LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 343

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PASTORAL MINISTRY AND SEMINARIES
Ov. 6-39

To Recommend and Implement Rigorous Program
of Study in Circuit Winkels
WHEREAS, While it is a blessed fruit of faith of all Christians to
meditate upon God’s Law day and night (Psalm 1:2), it is especially
incumbent upon those who serve in the pastoral office to take up
this charge, as those given by God to His Bride, the Church, to
proclaim and teach His Word and exercise doctrinal oversight in the
congregations committed to them; and
WHEREAS, All Christians, but especially the pastors of Christ’s
Church, should always be “prepared to make a defense to anyone
who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15);
and
WHEREAS, Christ’s promise of the Holy Spirit’s work to “teach
you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I [Jesus] have
said to you” (John 14:26) is fulfilled in no other way than through
His Word; and
WHEREAS, Paul—providing an example for all called servants of
the Word—averred to the Ephesian elders, “for I did not shrink from
declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27); and
WHEREAS, “… In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who
is to judge the living and the dead …” (2 Tim. 4:1), Paul charged
Timothy—and all pastors—to “preach the Word; be ready in season
and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete
patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2); and
WHEREAS, St. Gregory the Great in the foundational pastoral
theology of the Western Church asserts: “It is certainly necessary
that those who execute the office of preaching do not regress in their
study of sacred writ” and “when a pastor is asked about a spiritual
matter by a layperson, it would be disgraceful for him to have to
learn the answer, when he should have been prepared to solve the
question” (Gregory the Great, The Book of Pastoral Rule
[Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2007], 84–85); and
WHEREAS, At the 67th Regular Convention of The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) on July 24, 2019, the Synod in
convention passed Resolution 6-04 nearly unanimously and by
voice vote, “To Support, Encourage, and Expect Continuing
Education for all Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod Pastors”
(2019 Proceedings, 160); and
WHEREAS, 2019 Res. 6-04 recognizes that the Synod’s desire for
enhancing continuing education amongst our pastors has been
expressed continuously, though without real fruit, since 1998; and
WHEREAS, 2019 Res. 6-04 resolves that “the Synod fully support,
encourage, and expect all LCMS pastors to be engaged in
continuing education throughout their pastoral ministry from the
time of their first call”; and
WHEREAS, 2019 Res. 6-04 furthermore resolves that “district
presidents encourage, prompt, and expect all their pastors to be
engaged in continuing education”; and
WHEREAS, 2019 Res. 6-04 furthermore resolves that
“congregations be encouraged to support their pastors’ continuing
education financially and provide the time needed for continuing
education”; and
WHEREAS, In the press of pastoral life, pastors often find it
difficult to maintain a robust study of God’s Word and the teachings
of Scripture—along with the necessary tools for that study—and the
use of the biblical languages; and

343

WHEREAS, In the heyday of the Synod conference, the pastoral
winkels—traditional Synod conference winkel model—provided
for:
• the regular, formal study of the Scriptures, led by pastors for
pastors;
• the regular, formal study of the Lutheran Confessions and
the Lutheran dogmatic tradition, led by pastors for pastors;
• the regular, formal study of illuminating historical issues and
contemporary threats to the teaching of God’s Word and our
blessed Lutheran Confession, led by pastors for pastors;
• the regular, formal critique of the teaching and proclamation
of the pastors in the winkel;
and
WHEREAS, Although the demise of the traditional Synod
conference winkel model may be attributed to many factors, it has
inevitably led to the backgrounding of sound doctrine in the pastoral
mind and to a dearth of regularized and formal continuing
education; and
WHEREAS, The contemporary, largely unstructured “9 to 12”
model of the circuit winkel provides, anecdotally, little professional
gain and is often bereft of serious study of God’s Word and our
blessed Lutheran Confession; and
WHEREAS, The Circuit Visitors’ Manual of Synod notes that the
two primary goals and purposes of the circuit winkel are “Spiritual
Development and Enrichment” and “Continuing Education
Experiences” (LCMS, Circuit Visitors’ Manual, [Updated February
2020], 200–201); and
WHEREAS, Many circuit winkels have become increasingly
irrelevant and ineffective in achieving those goals and purposes;
and
WHEREAS, The observation in the Circuit Visitors’ Manual that
“the brethren respond with a higher sense of responsibility when a
program is structured rather than casual” (202) is borne out by
experience; and
WHEREAS, The Circuit Visitors’ Manual recommends a 9:00
a.m. to 3:00 p.m. or 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. schedule to provide time
for pastors to “present theological papers, do exegesis on a text,
prepare sermon studies, and the like” (202); and
WHEREAS, Over against many other forms of continuing
education, the traditional Synod conference winkel model proves
cost-effective by not only involving pastors in the passive reception
of the teaching of God’s Word and our blessed Lutheran Confession
on a monthly basis, but also in regularly providing pastors with the
opportunity actively to mine the sources and in turn teach what they
have learned, along with the ability to lay their gleanings before the
brothers to verify whether these things be so (Acts 17:11); and
WHEREAS, Kansas District Circuit 6 pastors gathered in winkel
have profitably and approvingly used the traditional Synod
conference winkel model since September of 2019; and
WHEREAS, Kansas District pastors of Circuit 6 have been edified
by the use of the traditional Synod conference winkel model, both
in their personal study and in participating in and receiving the
teaching and brotherly critique of their peers; and
WHEREAS, The traditional Synod conference winkel model
generates koinonia around the only thing that in Christ’s Church can
create it—His Holy Word and our blessed Lutheran Confession—

2023 Convention Workbook