LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 110

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

110 SYNODICAL REPORTS

Education in Synodical Polity

Our synodical Constitution and Bylaws give definition and direction to many important aspects of the relationship and interaction be-
tween the Synod’s members (congregations as well as pastors and other professional workers) as they “walk together,” especially Art. II,
lI, VI, and VII of the Constitution (see also Bylaw 1.05 d). Education about the polity of our Synod is needed, to varying degrees, by all
the members of our Synod as well as some of the lay members of its congregations.

¢ As acondition of their ordination or commissioning, those who would become individual members of our Synod sign a statement acknowledg-
ing their subscription to the Constitution of the Synod (Bylaw 2.07 c). Even so, in recent years many pastors, teachers, and other professional
church workers have embarked upon their initial placements with little or no familiarity with the Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod.

¢ While the President and Secretary of a new congregation sign the Constitution of the Synod on behalf of their congregation (Bylaw 2.05 a), it may
well be that no instruction or overview of the role and content of that Constitution has been provided to the lay leaders of that congregation.

* District Boards of Directors have powers and duties accorded to them by the Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod (Bylaw 4.91). However, no
instruction or overview of the role and content of these documents is required or provided for these District board members.

A lack of familiarity with our basic polity on the part of the Synod’s members and lay members of our congregations has increasingly
resulted in attitudes, teachings, and practices that are at variance with and sometimes even inimical to the Synod’s polity.

Recommendation regarding Education in Synodical Polity

1. Development of Educational Materials

The TF recommends that a curriculum writing team be assembled to produce educational materials for use by the Synod’s terminal
schools, Districts, and the Post-seminary Applied Learning and Support (PALS) program of the Commission on Ministerial Growth and
Support. These materials will provide formal instruction in the role and content of the Synod’s Constitution and Bylaws.

a. The team would work under the supervision of and with assistance from the Secretary of the Synod, who would serve as convener.

b. Members of the team would consist of the Secretary of the Synod; one representative of the Commission on Constitutional Matters;
one representative of Concordia Publishing House; one representative of each seminary; one representative of the Board for Higher
Education; one District President; and one represcntative of the synodical Board of Directors.

c. The team would be encouraged to cite applicable convention resolutions, synodical policies, and CCM decisions in the educational
materials, especially those that pertain to Art. II, Il, V1, and VII.

d. Concordia Publishing House would publish the material.

2. Utilization of Materials

a. The colleges, universities, and seminaries of the Synod would offer these educational materials in course work and/or workshops to
students who are preparing for full-time church vocations. Participation in these courses or workshops would be a requirement for
entry to the synodical roster.

b. The Districts would make use of these educational materials in
* new worker orientation workshops;
* the first meeting of a District Board of Directors after the District convention;
* new congregations preparing for membership in the Synod.

c. The PALS program would include these educational materials in one of its modules as a review of synodical polity with special
emphasis on the relationship of the pastor to the Synod at the National, District, and Circuit levels.

d. Congregations will have these educational materials available for use in Bible classes, new member instruction, and other settings.

Higher Education and Church Worker Certification by Districts

From the inception of the Synod, its members have recognized the wisdom of having the church body own and operate the institutions
that train and certify candidates for church work positions. In 1847 the new Synod was given two seminaries. (The legal transfer of own-
ership of the institution in Missouri occurred in 1849-1850.) Both schools were already in operation, and they could have continued under
the ownership of those who started them. But an important precedent was established: that no less than the Synod as a whole trains and cer-
tifies its professional church workers through institutions whose direction is set by their owner, the entire Synod.

Recently there have been a few cases in which Districts have offered training and/or certification for church work positions, some of
which could be paid positions on a full- or part-time basis. The TF applauds efforts by the Synod’s Districts, sometimes in partnership with
one or more of the Synod’s institutions of higher education, to offer various sorts of training that help laypeople to become better Sunday
school or Vacation Bible Schoo] teachers, church musicians, congregational officers, elders, etc., as appropriate. In view of the recom-
mendations contained in part VII A of a Lay Worker Study Committee report adopted by the Synod in 1989 Res. 3-05B (1989 Convention
Workbook, |11-12), the TF recognizes efforts that are being made at the District level to equip laypeople for better congregational service,
and it applauds Districts for endeavoring to provide higher standards of theological preparation and academic training for such volun-
teers. At the same time, the TF is concerned over the prospect of Districts training people to do full-time or part-time professional church
work as ordained or commissioned workers. Programs for these workers are available in our synodical schools. The TF notes that the
Synod has not authorized any sort of church worker certification or commissioning, however termed, at the District level. (The sole ex-
ception to this observation is in 1989 Res. 3-05B, which specifically authorizes District Presidents to “license” those men called “deacons”
while they are temporarily “serving in Word and Sacrament ministry ‘in exceptional circumstances or in emergencies’”—1989 Conven-
tion Workbook, 112.)

Again, the TF does not mean to detract from any programs designed to prepare laypeople for appropriate service within our congre-
gations. But it maintains that the cohesiveness of our Synod can be jeopardized if different Districts in effect train some of their own pro-
fessional church workers as they choose and certify or commission them according to their own criteria. The TF is therefore of the opin-
ion that education leading to certification of professional church workers should remain a function of the Synod at the national level.

Unfortunately, by the time the TF received current, but still incomplete, information on the number of Districts involved in some sort
of church worker certification, there was not adequate opportunity to give this matter careful consideration. Therefore the TF makes no rec-

2001 Convention Workbook