properly hope to gain from the additional
expense of operating the college and from the added time which
the student spends in training lies in the area of more highly de-
veloped spiritual strength and sensitivity.

It is conceivable that a consecrated man may serve his Lord
in the Church without a high degree of specialized intellectual

: and technical accomplishment, but it is not true that satisfactory

service can be rendered without the requisite spiritual develop-
ment. Our theological seminaries should certainly demand, there-
fore, of all students who wish to enter these schools that they
possess, first of all, an adequate spiritual and a satisfactory per-
sonality development. We are assuming, of course, the technical
and intellectual apparatus which is necessary for a high level of
professional production as an a-priori prerequisite for matricula-
tion at the seminaries.

The attainment of such spiritual objectives in the senior col-
lege will require a specific program which focuses particularly on
the extracurricular and co-curricular areas of activity. In a Lu-