# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S115
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 115

to us new doors of opportunities beyond the range of our present
resources of professional manpower; and

Wuereas, Our Synod also has an established pattern for
receiving from church bodies “not affiliated with Synod” (see
Handbook, 4.55) men who show themselves qualified for the min-
istry in our church, but has no adequate program for training
laymen within our own Synod who, at a later age, are constrained
to accept the challenge of the holy ministry; and

Wuereas, We recognize the need for preserving high academic
standards for those who enter the ministry through the ordinary
channels of our regular ministerial training program and encourage
the Board for Higher Education to strive ever to improve our fine
educational system, but we at the same time are mindful that our
Lord is urging us onward in our “unfinished task” and recognize
the need of a program for recruiting older men for the min-
istry; and

Wuereas, There are in our Synod consecrated and able laymen
who, with the passing of time, have been brought to the conviction
that they are ready to devote their lives to the ministry, but who,
for valid reasons, cannot spend five years in residence on a campus
for the required training; and

Wuereas, Many of these men are spiritually, emotionally, and
intellectually fitted to prepare themselves for pastoral service,
and, such men, drawn by the Holy Spirit, can bring a rich
measure of devotion, understanding, and sense of vocation to the
office of the holy ministry; and

Wuereas, We believe that these circumstances call for action
by a deeply concerned church, anxious to follow the bidding of
the Lord of Grace, seeking both to preserve the unity of faith
through a sound and thoroughly trained ministry and also to
accept every opportunity as given by Him who calls us to build
and extend His kingdom; and

Wuereas, We are mindful of the difficulties involved in ad-
ministering a program of recruiting and training older men, but
also remember the call of Jesus to “work while it is day”;
therefore be it

Resolved, That the President of Synod be directed to appoint
a special “Supplementary Manpower Committee,” responsible
directly to the Board of Directors of Synod; and be it further

Resolved, That this “Supplementary Manpower Committee” be
empowered and directed to institute and implement a special train-
ing program for older men who are ready to answer the call of
the Lord to work in His harvest; and be it further