# LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters Minutes_St. Louis Missouri_March 15 16 2024_S2
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Considering specifically a sole-pastor SMP, while such SMP remains under the supervision of another
ordained minister (not SMP) who serves outside his parish, such SMP and not that supervisor (whose call
is elsewhere) is the pastor of his parish. The sole-pastor SMP (as opposed to being one in a staff-pastor
position) exercises the fullness of the pastoral office in that congregation (including preaching the Gospel,
administering the Sacraments and the authority of spiritual judgment, Walther’s Ministry Thesis V). Any
auxiliary offices in the parish necessarily serve under his pastoral oversight, as from his office as the pastor
of the congregation all others originate as helpers to it (Walther’s Ministry Thesis VIII). He serves, in turn,
under the ecclesiastical supervision of his district president (as does any pastor who is a member of the
Synod), as well as under the additional supervision 1 of a non-SMP pastor. The authority, however, of his
office as pastor loci is not diminished by Bylaw 2.13.1 (a); diminished only is his jurisdiction outside the
scope defined by his call (in this case, outside his parish).
Background: SMP Formation, Specific Ministry Context, and the Role of District Presidents
At the same time, the theological education of an SMP is formed for a specific ministry context: “[The
SMP] 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” (Bylaw 2.13.1). The SMP program consists—by design, as an exceptional route—of training
and formation that lacks the depth and breadth of preparation afforded by the M.Div. track: “[E]merging
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” (2007 Res. 5-01B, “Background,” Proc., 133). The SMP curriculum focuses on “basic
competencies” for Word and Sacrament ministry, with seminars and local mentorship touching on aspects
of the particular context (perhaps including “basic mission planter training, edge gathering, and advanced
mission planter training”) (id., 134). Upon certification, call, and ordination, “the student is placed on the
pastoral roster of the Synod as a ‘specific ministry pastor.’ He now may preach and administer the
Sacraments under supervision in a specific locality.” He subsequently must complete the educational
program to “continue development of the foundational competencies necessary for serving as a specific
ministry pastor” (id., 135).
Specific ministry pastors are “pastors certified for calls into specific ministry contexts, who serve under the
supervision not only of the district president but also of a designated general ministry pastor. As such, they
are eligible for calls into a similar specific ministry context, where they continue under the supervision of
a general ministry pastor” (id., 135).
While the specific kind of ministry or context may vary in some duties and responsibilities from situation
to situation, what does not change is that the SMP remains under the supervision of a pastor who is not
SMP. This supervision is essential to the ongoing service of SMPs in whatever context and continues as
long as the SMP is in service or rostered, unless he continues his education and reaches “a level appropriate
to general ministry pastor” and, as a result of an examination, has his status changed (ibid.). In view of the
fact that “an SMP pastor has been certified and ordained to serve in a specific kind of ministry” (emphasis
added) , the implementing resolution looked for “opportunity” for such a pastor “subsequently to be
prepared to serve the church more broadly,” noting that this further necessary preparation would require “a
combination of further academic preparation, accumulated pastoral experience, and examination (id., 134).”

2007 Res. 5-01B and the bylaws it introduced appear to have used the terms supervision and oversight without
reference to the definitions of Bylaw 1.2.1. Supervision here does not appear to be either “to have authority over, to
direct actions, to control activities” (the definition of supervision, Bylaw 1.2.1 [u])—because the SMP and neither the
supervising general pastor nor the district president is pastor within the scope of the SMP’s call call—or, in the case
of the supervision general pastor, the fullness of the ecclesiastical supervision assigned to the district president (Bylaw
1.2.1 [i]). The Council of Presidents continues to define, in practical terms, the sense of the general pastor’s
supervisory work. This terminology is referred to the Commission on Handbook for potential clarification.
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CCM Minutes – March 15–16, 2024 – Page 14