LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 140

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140 RESOLUTIONS — COMMITTEE 6

Proposition Three. Priority in enrollment is to be
given to the most-promising and best-qualified students
who apply for entrance at any level of church work
training which the Synod is able to provide. This im-
plies that pastors, teachers, and laymen will foster the
recruitment of interested and qualified students without
inhibiting the stirrings of God the Holy Spirit or post-
poning commitment to the ministry and its demands,
and that each synodical institution will view itself
as an information and recruiting center for the entire
system of synodical schools. When prospective students
declare themselves ready and are found ready to begin
their formal training, the synodical schools will admit
qualified young and more mature men from the age
of junior confirmation up to an age which will allow for
a reasonable service expectancy in the church.

Proposition Four. The orderly development of an
individual institution and the necessary changes and
adjustments in the entire system of schools may from
time to time make it imperative for an individual insti-
tution, at the direction of the Board for Higher Educa-
tion, to apply temporary priorities, quotas, or limitations
on certain types and at certain levels of enrollment.
In general the enlistment program for pretheological
students must receive highest priority.

Proposition Five. The junior college level is expected
to be the level of maximum enrollment. It is the level
at which the deliberate commingling of pastors and
teachers in training is best fostered. For enlistment
purposes it is desirable to have a broad geographical
distribution of junior colleges.

Proposition Six. The Synod should create and main-
tain the number of junior colleges, 4-year colleges, sen-
ior colleges, seminaries, and graduate schools required
for essential professional service to the church. The
establishment of new colleges and seminaries and the
upward extension of existing junior colleges is to be
left to the decision of a synodical convention on recom-
mendation of the Board for Higher Education.

Proposition Seven. Graduates of both seminaries
should be recognized and received as precious gifts of
God to the church. For those who resolve in early youth
to prepare for the pastoral ministry, the closely articu-
lated high school—-junior college—senior college —
theological seminary route continues to be the preferred
program of distinctive theological education of The
Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod. Those who make
this occupational decision later in life should seek com-
petent counsel in the choice of the educational program
best suited to their situation.

Proposition Eight. The colloquy programs should
continue as workable alternative ways of entering the
professional ministries of the church. However, they
should be carefully structured programs of study and
experience.

Proposition Nine. The Synod is to continue to train
all men teachers needed and as many women teachers
as it can for the Christian day schools of the congrega-
tions.

Proposition Ten. The Synod is obligated to prepare
men and women for competent parish service and
should also give increasing attention to the exceptional
or advanced training necessary for other ministries de-
manded by the church in a changing world.

Proposition Eleven. The synodical high school and
the community Lutheran high school are desirable
agencies by which a significant core of able and dedi-
cated young men can begin preparation for the pastoral
ministry. The Synod should continue to utilize those
synodical high schools that are enrolling justifiable
numbers of pastoral training students and encourage
these to provide adequate facilities and staff for an ex-
cellent education for those who attend. However, when
a constituency does not make reasonable use of a syn-
odical high school for the training of pastoral students,
or when the Board for Higher Education regards the
cost in money, staff, or space as unjustifiable in the
light of the total needs of the church, that high school
should be subject to programed elimination by the
Synod on recommendation of the Board for Higher
Education.

Proposition Twelve. No synodical school operating
at any level is to exceed the maximum student enroll-
ment defensible for it as determined by the Board for
Higher Education.

Proposition Thirteen. The plans and problems asso-
ciated with the development of an indigenous Canadian
ministry require that the future of Edmonton be consid-
ered apart from the long-range plans for the synodical
schools in the United States.

Proposition Fourteen. A program of preventive
maintenance to sustain existing physical plants at a high
level of use and efficiency represents good stewardship
and a wise use of synodical funds.

Proposition Fifteen. The Board for Higher Education
will continue to recommend to the synodical Board of
Directors the purchase of property for additional cam-
puses and for the suitable expansion of existing cam-
puses.

Proposition Sixteen. Existing physical plants are
to be expanded where a realistic appraisal of available
land indicates such a plan to be economically feasible
and where further growth is educationally sound. This
expansion is to be carried out, however, so that a proper
balance of all the facilities is achieved and maintained.

Proposition Seventeen. Since synodical colleges and
seminaries are engaged in preparing pastors and teach-
ers for the mission of the church, they have a valid
claim on the church’s budget and capital dollar.

Proposition Eighteen. The colleges and seminaries
should be concerned with the securing of funds on
a noncompetitive basis from sources other than the
Synod’s current treasury. All fund-raising plans, cam-
paigns, and projects shall have prior approval of the
Board for Higher Education with periodic reporting
required.

Proposition Nineteen. Congregations and their or-