# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2007_S205
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

5. SEMINARY AND UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

5-01
To Establish Specific Ministry Pastor Program

Introduction

Amidst today’s mission challenges, including the persistent
need to provide pastoral ministry in ways that go beyond the cur-
rent residential models, we will do well to engage the best collabo-
rative thinking and creativity that we can muster to provide mis-
sional pastoral leadership driven by the depth of theological
integrity that remains a hallmark of our church and its ministerium.
The mission focus ignited by the Ablaze! movement has generated
the need to identify laymen already in place in a local community
to serve as church ‘planters and missionaries. This work will cer-
tainly entail Word and Sacrament ministry. Historically, The
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and its antecedents have at-
tempted to meet such needs by preparing men as quickly as possi-
ble to be called and ordained in order to meet the urgent mission
needs of the church. Such men were prepared to catechize, preach,
and provide pastoral care. Within the LCMS, the need for such a
track to ordination was initially embodied in the seminary begun
by F. C. D. Wyneken and Wilhelm Liéhe in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
However, developments in ministerial formation since World War
II have effectively eliminated this track altogether.

Ministers of religion—ordained will have two designations.
“General ministry pastor” will serve as the designation for pastors
graduated from a current approved theological education program
(e.g., M.Div., Certificate, DELTO), and “specific ministry pastor”
will be the designation for those educated for a specific ministry
context through distance education. The Specific Ministry Pastor
Program seeks to address the needs of the church by reinstituting a
multiple-track approach and by developing a program that com-
bines a commitment to faithfulness to a Lutheran theological con-
fession with a missionary perspective and that is tailored to the
preparation of men for service in specific kinds of ministries.

Such an effort must attempt in some measure to uphold two sig-
nificant considerations in the service of our Lord’s mission and
Great Commission. On the one hand, we are committed to uphold-
ing the Lutheran understanding of the pastor as theologian and in-
sist on as much education as possible for the good of the church.
On the other hand, emerging needs and economic pressures often
make it impossible to call a pastor who has received a broad and
thorough theological education to every congregation or mission
station where, nevertheless, people need to hear the Gospel. This
proposal is offered as a sincere and thoughtful attempt to address
real-world needs with an urgency for bringing the Gospel to a
dying world and to do so with theological integrity with respect to
both the doctrine of the ministry and our commitment to high stan-
dards of pastoral education and formation.

Theological Foundations Guiding the Proposal

1. All those who regularly and publicly perform the functions of the
Office of the Holy Ministry should do so as those called to and
placed into that office. Lutherans affirm that there is only one Of-
fice of the Holy Ministry, established by God for the public con-
duct of the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and that all those
performing the functions associated with this ministry should be
rightly and publicly called and ordained into this one office (AC
XIV).

2. The church may recognize certain distinctions within the one Of-
fice of the Holy Ministry and establish degrees of supervision
without undermining the unity of the office. ;

a. All those who serve Christ and the church in the Office of the
Holy Ministry exercise de iure divino (by divine authority)
the power to preach the Gospel, forgive sins, administer the
Sacraments, and exercise church discipline. There is no dis-
tinction within the one office with respect to this power and
authority.

. Nevertheless, all ministers serve under supervision. In ancient
times, the practice of making certain distinctions within the
one Office of the Holy Ministry de iure humano (by human
authority) was established so that those ministers with broader
and deeper theological understanding should be able to pro-

vide doctrinal supervision for less experienced, or less well-
prepared, ministers. These distinctions were made to ensure
that the Gospel was rightly preached and taught, and to pre-
serve the unity of the church.

. By the time of the Reformation, the common way of talking
about such distinctions within the Office of the Holy Ministry
was to speak of the differentiation between the power (or au-
thority) associated with the Office of the Holy Ministry and
the jurisdiction (or scope of the administration) of the office.

3. The church may establish, by human authority, distinctions in ju-
risdiction and in categories of service of its pastors so long as
these distinctions do not compromise the authority of the office,
undermine the Gospel, or burden the consciences of Christians
by confusing human regulations with divine commands.

. Ordination vows may be taken prior to the conclusion of a com-
plete course of study provided that the ordinand has received a
preparation sufficient to preach and teach the Gospel rightly, ad-
minister the Sacraments correctly, and take his vows with in-
tegrity.

. The church should provide the opportunity for a pastor who has
been certified and ordained to serve in a specific kind of ministry
subsequently to be prepared to serve the church more broadly
through a combination of further academic preparation, accumu-
lated pastoral experience, and examination.

a

Overview of the “Specific Ministry Pastor” Program

The student will take a core curriculum so as to acquire a foun-
dational competency in Lutheran theology for pastoral ministry.
This foundational core will be both contextualized and specialized
within and fora specific ministry. In addition to the original objec-
tive of the Distance Education Leading To Ordination (DELTO)
Program to provide pastoral ministry where full-time ministry can-
not be maintained, such specific ministries will include such cate-
gories as church planter, staff pastor, and others as needs arise.

The specific curriculum will be determined and developed by
the seminary faculties, in collaboration with those from the field
who represent the specific ministerial contexts at district and con-

‘gregation levels. It will be based on the following principles:

1. Curricular goals based on outcome competencies appropriate to
the stages of the program

2. The contextual nature of this educational model, including a
strong missional emphasis

3. The engagement of mentors as a critical element of the distance
education model

4. A combination of distance education and residential components
(likely through short-term seminars and the option to take courses
within the residential curriculum)

5. The potential applicability of coursework for academic credit to-
wards an M.Div.

6. A time frame for completion of approximately 4-5 years

The Specific Ministry Pastor Program will be divided into a
pre-ordination curriculum and a post-ordination curriculum. The
pre-ordination curriculum will equip the student in such a way that
the church has confidence that the student will preach the Gospel in
its truth and purity and conduct his ministry in conformity with
Lutheran doctrine and practice. In order to do this, the pre-ordina-
tion curriculum will address such basic competencies as Catechism,

__ interpretation of Scripture, God and Christ and the work of Christ,

205

the Sacraments, introduction to the Book of Concord, the conduct
of worship, and preaching.

The post-ordination curriculum will address these topics in
greater depth and detail and will include such topics as OT content
and theology, NT content and theology, gifts of Christ, body of
Christ, Church history and the history of Lutheranism, Christian
education, pastoral theology, and theology of missions.

In addition, the student will participate in several residential and
field seminars aimed at cultivating the requisite ministry skills for
his specific ministry context (e.g., church planters, staff pastors,
and evangelists).

* Possible residential seminars might include pastoral formation, is-
sues in pastoral ministry, team ministry, urban ministry, spiritual for-
mation.