LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 225

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STRUCTURE AND CONSTITUTION 225

To Establish
a Board for Pastoral Ministry

WHEREAS, The Board for Professional Education Services
was originally established as the Board for Higher Education
at a time when the Synod had a well-defined program for
training pastors and teachers for the church's ministry: and

WHEREAS, The Synod’s system of higher education has
changed with the creation of more four-year schools, the large
increase of general education students and programs on all
college campuses, and the addition of a variety of programs
leading to full-time ministries in the church; and

WHEREAS, The Synod owns and operates 13 colleges, 3
seminaries, and a seminary program at Saskatoon, in addition
to the Lay Training Institute, the deaconess program, and the
colloquy programs for pastors, teachers, and deaconesses; and

WHEREAS, 45": of all students enrolled at the Synod's
colleges are enrolled in pastoral training: and

WHEREAS, 100" ofall students enrolled at the seminaries are
enrolled in pastoral training; and

WHEREAS, The task of administering this many schools
with so many diversified programs as closely as the Bylaws of
the Synod require has become an excessively large and
demanding (if not an impossible) burden, and is larger than
any volunteer group of nine persons can be expected to
accomplish; and

WHEREAS, The BPES cannot and has not been able to
provide adequate attention to all the schools and to the
programs placed within its scope of responsibility; and

WHEREAS, There is great need for more coordination and for
more integrated short- and long-range planning among the
colleges; and

WHEREAS, The goals and objectives of all three seminaries
are specialized and uniquely different from college programs,
specifically insofar as they are one-purpose professional and
postgraduate schools; and

WHEREAS, The Synod itself has repeatedly expressed itself
in favor of providing special support for the seminaries, and
the seminaries need more attention and support than can be
given by a board that must divide and divert its attention in
many directions; and finally

WHEREAS, The quality of seminary programs impacts on
every congregation of the Synod; therefore be it

Resolved, That the responsibilities now resting on the
Board for Professional Education Services be divided in the
following manner:

a. The BPES will continue to administer all colleges,
including teacher, lay, and deaconess programs, as the Bylaws
of the Synod provide;

b. Anew Board for Pastoral Ministry shall be elected at this
convention to administer the seminaries (St. Louis, Fort
Wayne, St. Catharines), the Saskatoon pastoral training pro-
gram, and the colloquy program for pastors:

c. The BPM shall consist of nine members: four pastors and
four laymen elected by the Synod in convention, and the
President of the Synod or his appointed Vice-President. Half of
the laymen and half of the pastors shall be elected at this
convention for six-year terms, and half shall be elected for
three-year terms;

d. The BPM duties shall correspond to those outlined for
the BPES, insofar as they apply to seminary education, and, in
addition, the BPM shall establish entrance requirements for
seminaries which shall be respected by colleges of the Synod
with preministerial programs;

e. The BPM shall work in close harmony with seminary
administrators and shall establish liaison also through its
chairman and executive secretary with the BPES;

f. The BPES on the other hand shall maintain contact with
the BPM through its chairman and executive secretary;

g. The executive secretary of the BPM shall bea member of
the Council of Administrators (2.711);

i
h. An Advisery Council for Seminary Presidents shall be
patterned after Byfaw 2.239, and shal] meet at the call of the
BPM. and be it further

Resolved. That the new BPM shall elect an executive
secretary in the prescribed manner (2.801), and that the BPES

staff be reduced accordingly. if possible.
Board of Directors
Indiana District
E. H. Zimmermann, President
Victor A. Atsinger. Secretary

Identical or similar:

5-49B to 5-49F

Regents, Concordia, Fort Wayne Robert Preus
Board of Regents, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis E.J. Otto
Missouri District Board of Directors Paul Ph. Spitz
Board of Directors, Ontario District Harold Patzer
Trinity, Cheyenne, Wyo. Carl Marvin

To Create New Seminary Board

WHEREAS, Our Synod for many years had a large system of
higher education devoted almost entirely to two colleges
preparing teachers and a number of junior colleges and
seminaries preparing pastors, the entire system being closely
integrated; and

WHEREAS, The congregations of the Synod are now in need
of many different kinds of ministries, as those of evangelists.
youth leaders, deaconesses, and others: and

WHEREAS, The colleges of the Synod no longer are junior
colleges, devoted to specific training programs, but have
expanded to four-year colleges with a multitude of programs,
which also serve for the training of lay people; and

WHEREAS, The role of the seminaries has also expanded and
changed, both in number and in programs; and

WHEREAS, The seminaries accept a large share of their
students from nonsynodical schools and provide training for
the extensive colloquy program: and

WHEREAS, We now, in effect, have two different forms of
higher education in our Synod; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Synod establish a new board which
deals exclusively with the seminaries, now established, being
established, and which may be established in the future; and be
it further;

Resolved, That this board consist of five members (two
pastors, two laymen, and one teacher), elected by the Synod in
convention, and that the Handbook be revised in accordance
with their responsibilities.

Mount Calvary Lutheran Church
Richfield, Minn.

Carl Tezloff, President

Jerome Rollay, Secretary

To Create New Board
of Seminary Education

WHEREAS, The colleges of the LCMS have enlarged their
programs and curricula beyond their original aims and goals
as teachers colleges and pretheological schools; and

WHEREAS, Our seminaries now accept many students from
nonsynodical colleges; and

WHEREAS, The broad programs, aims, and curricula of the
synodical colleges have in recent years become increasingly
different from the specific programs, aims, and curricula of
synodical seminaries; and

WHEREAS, The Board for Professional Education Services