LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 276

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276

IX. REPORT OF THE RES. 5-14A TASK FORCE

by one of the districts that are participating in the program and must
receive a recommendation from their parish pastor. Upon completion
of the program, graduates will serve as specific ministry pastors in the
districts that supported them in the program. Courses are taught in the
same manner as other SMP courses. Graduates of the BPFL will be
ordained and placed on the roster of the Synod as specific ministry
pastors because this is not a separate program but a track now folded
into the SMP effort at Fort Wayne.
Past Programs
At various times in the past, the seminaries have developed other
certificate programs, now no longer in existence, to help meet the
changing needs of the church. For example, Concordia Theological
Seminary, Fort Wayne, developed and implemented, for several years,
a program to train pastors to serve in Arabic-speaking ministries to
Muslims and former Muslims through POBLO (People of the Book
Lutheran Outreach). Both seminaries were involved in DELTO, a
distance certificate program with a concurrent vicarage. With the
inauguration of SMP, DELTO was discontinued in 2009.
Section Three—Evaluations and Recommendations
General Observations re the Nature and Number of Our Means
by Which Men Are Recruited and Prepared for the Pastoral Office

Since 2007, the Synod has had general pastors and specific ministry pastors. General pastors are considered to be broadly prepared
for ministry and have no bylaw restrictions on where they may serve
or the offices in the Synod to which they may be elected. Specific
ministry pastors are restricted to a particular ministry context and
always serve under the supervision of a general pastor wherever they
may serve (see Bylaw 2.13.1). Presently, all of the various routes to
the pastoral office make a man a general pastor in the Synod, except
for the SMP program. Specific ministry pastors are ordained, but
even after ordination and completion of their program they may not
be elected to the Synod or district offices, nor serve as a delegate to
a Synod convention or as a circuit visitor, and they always serve in
their ministerial context under the supervision of a general pastor,
authorized by their district president. All pastors (including specific
ministry pastors) are nevertheless fully ordained pastors, carrying out
the one ministry of Word and Sacrament. Whether a man serves as
a general pastor or specific ministry pastor, the scriptural qualifications remain unchanged and identical (see 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1).
Distinctions of roster status are made by human right because there
are different levels and methods of education involved, and different
circumstances under which men serve as pastors.
In our Synod, the current multiplicity of routes to the pastoral
office was not always planned with intentional strategic forethought.
Over the years, various routes developed organically to address immediate, pressing needs for the advancement of the Gospel. Someone in
the church saw a need and began proactively to search for ways to meet
that need. Sometimes there was a mandate by a Synod convention39
for theological/pastoral formation for a particular ethnic or linguistic group (e.g., US Hispanic and Spanish-speaking populations)—a
task fulfilled in an ongoing way since 1987 by the former Hispanic
Institute of Theology (originally funded by the Synod at Concordia
University Chicago), now the Center for Hispanic Studies located at
(and funded by) Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. At other times, entrepreneurial individuals and institutions started programs for certain
constituencies, working creatively and independently to serve particular groups or needs.40 Whether working independently or in highly
integrated coordination and collaboration, individuals and entities
were able to create new avenues for the church to recruit and train
2016 Convention Workbook

pastors for particular needs and times. A variety of means for the
church to do this constitutes a blessing from God, and reflects the
Synod’s intense collective love for God’s Word and Sacraments and a
concomitant desire to proclaim and distribute the Gospel through His
established Office of the Holy Ministry, while remaining absolutely
faithful to the precepts given to us in the Holy Scriptures.
Yet the current multiplicity of routes to the pastoral office has
raised issues requiring resolution: There may be duplication of effort
when the two seminaries initiate similar but slightly different (and
possibly overlapping) programs. (For instance, both seminaries now
have certificate programs to enable Spanish-speaking men to become
pastors, though the Fort Wayne program is being folded into that seminary’s SMP effort.) There can be confusion regarding the role and
nature of the various routes by which pastors are formed and trained.
Something may arise regionally without the full knowledge of the
whole Synod. There may be differing standards, conflicting rationales, and misunderstood purposes. A variety of routes may lead to
significant differences in preparation or qualifications. When people
perceive varying grades of pastor or different levels of education or
preparation, a lack of cohesion may develop among the pastors and
the people they serve. Our life together as a Synod thereby suffers.
These are a few of the reasons the Synod adopted Res. 5-14A mandating this study. None of this is meant to impugn the motives of those
who creatively began new programs. Nor is it meant to say that any
one of our current routes should be abolished. We here simply point
to some of the challenges inherent in a multiplicity of routes to the
pastoral office.
A General Observation
The task force further notes that several of the certificate programs
(e.g., EIIT, DIT, CHS, Bilingual Latino program as initially conceived) have academic and vicarage requirements similar to those of
the newer SMP program (see chart in Appendix B for comparison).
Yet these certificate programs presently make a man a general pastor of the Synod.41 An ordained man trained and certified in the SMP
program, however, must always be supervised by a general pastor
unless he completes further courses toward alternate route certification. This is true even though he has an education similar to those
of other certificate programs that make a man a general pastor. All
of these programs, with the exception of the more recent Bilingual
Latino Pastoral Formation program at Fort Wayne, already existed
years before the creation of the SMP programs. Therefore these certificate programs did not operate with the distinction between specific
ministry pastor and general pastor that was established in the creation of the SMP effort. Nevertheless, the differences and disparities
between the SMP and other non-MDiv/certificate programs (in some
instances substantial) should somehow be addressed. In essence, the
task force believes the Synod as a whole will benefit from a greater
sense of clarity regarding the distinguishing characteristics of the
various means by which men are raised up and prepared for the pastoral office.
General Recommendation
Taking all the above into consideration, the task force has concluded that all of these several means by which the church recruits,
trains and certifies men to be placed into the pastoral office are both
appropriate and needed for the life and mission of our Synod and
ought be recognized as such by the Synod. The task force therefore
recommends that the Synod by resolution recognize that each of the
means we have for the church to recruit and train men for the pastoral office is appropriate and needed.