LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1989, Page 121

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Introduction

Bylaw 9.53 of the Handbook of The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod requires that the President of the Synod
“appoint a floor committee on program implementation . . .
consisting of a representative from each District.” Thus,
each of you has a representative from your District on
Committee 4. Part of the committee’s task is to “report to
the convention on the mission, ministry, and stewardship
performance and potential of the Synod.”

At the outset of our report and recommendations to the
convention, please allow Floor Committee 4 to express its
deep appreciation to the Board of Directors of The Lu-
theran Church—Missouri Synod. The board consists of
persons of integrity and good will who have taken on the
challenge of attempting to carry out the mission and pur-
pose of the Synod in the face of diminishing financial sup-
port. They and the program boards of the Synod must face
the anguishing tasks of cutting back while the church says
that it wants to move forward in every area, especially
missions and seminary support.

If truth were told, and let it be told here and now, we
have found the Board of Directors struggling mightily with
financial problems not of its making but of ours who are
Synod where we live. We have found them and the finan-
cial officers of the Synod to be people of integrity who love
their Lord, respect their church and its members, and are
extremely competent in every area of fiscal management
that can be reasonably expected.

Committee 4 thanks God for the Board of Directors, the
financial officers, the Department of Stewardship and Fi-
nancial Support, the Lutheran Church Extension Fund, as
well as those who serve on the staff at the International
Center, for through them, we are convinced, God is truly
at work.

With that background, Committee 4, Program and Fi-
nance, brings to the convention the resolutions that follow.
Richard Kapfer, Chairman

To Encourage Adequate Funding
of Theological Education

RESOLUTION 4-01

Appendix I (CW, pp. 291-300); Overtures 4-30, 4-32—
35, 4-37-38D, 4-50-51 (CW, pp. 211-13, 216-17)

Wuereas, The office of the public ministry is instituted
by God and filled by those called to serve as pastors in
congregations; and

Wuereas, Scripture enjoins the church to give careful
attention to suitable qualifications before it (the church)
appoints or calls a man to fill this office; and

Wuereas, The task of educating, examining, and de-
claring candidates qualified for the office of the public min-
istry has been entrusted by our Synod to seminary faculties
(and, for certain cases, to the colloquy committees); and

Wuereas, The colleges of The Lutheran Church—Mis-
souri Synod have as their historic and primary mission
preseminary education and the preparation of full-time

121

4. Program and Finance

Committee 4 Chairman Richard Kapfer

church workers for important service in auxiliary offices
of ministry; and

Wuereas, The congregations of the LCMS should
rightly provide the seminaries and colleges with adequate
funding for their fulfilling of this important mission, and

Wuereas, The colleges and seminaries of the LCMS
have been faithful stewards in the work entrusted to them
and of the offerings and gifts given to them; and

Wuereas, The men and women who present themselves
for full-time service in the church, especially those men
who through many years prepare to serve in the office of
the public ministry, should not be called on to endure ex-
cessive financial burdens resulting from the cost of their
education; and

Wuereas, The LCMS has a history of high esteem for
the office of the public ministry and of strong support for
education of full-time church vocations; and

Wuereas, There is a current concern and abiding gen-
erosity among the people of the LCMS for support of ed-
ucation for the pastoral ministry and auxiliary offices; and

Wuereas, The patterns of giving by members of the
LCMS have been changing and will continue to change;
and

Wuereas, In the last five years alone, more than $50
million in future gifts through wills, endowments, and
trusts have been identified for the seminaries and the col-
leges, with the vast majority of this being designated for
student aid; and

Wuereas, The LCMS Foundation presently manages
over $71 million dollars worth of endowment and custodial
funds of which approximately 30 percent support theolog-
ical education; therefore be it