# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1953_S1047 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 302 PARISH EDUCATION The twofold calling of the te acher.—In the foll the Schulblatt, Lindemann presented the idea that the Luth eran writing, history, nature stud : Y, geography, grammar, and ike, were such secul. j scordine ee were sue ar subjects that the teacher taught according to his Teachers are not absolute m asters of their schools. rep iindemnann deplored the fact that many teach teemse ves “lords of the schools” (Herren der Schule), in which ey would have free choice of textbooks and be independe t pastoral supervision.21 He refers to the fact that the German age m 2 — a article, Lindemann pointed out that the school- od whats he part, a very important part, of the pastor’s flock anc . work of teaching, the teacher was the assistant of pastor and his representative.23 _ The wachers of the Missouri Synod are members of the clergy rv arti e by C. A. T. Selle in the Schulblatt, in 1869, argued that acher belongs to the clergy. One of the arguments advanced 18 Ibid., pp. 134, 135, 19 Ibid., p. 136. 20 Ibid., p. 138. 21 Ibid. (Feb., 1867), p. 165, » Ibid. (July, 1867), pp. 33439, 28 Ibid. (Aug., 1867), p. 364, PARISH EDUCATION 803 le in this connection was the fact that the teachers in Ger- ‘ad the same privileged position under the consistory as the He draws a parallel between that and the Missouri Synod as follows: - , “Even as here in America in our Missouri Synod we testify to. ‘ghat the teachers belong to the so-called clergy group; be- : pols according to our synodical Constitution, there are regulations ir examination, after which, like the pastors, they are con- i a d and declared to be regular members of the Synod.” 24 £; Selle declared that the public teaching of the Word of God was aimatter of the public ministry in the narrower sense (Pfarramt). For this reason he stated that the teaching of the Word of God on the part of the teacher was a part of the public ministry. This point of view was supported by the statement that, for the spread of His Word, God, in the first place, has instituted the universal priesthood of believers (1 Peter 2:9), and, in the second place, the public ministry (oeffentliches Predigtamt) (1 Cor. 12:9; James 3:1; Rom. 10:15; Heb. 5:4). Selle refers also to Article 14 of the Augs- . burg Confession. The spiritual priesthood has the assignment, especially at home, and in addition privately, to teach the Word of God. Except for cases of emergency the general office of the Christian does not go beyond this. Everything that goes beyond this, and as soon as it concerns the teaching of the Word at the request and instead of the entire group, belongs to the public ministry, which is then called a public office, because it is an office that concerns a public service that-has been assigned.?5 Selle calls the teacher’s office a branch office of the holy ministry. He points out that the teacher has been placed under the supervision of the pastor in the history of the Lutheran Church because we have correctly recognized that the teachers occupy a branch office of the holy ministry.?° The teacher cannot be a lay delegate to synodical conventions. —In 1874 the question arose as to whether or not the teacher could be a lay delegate to the synodical convention. The Synod decided the following: 1. No District Synod is permitted to recognize a teacher of a school or of a synodical institution as a lay delegate of a con- gregation. 7 2. This rule is to be incorporated in the by-laws of the Con- stitution. . 24 C. A. T. Selle, “Das Amt ‘des Pastors als Schulaufseher,” Schul- blatt IV (Jan., 1869), p. 139. 25 Ibid., p. 132. 26 Ibid., p. 138.