LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Page 212

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212 HIGHER EDUCATION

WuereEAS, A large debt can prevent some from serving the
church in a professional way and cause others much difficulty in
their service to the Lord; therefore be it

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in con-
vention seek to lower the tuition expenses for those who seek to
serve their Lord through professional church work; and be it further

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in con-
vention reaffirm its support for our Concordia colleges, universi-
ties, and seminaries through a pledge of cooperation; and be it fur-
ther

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in con-
vention reaffirm its support for our Concordia colleges, universi-
ties and seminaries through an increase of financial support to each
synodical institution; and be it finally

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod seek to
eliminate all tuition and book fees with due considerations and stip-
ulations for those who desire to serve our Lord through His church
on earth within The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

Immanuel, Fergus Falls, MN; St. Paul, Fergus Falls, MN

To Remind Colleges and Universities
of Synod of Their Primary Purpose

WHEREAS, A primary purpose of the founding of the Synod and
its institutions of higher learning was the training of professional
church workers; and

Wuereas, The Constitution of the LCMS states: “The Synod,
under Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions shall—... (3) Recruit
and train pastors, teachers, and other professional church workers
and provide opportunity for their continuing growth” and “(5) Aid
congregations to develop processes of thorough Christian educa-
tion and nurture and to establish agencies of Christian education
such as elementary and secondary schools and to support synodical
colleges, universities, and seminaries” (Art. III 3, 5); and

WHEREAS, The Board for Higher Education/Concordia Univer-
sity System has a primary function of providing for the education
of ordained and commissioned ministers and other professional
church workers for the Synod (Bylaw 3.601); and

Wuereas, “The Board of Regents of each institution shall con-
sider as one of its primary duties the defining and fulfilling of the
mission of the institution” (Bylaw 6.03) directly as set forth in
Bylaw 3.601, noted above; and

WHEREAS, The percentage of Lutherans studying in our synod-
ical system is only 33 percent and in the spring of 1993 only 344
students were presented for placement for church-work positions
(a large percentage of whom came from Seward), despite nearly
12,000 students in the system; and

WHEREAS, The advertising of our colleges and seminaries often
does not reflect their primary purpose for existing (to train church
workers); therefore be it

Resolved, That the Synod in convention remind the Concordia
University System that its primary and fundamental reason for ex-
istence is to train men and women for church-work vocations and
that this fundamental purpose is to be clearly reflected in their ad-
vertising.

Mount Hope
Casper, WY

5-08

To Remind Colleges and Universities
of Primary Purpose

WHEREAS, The Board for Higher Education is to “establish pol-
icy guidelines involving distribution of synodical subsidy” as stated
in our 1995 Handbook (3.601 e); and

WHEREAS, The primary purpose of the Synod through our col-
leges and universities is to prepare men and women for full-time
church work; and

WHEREAS, The student bodies are increasingly being trained for
non-church work vocations; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Board for Higher Education give serious at-
tention to the percapita Lutheran student subsidies of our colleges
and universities especially as it applies to full-time church work
students, so that our primary support is aligned with our primary
purpose to educate church workers.

St. James
Scottsbluff, NE

5-09

To Evaluate University System

WHEREAS, One of the primary purposes of The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod is to train faithful workers for the church
(Constitution, Art. 1] 1 3); and

WuereaS, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod operates 12
schools of higher education under its Concordia University Sys-
tem; and

WHEREAS, Several of these institutions, even after making
tremendous efforts to diversify degree offerings in order to gamer a
larger student body, perennially operate with substantial debt; and

WHEREAS, The Synod provides only a small percentage of the
budgets of these schools, and increased direct support from the
Synod is not possible at this time; and

WuerEAS, These institutions are increasingly financially inde-
pendent from the Synod, and the dominant bent in American
parochial higher education over the past century, a trend from
which our institutions are hardly immune, has been one of doctrinal
independence and disintegration concurrent with financial inde-
pendence; and

Whereas, There has been in these institutions a drastic reduc-
tion of the percentage of both LCMS and church-work students rel-
ative to the whole of the student population; and

WHEREAS, The operation of fewer schools, each with higher
concentrations of church-work students, would perhaps provide an
opportunity for better doctrinal and financial stewardship; and

WHEREAS, There is broad interest in the Synod to increase both
the quantity and quality of solidly Lutheran academics at these in-
stitutions; and

WHEREAS, The President of Synod, as chief executive officer,
according to the Bylaws, has oversight of the officers, employees,
and educational institutions of the Synod (3.101); therefore be it

Resolved, That the Synod in convention direct the President to
form a task force to evaluate the current effectiveness of the Con-
cordia University System in meeting the objectives stated in Art.
III 3 of the Synod’s Constitution; and be it further

Resolved, That this task force make recommendations to be
voted upon by the Synod in convention (2001) regarding the total
governance, goals, programs, finances, makeup, and number of in-
stitutions which shall comprise the Concordia University System.

Zion, Fort Wayne, IN; Mount Hope, Casper, WY; Circuit
17 Forum, South Wisconsin District

5-10

To Encourage Synod in Development
and Support of DELTO Program
WHEREAS, The 1995 convention of The Lutheran Church—Mis-

souri Synod passed a resolution calling for the development of a
distance education model for the training of pastors; and
WHEREAS, The DELTO (Distance Education Leading to Ordi-
nation) pilot program has been developed and implemented in re-
sponse to that resolution through the cooperation of the Board for