Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 363
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 363

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

PARISH EDUCATION AND SERVICES 363

portunity was provided for special-interest groups to
look at various types of problems which the pastor faces
in his work with families, such as working with alco-
holies, problems of the single parent, Christian sex edu-
cation, ministering to unwed mothers, and counseling
the adolescent.

The objective of the training program was to help
equip pastors for a more effective ministry to families.
The desired outcomes are: providing better preparation
for marriage and for understanding God’s purposes for
marriage by those planning marriage and already mar-
ried, developing sensitivity to the needs and feelings
of people regarding marriage and family relationships,
and increasing self-awareness and insights into the
counseling process.

Findings of the Pilot Program

Evaluations of the three pilot programs indicated
that the clergy are deeply concerned about their ability
to fuaction in the area of premarital and marriage
counseling. It was also evident that Missouri Synod
pastors will utilize the opportunity for additional train-
ing when it is available and readily accessible without
excessive cost.

At each pilot some objective measures were used to
determine the effectiveness of the program. The sum-
mary of these evaluations by participants showed an
extremely positive response to the total experience.

The Family Life Committee of the Board of Parish
Education appointed an ad hoc Committee on Marriage
Counseling to study the findings of the experimental
program and to prepare a recommendation to the
Synod. The members of this committee were Charles
A. Reichert, David S. Schuller, Kenneth J. Siess, Ed-
ward C. May, and James C. Cross. This committee pre-
sented the following proposal to the Family Life Com-
mittee.

The Family Life Committee revised the report and
presented it to the Board of Parish Education for ap-
proval.

The Board of Parish Education studied the report
and submitted it to the participating boards for consid-
eration and reaction.

The Board of Parish Education approved the memo-
rial as one of the potential cosponsors of a joint memo-
rial with the Board for Missions, the Board for Higher
Education, the Board of Social Ministry, and the Wheat
Ridge Foundation.

The Proposal

I. A Comprehensive Program

To meet the intent and meaning of the 1962 resolu-
tion no single effort will be adequate, and a comprehen-
sive program is therefore recommended which involves
sensitizing students, further guidance of pastors after
they are in office, intensive training for a large number
of pastors who especially feel the need and have the
interest, and an effective follow-up program.

1. Adequate preservice training of seminary stu-

dents needs to be incorporated in the regular seminary
courses to sensitize them to the family needs and mar-
riage problems that they will meet in their pastorates.
These needs have increased in intensity and scope dur-
ing the last few decades, as every pastor has learned
from the growing demands for counseling. This part
of the program should be worked out by the Board for
Higher Education with the respective seminaries.

2. In-service guidance and further training is im-
portant after a pastor has been in office 5 or 6 years and
understands the demands that are made on him for
a greater ministry to young people, married couples,
and families, To meet this wider concern, 1- or 2-day
workshops in the regular pastoral conference are needed
at various intervals in a pastor’s tenure of office. This
need can be supplied by utilizing resource persons
available in most larger communities who are equipped
for the task and by the continuing-education depart-
ments of our seminaries.

3. Intensive training will require more than can be
achieved in such pastoral conferences or than is possible
to give at the seminaries. For this it is suggested that
the type of training explored and developed in the three
pilot workshops be set up by the Synod with the view
of giving about one fifth of our clergy (those most inter-
ested and most ready) this type of competency (with
possible graduate-work credits).

4. A follow-up program is necessary to extead the
understanding and increase the skills of pastors. This
type of ongoing, nonterminal work with pastors can
be done by finding in each larger geographical area
a competent resource person who is an experienced
counselor and who can be of further service to the
pastors of the area. This, too, could be a part of the
seminary extension or continuing-education program.

This proposal focuses especially on item 3, the inten-
sive training program, to be carried out in a period of
4 years and made available to a large segment of our
ministerium.

II. A Coordinated Program

As the 1962 resolution indicated, the Family Life
Committee of the Board of Parish Education has under-
taken the pilot experiments and the planning for this
project in consultation with staff persons of the Wheat
Ridge Foundation, the Board for Higher Education, the
Board of Social Ministry, and the Board for Missions.
It has also drawn in the leadership of the three Districts
where the pilot studies were made. The Board of Parish
Education, which has pioneered family life education
(since 1946), developed a broad ministry to families and
has a Family Life Education Department with a full-
time director. It has given leadership to the whole area
of family ministry.

It is felt that training in pastoral care and counsel-
ing, however, is not merely the concern of the Board
of Parish Education but of the whole church: that it is
related to the work of our seminaries, especially their
extension departments; that in many ways it is related