# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S173
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 173

Much of church history is a painful reminder that tolerance
of shortages and inadequacies in church leadership can be born
of history, if not merely endured. To paraphrase Mr. Pusey:
“Has the Christian Church ever attracted as much first-rate ability
into its ministerial ranks as it could profitably use?” Much
depends on the prevailing sense of witness and mission of Christ’s
church in the world and to the world. One of the promising ele-
ments in contemporary Christianity is the current intensive study
and extensive activity regarding the provision of a suitable min-
istry for the Christian Church. Any church body as part of the
Church Militant is bound in faith and love to determine its strategy
and tactics. The Great Commission is given to the whole Chris-
tian Church. It is necessary in all humility to remind ourselves
that Synod is not identical or coextensive with the Christian
Church and that a dissipation of leadership strength through over-
activity or in enforced immobilization is evil either way. The point
is illuminated by a vivid recollection of a recent period of “over-
supply” of theological candidates marking time in the market
place and by the reminder that in its entire history, Synod never
yet has had an adequate supply of synodically trained teachers for_|
its schools. .. .

Synodical geography is another fact of church life which
affects the quest for students to be recruited and trained for the
church professions. While the Lord of the Church has permitted
our body to become active in many parts of the world, the bulk
of the synodical membership is still highly concentrated in the
North Central section of the United States.

Recruitment Factors in the Nature of the Ministry 1

Our church’s quest for talented students for the church pro-
fessions is affected by the nature of the holy ministry.

A great principle of the Lutheran Reformation reasserts the
universal priesthood of all believers in contrast to the restriction
of priestly functions to a sacramentally designated elite. Christians
are all priests to one another. The Christian calling is not restricted
to a few, nor is it God-pleasing to distinguish a religious calling
from a secular calling in an essential and constituted way. The
ministry is that ministry of the whole church in which the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself is at work. Every redeemed life is an answer
to the call of the Holy Spirit, who addresses a prior invitation to
every Christian to engage in a responsible search for an oppor-
tunity to serve his Lord. In Luther’s great intensification of the
doctrine of Christian vocation, it is not even correct to speak of

the calling to the holy ministry. Those rather who are called to
the ministry are trained for service and not for status or privilege