LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 287

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

IX. REPORT OF THE RES. 5-14A TASK FORCE
the Board of Assignments as provided in Bylaw section 2.9.
2.7.2 Candidates who have satisfactorily completed an approved
colloquy program of the Synod for the ordained or commissioned ministry must be declared qualified for a first call and
be recommended by the appropriate colloquy committee (see
Bylaws 3.10.2ff. and 3.10.3ff.) before the effective date of the
first call to service in the church as assigned by the Board of
Assignments as provided in Bylaw section 2.9.
2.7.3 Candidates who have satisfactorily completed an approved
educational program of the Synod for the ordained or commissioned ministry involving extensive use of distance learning and/or a mentoring system must be declared qualified
for a first call and recommended by the faculty of one of the
seminaries, colleges, or universities of the Synod before the
effective date of the first call to service in the church, as assigned by the Board of Assignments as provided in Bylaw
section 2.9.
2.7.4 Graduates of one of the colleges, universities, or seminaries
of the Synod who desire to continue their professional studies after they have completed the prescribed undergraduate
curriculum, or who for any other valid reason are not ready
for first calls to service in the church, shall continue to be eligible for unqualified recommendation for first calls as long
as they can be recommended by the faculty of the educational
institution of the Synod from which they have graduated. The
respective faculty shall annually ascertain through personal
interviews with the candidate or through satisfactory testimonials that each candidate so classified is still qualified for
recommendation for a first call to serve in the church.
2.7.5 A pastor emeritus from another church body, after having
completed an approved colloquy program of the Synod, may
be placed on the roster of the Synod without call by action of
the Council of Presidents on the basis of policies adopted by
the Council of Presidents.
(a) Such placement shall be acknowledged by a rite of recognition in a worship service preferably of the congregation of the
Synod where he holds membership.
(b) Such rite is to be authorized by the district president.
Qualification for First Call—Bylaw 2.8.1

2.8.1 Candidates shall be declared qualified for first calls.
(a) They are those who before the effective date of the first calls
will have satisfactorily completed the prescribed courses of
studies and will have received diplomas from their respective
educational institutions of the Synod or have fulfilled the requisites of a colloquy or other approved education program of the
Synod (Bylaws 2.7.2 and 2.7.3).
(b) In addition, they must have indicated complete dedication to
the ministry and evidenced a readiness for service in the church.
(c) Finally, to be declared qualified and recommended by the
faculties or colloquy committees for their specific types of service in the church, the appropriate faculty or colloquy committee must be satisfied that the individual will meet all personal,
professional, and the theological requirements of those who hold
the office of ministry to which the individual aspires.
(d) In addition, an academic year of supervised internship (vicarage) is required of all seminary students before graduation,
ordinarily in the second year before graduation.56

These requirements apply to all whom the Church recruits, trains,
and prepares for the pastoral office.

287
Notes

1. The full report is available at www.lcms.org/convention.
2. The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church, edited by Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, Minneapolis, Fortress
Press, 2000 (KW) pp. 46 and 47. Cp. Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelischlutherischen Kirche, Goettingen, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1967 (BKS)
p. 69. The Tappert edition reads, for the German, “without a regular call” and,
for the Latin, “unless he is regularly called.” See Theodore G. Tappert, ed.,
The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 36. The Bente English translation from
The Concordia Triglotta (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), reads
“unless he be regularly called.” Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions (St.
Louis, Concordia Publishing House, 2005), while based on Bente, translates
the phase “a rightly ordered call” (65).
3. AE 39:310.
4. Church and Office, Thesis I on the Office, 152.
5. The Greek verb τίθημι, used in verse 28, means to establish something
or to appoint someone.
6. References are largely from Church and Office, 168.
7. Online at http://www.lcms.org/Document.fdoc?src=lcm&id=410;
abbreviated as Divine Call.
8. Ibid., 5.
9. Ibid., 10.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid., 12. Note well: the rationale is for Lutherans to ordain, not to
dispense with ordination, something they insisted they did not want. See Ap
XIV and the section that follows.
12. Ibid., 13.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid., 14. It should be noted, then, that the term “call” is therefore
being used in a twofold manner. In AC XIV, “called” is used to refer to an
entire, threefold process of placing a man into the Public Office of the Ministry.
The reference to a “right of calling” is a more narrow designation of the specific congregational call to an eligible candidate who is or will be ordained.
On this understanding of the term “call” that can apply to both an individual
congregation’s decision and also to the call process of the wider church, see
also CTCR, The Ministry: Offices, Procedures, Nomenclature (1981) which
says on page 30: “The term ‘call’ should be used for those who have specifically been equipped to perform certain ecclesiastical functions and have made
a commitment to dedicate their lives to that service unless or until God directs
them to other callings. The term ‘call’ should not be used where such commitment is lacking, and those who serve the church other than under a call should
be referred to simply as ‘lay workers.’ Furthermore, in a synodical form of
church fellowship and congregational interdependence, those who are ‘called’
must be under the supervision of the whole church.”
15. The Ministry: Offices, Procedures, Nomenclature (1981), 30.
Emphasis added.
16. LSB Agenda, Rite of Ordination. 167.
17. Apology XIV 1 in the Book of Concord makes it evident that ordination was an aspect of rite vocatus. Every English version refers to “canonical
ordination” as something the reformers fully support, even as they condemn
the Roman Church for preventing them from maintaining ordination in the
usual manner. See K-W, 222–23; also the Theodore G. Tappert translation:
“With the proviso that we employ canonical ordination, they [the authors of the
Roman Confutation] accept Article XIV, where we say that no one should be
allowed to administer the Word and the Sacraments in the church unless he is
duly called.” Furthermore, Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, A Reader’s
Edition of the Book of Concord (based on the translation by William Hermann
Theodore Dau, Gerhard Friedrich Bente; St. Louis: CPH, 2005) comments
on page 212, “Here Melanchthon affirms Lutheranism’s desire to maintain
whatever best contributes to good order, peace and harmony in the Church.
Therefore, Lutherans have insisted on a rightly ordered call and ordination
for those who will serve the Church as ministers of Word and Sacrament.”

2016 Convention Workbook