# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S454
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

454

PASTORAL MINISTRY AND SEMINARIES

PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING
Specific Ministry Pastor Status and Limitations
2.13.1
A “specific ministry pastor” is a minister of religion—
ordained who has completed the requirements for service as a
specific ministry pastor and has been examined by one of the
Synod’s seminaries, has received a regular call, and has been placed
by the Council of Presidents into a specific Word and Sacrament
ministry context. He is eligible to serve only in that specific ministry
context for which he has been trained and may not be offered or
accept a call for ministry for which he has not been certified as
determined by his district president. He shall serve under the
supervision of his district president and another pastor who is not a
specific ministry pastor.
…
(d) A specific ministry pastor who is in good standing and has
the recommendation of the congregation and the district president
is eligible to apply for admission to the pastoral colloquy program
after seven complete years of service in a congregation.

and be it finally
Resolved, That the Commission on Handbook, in consultation
with the SMP Committee, the Pastoral Formation Committee and
the Colloquy Committee, revise any other pertinent and relevant
bylaw to be in harmony with new Bylaw 2.13.1 (d).
Mount Calvary, North Olmsted, OH; Redeemer, Fort Collins, CO
Ov. 6-11

To Develop a Worker Training Plan
WHEREAS, Recent analysis of pastors within The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) reveals that, over the next 10
years, roughly two-thirds of today’s pastors will have reached or
passed the age of retirement; and
WHEREAS, Additionally, seminary graduation rates over the past
decade have been well below retirement rates; and
WHEREAS, Similar shortages exist for commissioned ministers;
and
WHEREAS, This analysis makes it clear that our church body has
a worker supply and demand problem; and
WHEREAS, Unless these trends are reversed, before the year 2027
our church body will not have enough church workers to serve our
church body; and
WHEREAS, The LCMS gathered in convention in 2016 limited
Word and Sacrament ministry to ordained pastors, limiting the use
of other designated servants; and
WHEREAS, Concordia Seminary, Concordia Theological
Seminary, and the Concordia University System (CUS) are not
currently supplying sufficient quantity of theologically trained
workers to resource the mission initiatives of the Church; and
WHEREAS, These mission initiatives will be ongoing, requiring
workers to be recruited, trained, and released into ministry over the
coming decades; and
WHEREAS, Districts have utilized programs to provide formal
theological training for potential workers, including the current
Specific Ministry Program, the Ethnic Immigrant Institute of
Theology, the Center for Hispanic Studies, Mission Training Center
at Concordia University, Portland, and the Certified Lay Deacon
Program at Concordia College—New York; and
WHEREAS, The Southeastern District of the LCMS resolved in
convention to petition the 2019 convention of the LCMS to develop
2019 Convention Workbook

a worker training plan to supply pastors, ordained and
commissioned ministers, and other church workers to serve the
mission and congregations of the Synod, with examination of
strategies and strategic partnerships for training and deploying
church workers throughout the Synod; and
WHEREAS, Article XIV of the Augsburg Confession states that
“no one should publicly teach in the Church or administer the
Sacraments unless he be regularly called”; therefore be it
Resolved, That the LCMS, working with the Council of
Presidents (COP), the seminaries, and the CUS develop a worker
training plan to supply pastors, ordained and commissioned
ministers, and lay deacons and other church workers working under
the supervision of a pastor to serve the mission and congregations
of the districts, working with our partner institutions when
appropriate; and be it further
Resolved, That the LCMS complete this training plan and after
authorization through the COP, present it to districts by 2021
district convention cycle.
Board of Directors
Southeastern District
Ov. 6-12

To Restore Supervision of Licensed Lay Deacon
Ministry to the Districts
WHEREAS, Licensed Lay Deacons (LLD) have served faithfully
under the supervision of ordained pastors, often with no
compensation, to bring God’s Word and Sacraments to
congregations which are not able to secure ordained pastors to lead
worship either due to financial, geographic, or language/cultural
challenges; and
WHEREAS, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in its 2016
convention Resolution 13-02A resolved to end the regular use of
LLDs for Word and Sacrament ministry in such situations with
deadlines in 2018 for these LLDs to either end their ministry or
commit to a route toward ordination by colloquy or seminary
education; and
WHEREAS, More congregations will inevitably find themselves
in such situations without access to ordained pastors to conduct
ministry on their behalf; and
WHEREAS, To prevent congregations from having to close, 2016
convention Res. 13-02A allowed for exceptional cases to be brought
to the plenary of the Council of Presidents and the Colloquy
Committee for Pastoral Ministry in order that a deacon may
continue in Word and Sacrament ministry in a given situation “only
during times of emergency or extraordinary need” and on a
“temporary or occasional basis”; and
WHEREAS, Obtaining approval by a plenary session of the
Council of Presidents and the Colloquy Committee for Pastoral
Ministry (some forty-plus people from across the Synod) is a
cumbersome process and burden to lay on a handful of people
gathering in a small congregation in a remote area of the country,
all so that they may have the weekly blessing of God’s Means of
Grace; and
WHEREAS, The only other option for such congregations who are
not able financially to sustain a pastor, or are not able to arrange for
a multi-point parish, or to find a retired pastor willing to serve, will
be to languish without regular worship; and