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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 376

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

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376

X. REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS: 13-03 TASK FORCE

Rev. Dr. Lawrence R. Rast Jr., appointed by the Board of Regents,
Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne
Rev. Scott Sailer, appointed by the Council of Presidents
Rev. Dr. Anthony Steinbronn, appointed by the Council of Presidents
Mark Stern, appointed by the Concordia University System Board
Dr. Bradd Stucky, appointed by the Concordia University System
Board
The task force was convened by the representative members of
the Council of Presidents and elected as its officers Dr. Leo Mackay
Jr., the Rev. Dr. Jamison Hardy, and Dr. Bradd Stucky.
The task force—assisted by the Rev. Kevin Robson, the Rev.
Dr. James Baneck, Barbara Below, and other staff from the International Center—has found in the fulfillment of this assignment
reason for optimism and encouragement. We now wish to share
with the Synod in convention the fruits of our work in keeping with
the assignment.

The Biblical Witness for Pastoral Formation

The biblical requirements for the candidate for the Office of
the Ministry should be well known to us all.
“The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the
office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled,
respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a
lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children
submissive, for if someone does not know how to
manage his own household, how will he care for
God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or
he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into
the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must
be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not
fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil” (1 Tim.
3:1–7).
“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace
that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard
from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust
to faithful men, who will be able to teach others
also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ
Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1–3).
“So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who
call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to
do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know
that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant
must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able
to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant
them repentance leading to a knowledge of the
truth, and they may come to their senses and escape
from the snare of the devil, after being captured by
him to do his will” (2 Tim. 2:22–26).
St. Paul’s underscoring of the qualifications of the pastoral
office—especially his injunction that pastors be “able to teach”—
provided the basic rationale for pastoral formation and, ultimately,
the establishment of theological seminaries as what we now con2019 Convention Workbook

sider the “traditional” mode of pastoral formation in the Lutheran
tradition. Scripture is clear on the requirements for pastoral candidates—the question has been, how is formation for Christ’s service
best accomplished?

II. The Biblical Case for Residential Pastoral Formation
Does the Bible mandate residential pastoral formation? No.
The Bible does not mandate a great number of things that might be
entirely good for us.
Are there intimations in Scripture about what might be the best
way to train clergy? Yes. Jesus appears to have had a more-thanthree-year training period during which the apostles were intensively educated in the delivery of the Word by the Word made flesh.
It certainly was residential in the sense that the disciples lived with
Jesus and Jesus lived with His disciples. In fact, the replacement for
Judas was required to have gone “in and out among us” (Acts 1:21)
during the earthly messianic ministry. The same could be said of
the apostolic seminary in which Paul prepared future clergy, such as
Titus and Timothy, for their future pastorates leading congregations
founded by Paul or others. Certainly, both Jesus and the apostles
used practical methods, sometimes sending out students by twos, as
Jesus did, or using the practical day-to-day work of traveling from
town to town proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of heaven
having come near (Matt. 10:1) as Paul did with a wide array of protégés in tow, such as Mark, Barnabas, Silas, and others.
The school of the prophets to which the Old Testament (2 Kings
2:3; 4:1; etc.) testifies might also serve to commend residential education to us. These schools seem to be tied to specific locations
such as Gilgal, Bethel, Ramah, and Jericho, although we have no
idea if they had permanent structures in which learning took place.
The buildings are not of the essence of residential education. In
the schools of the prophets, such education may have been purely
peripatetic, while at the same time requiring the leadership of an
instructor or instructors for a cadre of committed students.
There were times when this model could not be followed, either because of the pressures put on the church by persecution or
in unique mission situations where the need ruled out any possibility of anything more than “on-the-fly” instruction. However, such
liminal circumstances, as important as they are, should not define
normal practice for the church. They are by definition exceptions.
The Bible encourages high-quality education for clergy in the
qualifications for ministry in both Timothy (1 Tim. 3:1–13) and Titus (Titus 1:5–9). And again, while this does not demand a specific
kind of residential educational program, it certainly commends to
those who are educating and those who are educated the quality that
is consistently achieved only in a residential program.
Normally, the church seeks to educate within the larger confessional context mandated by Scripture. It should never reduce
education to what is presently usable or feasible in a single location
or community. The church’s existence is a testimony to the great
consensus. A community of learners gathered together in one place
enables those learners to be intensively trained into that single faith
(1 Cor. 1:10; Rom. 12:1–2, 6; fides qua!) and to support one another
in the mutual consolation and conversation of the brothers (SA III
IV). That consolation and conversation is much harder to attain outside of the face-to-face experience (see Basil the Great, Letter to
Amphilochius, 176).
Residential seminary education, while not biblically mandated
to prepare men for the Office of the Holy Ministry of the church, is
certainly a commended model and the one which, all things consid-