# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1998_S212 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 212 HIGHER EDUCATION WuereEAS, A large debt can prevent some from serving the church in a professional way and cause others much difficulty in their service to the Lord; therefore be it Resolved, That The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in con- vention seek to lower the tuition expenses for those who seek to serve their Lord through professional church work; and be it further Resolved, That The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in con- vention reaffirm its support for our Concordia colleges, universi- ties, and seminaries through a pledge of cooperation; and be it fur- ther Resolved, That The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in con- vention reaffirm its support for our Concordia colleges, universi- ties and seminaries through an increase of financial support to each synodical institution; and be it finally Resolved, That The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod seek to eliminate all tuition and book fees with due considerations and stip- ulations for those who desire to serve our Lord through His church on earth within The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Immanuel, Fergus Falls, MN; St. Paul, Fergus Falls, MN To Remind Colleges and Universities of Synod of Their Primary Purpose WHEREAS, A primary purpose of the founding of the Synod and its institutions of higher learning was the training of professional church workers; and Wuereas, The Constitution of the LCMS states: “The Synod, under Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions shall—... (3) Recruit and train pastors, teachers, and other professional church workers and provide opportunity for their continuing growth” and “(5) Aid congregations to develop processes of thorough Christian educa- tion and nurture and to establish agencies of Christian education such as elementary and secondary schools and to support synodical colleges, universities, and seminaries” (Art. III 3, 5); and WHEREAS, The Board for Higher Education/Concordia Univer- sity System has a primary function of providing for the education of ordained and commissioned ministers and other professional church workers for the Synod (Bylaw 3.601); and Wuereas, “The Board of Regents of each institution shall con- sider as one of its primary duties the defining and fulfilling of the mission of the institution” (Bylaw 6.03) directly as set forth in Bylaw 3.601, noted above; and WHEREAS, The percentage of Lutherans studying in our synod- ical system is only 33 percent and in the spring of 1993 only 344 students were presented for placement for church-work positions (a large percentage of whom came from Seward), despite nearly 12,000 students in the system; and WHEREAS, The advertising of our colleges and seminaries often does not reflect their primary purpose for existing (to train church workers); therefore be it Resolved, That the Synod in convention remind the Concordia University System that its primary and fundamental reason for ex- istence is to train men and women for church-work vocations and that this fundamental purpose is to be clearly reflected in their ad- vertising. Mount Hope Casper, WY 5-08 To Remind Colleges and Universities of Primary Purpose WHEREAS, The Board for Higher Education is to “establish pol- icy guidelines involving distribution of synodical subsidy” as stated in our 1995 Handbook (3.601 e); and WHEREAS, The primary purpose of the Synod through our col- leges and universities is to prepare men and women for full-time church work; and WHEREAS, The student bodies are increasingly being trained for non-church work vocations; therefore be it Resolved, That the Board for Higher Education give serious at- tention to the percapita Lutheran student subsidies of our colleges and universities especially as it applies to full-time church work students, so that our primary support is aligned with our primary purpose to educate church workers. St. James Scottsbluff, NE 5-09 To Evaluate University System WHEREAS, One of the primary purposes of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod is to train faithful workers for the church (Constitution, Art. 1] 1 3); and WuereaS, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod operates 12 schools of higher education under its Concordia University Sys- tem; and WHEREAS, Several of these institutions, even after making tremendous efforts to diversify degree offerings in order to gamer a larger student body, perennially operate with substantial debt; and WHEREAS, The Synod provides only a small percentage of the budgets of these schools, and increased direct support from the Synod is not possible at this time; and WuerEAS, These institutions are increasingly financially inde- pendent from the Synod, and the dominant bent in American parochial higher education over the past century, a trend from which our institutions are hardly immune, has been one of doctrinal independence and disintegration concurrent with financial inde- pendence; and Whereas, There has been in these institutions a drastic reduc- tion of the percentage of both LCMS and church-work students rel- ative to the whole of the student population; and WHEREAS, The operation of fewer schools, each with higher concentrations of church-work students, would perhaps provide an opportunity for better doctrinal and financial stewardship; and WHEREAS, There is broad interest in the Synod to increase both the quantity and quality of solidly Lutheran academics at these in- stitutions; and WHEREAS, The President of Synod, as chief executive officer, according to the Bylaws, has oversight of the officers, employees, and educational institutions of the Synod (3.101); therefore be it Resolved, That the Synod in convention direct the President to form a task force to evaluate the current effectiveness of the Con- cordia University System in meeting the objectives stated in Art. III 3 of the Synod’s Constitution; and be it further Resolved, That this task force make recommendations to be voted upon by the Synod in convention (2001) regarding the total governance, goals, programs, finances, makeup, and number of in- stitutions which shall comprise the Concordia University System. Zion, Fort Wayne, IN; Mount Hope, Casper, WY; Circuit 17 Forum, South Wisconsin District 5-10 To Encourage Synod in Development and Support of DELTO Program WHEREAS, The 1995 convention of The Lutheran Church—Mis- souri Synod passed a resolution calling for the development of a distance education model for the training of pastors; and WHEREAS, The DELTO (Distance Education Leading to Ordi- nation) pilot program has been developed and implemented in re- sponse to that resolution through the cooperation of the Board for