LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 157

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6. PASTORAL MINISTRY AND SEMINARIES
To Support and Participate in the
Comprehensive Church Worker
Recruitment Initiative
RESOLUTION 6-01
Report R1.2 (CW, 56); Overture 6-18 (CW, 456)

WHEREAS, Jesus instituted and mandated the pastoral
office (John 17:18; 20:21) and St. Paul and St. Peter attested
to this same pastoral office (1 Cor. 4:1; Rom. 10:14–17; 1 Tim.
3:1–7; 2 Tim. 4:1–5; Titus 1:5–9; 1 Peter 5:1–11); and
WHEREAS, The Lutheran church confesses this one
pastoral office, “So that we may obtain this faith, the
ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the
Sacraments was instituted” (Augsburg Confession [AC] V)
and “Our churches teach that no one should publicly teach
in the Church, or administer the Sacraments, without a
rightly ordered call” (AC XIV); and
WHEREAS, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
(LCMS) holds to the words of C.F.W. Walther, “The
preaching office is not an optional office but one whose
establishment has been commanded to the church and to
which the Church is properly bound till the end of time”
(Walther, The Church and the Office of the Ministry, Ministry
Thesis III); and
WHEREAS, The Lutheran church confesses that “The
preaching office is the highest office in the Church, from
which flow all other offices in the Church” (Walther,
Ministry Thesis VIII); and
WHEREAS, These “other offices in the church” are good
and salutary auxiliary offices “established in love by the
Church to support the Office of the Holy Ministry and to
assist the faithful in their God-given vocations (‘assist and
strengthen Christian fathers and mothers in their Godgiven responsibility to bring up their children in the
nurture and instruction of the Lord’)” (LSB Agenda, 214,
218); and
WHEREAS, The declaration of Jesus, “The harvest is
plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly
to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his
harvest” (Luke 10:2), is as true today as when it was spoken
2,000 years ago; and
WHEREAS, Enrollment statistics from 2004 to 2018
demonstrate a decrease in students enrolled in our
Concordia University church worker programs:
• Pre-seminary (-59%)
• Lutheran Teacher (-61%)
• Director of Christian Education (-56%)
• Director of Christian Outreach (-71%)
Resolutions

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Deaconess (-43%) (numbers do not include
seminary deaconess program enrollment)
Lay Ministry (-95%)
Director of Parish Music (-47%)
Director of Family Life (-65%)

and
WHEREAS, Enrollment statistics from 2004 to 2018
demonstrate a decrease in men enrolled in our two
seminaries:
• Master of Divinity (MDiv) Concordia Seminary
(CSL) (-61%); Concordia Theological Seminary
(CTSFW) (-44%)
• Combined MDiv loss (-55%)
• CSL total loss including Alternate Route (AR) and
non-residential enrollments (-34%)
• CTSFW total loss including AR and non-residential
enrollments (-44%)
• Combined total loss including AR and nonresidential enrollments (-38%)
and
WHEREAS, Fifty percent of all active ordained pastors are
over 55 years old; and with current enrollment trends into
the seminary and active pastor retirement trends, the active
pastor population in the LCMS could decrease from 6,000
to 3,000 active pastors in the next 15 years; and
WHEREAS, The current enrollments will not support
graduating classes sufficient to meet the needs of the

Committee 6 Chairman John Hill
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2019 (67TH) LCMS CONVENTION | 157