# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S232
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 231
further theological preparation in order to become professors,
church leaders in specialized fields, and officers in the educational
system and ministerial and teacher-training system of Synod.
Others need opportunity for graduate study in Christian education
and in specific areas of learning which are not suitably available
outside the synodical training system, in order to improve their
professional competence as parish school teachers and principals,
and as potential members of community Lutheran high school and
synodical college faculties.

Large numbers of the people who ought to have advanced
training are able to get it only in institutions outside our church
body. While it is clearly not desirable to create a graduate system
of training within our Synod which would seek to compete with,
and substitute completely for, graduate study in predominantly
secular fields, the special needs of our men for the particular tasks
assigned to them in the church can be met suitably only by a
graduate program offered by institutions of Synod itself. Further-
more, to the extent that a phase of effective witness to the Gospel
in our day and to our world involves the articulate expression of
our position as Lutherans in critical areas of scholarship, the pro-
vision and encouragement of opportunities for such training are
at least a limited obligation of Synod.

It is apparent that the most significant needs for opportunities
for graduate study in our church at the present time are to be
found in the various areas of theology and of Christian education.

The School for Graduate Studies in operation under the direc-
tion of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis has long offered work
leading to the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, Master of Sacred
Theology, and Doctor of Theology. In recent years this institution
has also been experimenting with a program of approved clinical
work leading to a certificate. Until the recent time, however, the
St. Louis Seminary has had no official program which would offer
graduate preparation in the specific area of Christian education.
In addition, there is an apparent need in the St. Louis program
for an opportunity for some graduate work in Religion and in
Christian Education which can be taken by teachers and by laymen
who have completed the Bachelor’s degree and who are desirous
of deepening their spiritual knowledge and their Scriptural
understanding.

Present and impending certification standards for teachers and
school administrators indicate the wisdom of adding a fifth year
of study to the normal Bachelor’s program at Synod’s two teachers
colleges at River Forest and Seward, and to authorize them to
award a Master’s degree in Education for satisfactory graduate
work at the end of the additional year of study. The Board for