LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Sheet 299

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284 BLUE RIBBON COMMITTEE

Wuereas, The report does not seek to change Bylaw 4.71 a and
remove the title “chief executive officer” from District Presidents
as well; and

WuerEas, Removing the title “Chief Executive Officer” from
the synodical President while retaining it for District Presidents is
inconsistent and confusing, and can prove to become a source of
further misunderstanding, confusion, and controversy; therefore be
it

Resolved, That the Blue Ribbon Committee Report as distrib-
uted to the Synod be rejected; and be it further

Resolved, That the same Blue Ribbon Committee be charged
with making a new report to the Synod that reconciles the incon-
sistency between the proposed Bylaw 3.101 a and the existing
Bylaw 4.71 a.

Hope
Akron, OH

8-05

To Retain Present Method of Election
of Directors of Entities

WHEREAS, The Blue Ribbon Committee on Structure’s proposal
in Bylaw 3.55 calls for one-third of the members of the LCEF
Board of Directors to be elected by the synodical convention, and

WHEREAS, This proposed change would provide a basis for a
participating District to initiate the process to remove itself from
membership in the LCEF; and

WHEREAS, The ability of each participating District in LCEF to
influence the policies of LCEF by electing its Board of Directors is
what has made LCEF the responsive organization it is today; there-
fore be it

Resolved, That Synod retain the present procedures in the elec-
tion of directors of entities.

Board of Directors

Lutheran Church Extension Fund

8-06

To Adopt Nov. 14, 1997, Blue Ribbon
Committee Proposal on Higher Education

WuEREAS, Our Lord has richly blessed the development of our
Synod’s colleges and seminaries since the very beginning of our
church body; and

WHEREAS, Until recent years our colleges were created and
maintained primarily for the purpose of preparing young men and
women for the teaching ministry, or to prepare young men to be
able to enter postgraduate studies in our seminaries with the goal of
ordination into the pastoral ministry, and

WuerEAS, Under the above system it made much sense for our
Synod to establish one umbrella board called the Board for Higher
Education, whose task it was to coordinate the colleges and semi-
naries in a unified system of higher education; and

Wuereas, In recent years our colleges have, under the blessing
of God, branched out into a much wider variety of programs of ed-
ucation than only that of preparing workers for the pastoral and the
teaching ministries of the church, including many vocations which
are not intended to be church-related in any sense; and

WuerEas, This has resulted in the formation of the Concordia
University System and in the addition of more members to both the
Board for Higher Education and the respective local boards of re-
gents of the colleges and universities, while keeping the member-
ship of the seminaries’ boards of regents to nine members each,
thus exhibiting the fact that Synod recognizes the differences be-
tween pastoral education and other types of education; and

WHEREAS, The seminaries, with the exception of their graduate
schools, have as their nearly exclusive purpose the training of or-
dained pastors and missionaries, a task which is very different from

that of training teachers and even more different from that of edu-
cating people to serve in non-church-related vocations; and

WHEREAS, Among these differences are certain government reg-
ulations and requirements connected with student loans and grants,
the average ages of the students, the experiences or lack thereof in
life, the kinds of housing needed, the kinds of library facilities re-
quired, the types of accrediting agencies involved, and many other
distinct differences which exist between post-bachelor seminary
education and bachelor college-university education; and

WHEREAS, The configuration of authority as proposed by the
President’s Blue Ribbon Committee in its report of Nov. 14, 1997,
would create a CUS (Concordia University System) board and a
Seminary board separate from each other but with very adequate
liaison between the two boards, thus taking into consideration the
above differences in types of education as outlined above; there-
fore be it

Resolved, That our Synod in convention adopt the proposal for
Higher Education in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod as
recommended by the Blue Ribbon Committee on Nov. 14, 1997.

Board of Regents
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, IN

8-07

To Merge Seminary Boards of Regents

WHEREAS, Boards of Regents are primarily responsible for poli-
cies at synodical educational institutions, and not for administra-
tive decisions regarding faculty, curriculum, finance and student
affairs; and

WHEREAS, It is desirable that policies related to these matters in
the preparation of candidates for the pastoral ministry be as uni-
form as possible; and

Wuereas, The primary concern of the Synod is not where can-
didates are prepared, but how well they are prepared in order that
the Synod is assured of a quality and quantity of pastoral candi-
dates to meet its changing and future needs; and

WHEREAS, Administrative issues at our seminaries in recent
years have at times negatively impacted the confidence of some in
the Synod and its seminaries; and

WHEREAS, It is desirable that preparation of pastoral candidates
be carried out with as much coordination and as little duplication as
possible; and

WHEREAS, Individuality and specialization with a single Board
of Regents can still be maintained by reason of the character and
quality of the faculties and a separate administration at each semi-
nary; and

WHEREAS, The President’s Blue Ribbon Committee has recom-
mended a restructuring of the Board for Higher Education to in-
clude a Standing Committee for Pastoral Education, thereby in-
creasing the size of the Board; and

WHEREAS, The concerns of the President’s Blue Ribbon Com-
mittee for pastoral education could be met through a less costly and
more direct approach; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Boards of Regents of Concordia Theological
Seminary, Fort Wayne, and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, be
merged into a single Board of Regents responsible to the Synod for
these two institutions; and be it further

Resolved, That the single Board of Regents consist of eleven
members, eight of whom are elected by the convention of Synod
(three pastors, one teacher and four laymen), and be it further

Resolved, That from among the District Presidents, two are also
elected by the convention of the Synod to serve as members of the
single seminary Board of Regents; and be it further

Resolved, That the remaining member of the Board of Regents
shall be the President of the Synod or his representative, and be it
further