LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 246

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246

VII. 2013 RES. 4-06A TASK FORCE REPORT TO THE SYNOD

of good character (“above reproach”), properly called, pledged to
Scripture and the Confessions, set apart to be a pastor, affirmed by
the congregation’s call and the ordination of the wider church, and
thus making clear to him and to his people what he is to be and do.
That is, he should in some public, mutually agreeable manner be
examined for fitness, called by a congregation, and ordained to the
Office of the Ministry.
Recommendation 2:
Further Utilization of SMP Program with Financial Support
The task force recommends that the Synod’s SMP program be
fully utilized, since it has been developed as an approach to theological education especially for those settings where finances and/
or geography are obstacles to preparation. Synod must ensure
that financial constraints do not prevent any eligible candidate
from participating in the SMP program.
Recommendation 3:
Further Utilization of Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology
(EIIT), Center for Hispanic Studies (CHS), and Cross-cultural
Ministry Center (CMC)
The task force recommends that the Synod’s EIIT, CHS, and
CMC be fully utilized to supply training for pastors in crosscultural settings, since they have been developed to provide a
means for theological education especially for those from various cultures and backgrounds. Synod must ensure that financial
constraints do not prevent any eligible candidate from participating in these programs.
Recommendations 2 and 3 are strong endorsements of current
Synod programs designed to address the need for pastoral training in
atypical circumstances. The SMP program is intended to address such
problems as education for second-career (and especially older) ministry candidates, distance education for individuals who already play
a critical role in a congregation’s ministry, and other circumstances
that prevent or inhibit resident seminary education. The various
approaches to pastoral training referred to in Recommendation 3
are LCMS attempts to address the special needs and circumstances
of mission and church planting in an increasingly diverse America.
The church needs each one of these means to raise up pastors for
the future.
The task force realizes that the use of the SMP program and the
Synod’s programs for training pastors from other ethnic backgrounds
have sometimes presented financial obstacles that prevent utilization in the circumstances for which they were created. Theological
education is costly, whether residential or via distance education.
Recommendations 2 and 3 indicate the need for the LCMS to address
financial challenges. Inherent in these recommendations are two types
of financial challenge.
First is the cost of the recommended intensive course in a retreat
setting proposed above in item E of Recommendation 1. As noted,
colloquy candidates may benefit from a formative course taught by
seminary professors, and such intensive courses around the country will involve some expense. The task force proposes that Synod’s
Pastoral Education Department bear at least 50 percent of the cost
for these courses and that the remaining 50 percent be funded by a
combination of the resources of the district, the congregation, and the
individual candidate.69
Further mentored courses and readings that are required by the
Colloquy Committee would also involve expenses for materials and
an honorarium for the mentor. Such costs should be standardized
and funded according to the same breakdown as the intensive course.
2016 Convention Workbook

Second, going forward, it should be anticipated that there will
continue to be candidates for the ministry for whom SMP or other
specialized nonresidential training approaches are needed but for
whom the costs of the programs make them financially unfeasible or
impossible. In such instances, there will be cases in which financial
assistance is required. In such cases, the district president should be
responsible for determining the level of need and for requesting assistance from the Synod’s Pastoral Education Department.70
Meeting Needs Addressed by Licensed Lay Deacons
through Other Means
The Synod has utilized its clergy and technology in various ways
to meet some of the challenges we have identified. Among these are
the establishment of multi-point parishes and wider use of technological innovation.
Recommendation 4: Multi-Point Ministries
The task force recommends that the districts of the Synod vigorously encourage and facilitate the establishment of multi-point
parishes where that is geographically and financially feasible and
when individual congregations can no longer provide for a pastor.
Several districts that have numerous congregations facing the
problems of distance and economics have promoted multi-point parishes. That is, of course, an old idea—one that is very familiar to the
Synod from its past and has been and continues to be used in both
US and world Lutheranism. Indeed, multi-point ministry is a means
of addressing pastoral needs that is being utilized with greater frequency today than a generation ago in the LCMS. Some districts
have been intent to guide small congregations to form multi-point
ministries. In other settings, larger congregations are establishing
the functional equivalent of multi-point parishes by means of “satellite” churches or churches with more than one campus or facility. In
still other settings, there are examples for a group of individual congregations served by a team of two pastors who are jointly called to
serve the entire group of churches. While some form or another of
multi-point ministry may not always be feasible, it is certainly one
way that congregations may be served in an ongoing basis by a pastor.
A frequent obstacle is the understandable reluctance of a congregation that enjoyed the full-time attention of its own individual pastor
to accept that given present realities such a new approach—a multipoint arrangement with another congregation—is now the best means
of providing pastoral service. Given the tendency for geographically
isolated and financially limited congregations to be small, the personal pastoral needs of two or more congregations may be no greater
or even less than those of a larger congregation that is able to support
an individual pastor on its own.
Recommendation 5:
Utilization of Current Technology and Past Approaches
In some cases, despite the best efforts of congregations, a pastor will be unavailable. In various ways, congregations of the
Synod currently make use of technology to aid in ministry. In such
instances, technological resources (e.g., live-streaming a sermon
or service) may be a helpful aid, coupled with lay-led readings and
prayers. Other temporary aids may include rescheduling service
times to allow an area pastor to serve, laymen reading sermons
prepared for the congregation by a pastor, or laity leading services of readings, prayers, and praise.
Corollaries to multi-point ministry may also expand an individual pastor’s ministerial “reach.” Another alternative, given the