# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2013_S450
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

450

Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) Task Force

Step 6: Continued Service and Status

Students who have completed the Specific Ministry Pastor
Program may decide to remain in their rostered status as “specific
ministry pastor” for the remainder of their ministry, or they may
choose to pursue a growth path that leads to a change in roster status
to “general ministry pastor.”
It is envisioned that most students will pursue the second path,
either through an M.Div. route or nondegree certification.
Thus, they have three options:
1.
2.

3.

They may remain rostered as a specific ministry pastor.
They may enroll in an M.Div. program. It is anticipated that coursework done for the Specific Ministry
Pastor Program may become applicable to an M.Div., determined by
equivalencies.
They may continue their theological education and pastoral formation, reaching a level appropriate to general ministry pastor without a
full M.Div. (cf. current “alternate route”) and then complete an interview with an examining board in order to have their rostered status
changed to “general ministry pastor.”

Resolution

WHEREAS, The DELTO Oversight Committee was formed by
the 2001 convention and given the task “to revise DELTO”; and
WHEREAS, This oversight committee concluded that original
assignment, and a revised DELTO Program was deployed by the two
seminaries in the fall of 2004; and
WHEREAS, The original and ongoing intent of DELTO was to
“provide ordained pastoral service to congregations that cannot support a full-time pastor, ordained pastoral service to contexts where
English is not spoken, ordained missionary personnel where finances
and/or conditions do not permit calling a full-time missionary” (BHE
document, “What Is DELTO?” Sept. 2000); and
WHEREAS, The needs for providing pastoral ministry in specific
and specialized situations where a traditionally prepared seminary
candidate or pastor is not available continue to multiply; and
WHEREAS, Our Synod needs to find a way to provide for an
increase in pastoral ministry to meet such needs of the church, especially in light of the mission challenges of today’s world; and
WHEREAS, Our Synod has resolved to plant 2,000 new congregations by 2017, for which a net gain of 2,000 pastors will be
needed; and
WHEREAS, Any way of providing for pastoral ministry must be
faithful to our Lutheran Confessions, faithful to our historic commitment to a well-educated and wellformed ministerium, faithful to our
historic commitment to provide pastors in both academic and practical tracks, and faithful to our historic commitment to
edges of the mission fields, wherever they might be; and
WHEREAS, 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 because “[i]t is taught among us
that nobody should publicly teach or preach or administer the sacraments in the church without a regular call” (AC XIV); and
WHEREAS, A variety of programs and routes leading to pastoral
service have arisen at both district and seminary levels; and
WHEREAS, The DELTO Oversight Committee, after concluding its original assignment, was given the further assignment by the
President of the Synod to “study the various routes leading to ordination currently available, to study which routes leading to ordination
would be most helpful to the Synod in producing a sufficient number
of able and effective pastors to provide leadership to Synod’s congregations in fulfilling the Great Commission”; and
WHEREAS, In carrying out this further task, it was apparent that
a. 	 the existing focus of DELTO, even as it was redesigned and redeployed, would not be sufficient to meet these needs;

2013 Convention Workbook

b.

c.

d.

the Synod would benefit from a more coherent and comprehensive
approach to pastoral preparation and certification for ministry in specialized and specific contexts;
the past years have provided the church, in general, and the seminaries, in particular, with substantial experimentation and experience
with distance education models, including the evaluation of both the
advantages and disadvantages; and
the Synod is presented with an opportunity to build on such experience and to coordinate and consolidate programs and curriculum into
a more cohesive and comprehensive curriculum design that engages
the best practices of educational design and pedagogy, including much
of the current course materials already proven and in use; and

WHEREAS, The process of conversation and collaboration over
the past six years has brought together representatives of the needs of
the field with the entities of the Synod to whom leadership for pastoral education and certification is entrusted, and in so doing provided
a helpful model for continuing such collaborative work; and
WHEREAS, Both seminaries have provided leadership in this process and worked together on written documents affirming the need
for a new category within the one office of the pastoral ministry and
in affirming an educational process that will lead to certification and
ordination for such pastoral ministry, utilizing both traditional residential components along with new distance education models;
and
WHEREAS, The DELTO Oversight Committee in seeking to fulfill its further task has
a.

b.

worked closely with both seminaries in honing a proposal for a category of specific ministry pastor and an education and formation
program that will lead to certification and ordination for such pastoral ministry; and has
worked closely also with many other constituencies throughout the
church in developing this proposal, including the Board for Pastoral
Education, the Council of Presidents, district and Synod mission leaders, and pastors in the field; and

WHEREAS, The great strengths of this proposal bring together
several issues that have concerned our Synod for many years as it
seeks to
a.

b.
c.

d.

e.

f.

g.

find a way to meet the existing and expanding needs for pastoral ministry, especially in the variety of contexts of mission and ministry in
today’s church;
respect our commitment to the doctrine of church and ministry, especially in light of AC XIV;
honor our commitment to responsible theological education that provides the church with well-educated pastors, who as missional leaders
are faithful to Lutheran theology and practice;
retain our commitment to the importance, need, and great strengths of
residential pastoral education at both the certificate and M.Div. level,
along with a commitment to the continuing education of all clergy;
restore our past creativity in recognizing the importance, need, and
great strengths of alternative models of pastoral education leading to
ordination, including a commitment to continuing education;
utilize the advances in educational technology that allow for responsible pastoral education and formation through distance-education
models; and
develop a more coherent and comprehensive model for certification,
call, and ordination are coordinated and potentially interrelated, so
that, for example, a student in a nonresidential certificate route might
be able to engage also in a residential degree program; and

WHEREAS, The Specific Ministry Pastor Program has the
support of the Board for Pastoral Education, the faculties of both
seminaries, and the Council of Presidents; and
WHEREAS, The Specific Ministry Pastor Program has been
reviewed by the Commission on Theology and Church Relations and
was found to be consistent with Scripture and the Confessions; and