LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 90

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90 SYNODICAL REPORTS

Spiritual Formation

The church seeks men whose faith in Jesus Christ is nourished
regularly by the Word and Sacraments in public worship and by a dis-
-ciplined devotional life. The home, congregations, pastors, and the
church’s schools all help to form a pastoral character in candidates—
ones who pray, believe, and confess Christ and the cross—and to
shape attitudes that lead them to see people as God’s precious ones.

Mission Outreach

The church needs pastors who are prepared to proclaim the
Good News of Jesus Christ. They are instruments of the Holy Spint
to bring the lost to Christ and Christ to the believer. Pastors need to
have a deep passion for Christ and His mission. Called to be wit-
nesses to Jesus and His salvific work, pastors must actively engage
themselves in outreach and effectively outfit people to tell others
about Jesus. Christians are to testify to their faith in Jesus Christ
with those who have never heard of Him, have not believed in Him,
and are away from the means of grace in His church. Every con-
gregation is a mission station for the Christian message and needs a
pastor to lead in the development of mission outreach.

Understand Church within Culture and Context

The church looks to its pastors to know the Holy Scriptures
well, to be confidently Lutheran, and to apply the Word of God to
contemporary contexts and culture. Pastors need to understand the
culture and where it is headed, engaging societal issues theologi-
cally. Pastors must be prepared to give a defense to the truths of
the Christian faith against competing spiritual claims and move-
ments of world religions and secular beliefs. They must be sensitive
to their culture and able effectively to serve peoples with a vast di-
versity of origins, education, family customs, social structures, and
political values. The church needs pastors from different cultures to
serve in the pastoral ministry.

Community of Faith

The church wants pastoral education undertaken in an environ-
ment of prayer and care, with worship at the center, and with the
proper integration of biblical theology and pastoral practice. Pastoral
education is a learning-living preparation where one is taught to think
theologically and to focus on a few foundational aspects more deeply
(reading basic texts, great books, and writing theological papers). Pas-
toral education also engages persons in rich practical experiences rel-
evant to pastoral ministry. Students in preparation for the pastoral
ministry also must come to understand themselves and learn to eval-
uate and improve themselves, become adept at asking the right ques-
tions, and live in a spirit of trust with others.

Service of the Baptized

The church wants pastors who are prepared to motivate and
stimulate, prepare and engage the baptized in their lives of service
and vocation. People want to be led to integrate their faith and life.
They want pastors to encourage them, counsel them, mentor them,
and teach them to live meaningful lives of service. They want in-
tellectually to explore their faith and theologically to reflect on their
service to church and world. They are in the mission field daily,
and they want to relate their faith to their daily service in family,
church, work, and world.

Church Administration

The church needs pastors to lead and manage the congregation
to accomplish its mission and purpose. They are to have a work-
ing knowledge of financial planning and administration to main-
tain the fiscal health of the congregation. They must be prepared
to address stewardship responsibilities in a loving and realistic
manner. Pastors must be able to work in team ministry and manage
conflict in congregational life. They must be prepared to manage

2004 Convention Workbook

themselves—personally, spiritually, and emotionally—and be ready
for the daily routines of the pastoral ministry. Working hand in hand
with members who have skills and gifts in various areas, the congre-
gation is enabled to carry out its primary mission of saving souls.

Faithful Faculty with Pastoral Experience

The church needs faculty who are committed to the mission of the
church, maintain academic excellence, testify to their faith, relate the-
ology to pastoral practice, make alive the Lutheran heritage, and show
appreciation for the practice of pastoral ministry. The church encour-
ages faculty to read and write and study to be faithful mentors to pas-
toral ministry students. Faculty needs to aid students in the practical
transition to parish ministry. For the sake of the vitality of Lutheran
pastoral education and the contribution jt makes to the congregations,
the church wants faculty with substantial pastoral experience.

Scholarship for the Church and to the World

The church needs pastors, congregations, universities/colleges,
and seminaries to transmit Lutheran theology to the next generations.
They must relay the strong Lutheran heritage to the next group of
leaders (through instruction in Lutheran confessional teachings,
means of grace centered worship, biblical preaching, advanced study,
writing and publication). The church needs to provide graduate pro-
grams (offering masters and doctoral studies) in pastoral education.
The church needs to support strongly its centers of theological schol-
arship. The church must put in place a disciplined pattern for lifelong
learning among its pastors (to reflect upon pastoral practice, develop
pastoral skills, learn pastoral response to contemporary issues and
problems, and to transition to different ministry contexts).

Flexibility in Approach and Delivery of Pastoral Education

The church needs pastoral education brought to candidates as di-
verse as its membership and mission—young and old, single and mar-
tied, no debt and heavy debt, no college and advanced degrees, novice
Christians and Lutherans their entire life, confined to one place and
highly mobile, dominant culture and ethnic community, rich and poor.
The church needs to provide options for pastoral education to these
candidates, evaluating routes to pastoral ministry, discerning proper
pedagogical approaches, utilizing distance education, incorporating
useful technology, training mentors/life coaches, and engaging in con-
tinuous curricular review. The church needs pastoral candidates to
serve communities that cannot maintain a regular called pastor. There
is a growing demand for different approaches to pastoral education
that offer adaptability, portability, and accessibility.

International/Global Component

The church needs to recognize that pastoral education is an inter-
national endeavor. The church’s mission puts pastors and church mem-
bers in direct contact with world religions and Christian communities
different from our own. Pastors and people need to learn to work and
converse with these people. Pastoral education needs to provide stu-
dents understanding and models for conversation and cooperation
among Christians and differing traditions. There needs to be identifi-
cation and enlistment of international students and faculty in order to
learn from them and to engage them in confessional Lutheran theol-
ogy. As the center of Christianity shifts more and more to the southern
hemisphere, confessional Lutheranism around the globe needs to re-
late to global theological matters in its teaching and life as church.

Joint Seminary Fund

The LCMS Joint Seminary Program raises funds for the two
seminaries: Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne and
Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. The funds are divided between
both seminaries and provide financial support to prepare men for
the pastoral ministry in congregations and mission fields.