LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 392

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

392 THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Pastors in Specialized Fields of Service

The office of proclaiming of the Gospel and the needs of
the congregation, as we have maintained, are often best served
when the call is regarded as open-ended for those congregations in
which the Word of God is being proclaimed and the sacraments are
administered on a regular basis. The first of these criteria certainly
applies to all who occupy the office of the public ministry. Thus
the norm in the church is that an open-ended call be issued to
everyone who serves in the office of the public ministry.

At the same time, the call to proclaim Law and Gospel does
not take place in a vacuum. It occurs within specific contexts and
situations. According to the second principle (recognition of the
congregation’s needs) we may conclude that, in addition to regular
Word and sacrament ministry within congregations, the church’s
need for particular gifts or specialized skills at times is best met by
something less than an open-ended call. We may proceed in this
way (and have already done so) as long as we do not undermine
the divine institution of the office or hinder in any way the procla-
mation of the whole counsel of God. Such has been the case within
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod for much of its history with
regard to theological professors, District and synodical officials,
military chaplains, campus pastors, missionaries, church planters,
etc. Several examples can illustrate such situations.

When choosing its theological professors, the church must have
men who have acquired the necessary academic and theological
qualifications and who have shown themselves to be capable teach-
ers. It has been necessary, therefore, to call professors for a set pe-
riod of time with a view to evaluating them on the basis of their
academic abilities (obtaining advanced degrees), scholarship in the
service of the church (publishing), and aptitude to teach. This is not
an evaluation of their theological orthodoxy or fitness for the of-
fice of the public ministry, but of their skills and abilities for a spe-
cialized task. Following such evaluation the church may grant
tenure or a rolling contract to these individuals as a way of ex-
pressing its confidence in their scholarship and teaching aptitude.
So, the particular needs of the church to have men with the acade-
mic credentials and specialized skills of scholarship and teaching
lead it to issue calls for a determined period of time.

In the case of missionaries the Missouri Synod has found it
advantageous to call a man to serve in a particular field for a pre-
scribed period of time, followed by a brief return to the United
States before resuming service overseas. In a number of instances
this agreed pattern helps to balance out the investment of time and
money that the church has invested in preparing the missionary for
such service. The time duration for the call, then, becomes a matter
of good stewardship. In the case of church planters a District may
have enough money to finance a particular mission or church plant-
ing for a limited period. After this period, it is agreed, the man’s
call will either continue in that congregation because it is now ca-
pable of supporting a pastor, or he will be reassigned or called to
another location. And so, as the church experiments with new and
different strategies with limited resources available, it may issue a
call (by mutual agreement) for a limited period of time.

Another form of specialized ministry that may involve calls of
limited tenure (also by mutual agreement) is that of Intentional In-
terim Pastors. In recent years congregations experiencing a pastoral
vacancy after a period of conflict, controversy, or turmoil have
found it helpful, before they call a new permanent pastor, to take
some time to work through issues troubling them with the assis-
tance of a specially trained pastor. There are other instances when
an interim pastor may be of benefit to a congregation (for exam-
ple, a vacancy arising when a pastor leaves the congregation after a
particularly long term of service, or the death of a pastor in office).
In cases like this the congregation may be in need of reflection,
healing, or reorganization before calling its new pastor. The interim
is normally for a specific period of time mutually determined by

2004 Convention Workbook

the congregation and the interim pastor. Most certainly, it is not
good for the congregation to go without Word and sacrament min-
istry. Congregations have an obligation to fill the office that exists
within their midst. At the same time, for a congregation to call an-
other permanent pastor before these special concerns are addressed
may contribute to ongoing difficulties or may result in new con-
gregational conflict as a result of unresolved issues. While vacancy
pastors have always been a part of the church’s life, today it may be
beneficial to enlist the services of an interim pastor who has ac-
quired specialized skills for guiding the congregation through a
transitional period while serving them with Word and sacrament.
The congregation has the right to determine whether or not it wants
an interim pastor. An interim ministry must never be imposed.

In each of the above-mentioned cases the church engages in
careful deliberation so that any call issued for a limited period of
time may not dishonor the divine institution of the office of the
public ministry nor restrict the pastor’s freedom to proclaim the
whole counsel of God in keeping with his subscription to the Scrip-
tures and the Lutheran Confessions.“

May Calls Be Conditional?

Calls should never be issued under certain prescribed condi-
tions. For example, a call should not be extended to a pastor con-
tingent on his achieving particular objectives such as numerical
growth, the successful completion of a capital building project, the
utilization of a particular program, or the attainment of certain bud-
getary goals. Such conditions directly infringe upon the divine
character of the call issued by the church, and detract from the cen-
tral task of the office.
State regulations requiring a review of a potential minister’s in-
tegrity in the area of sexual ethics can be acceptable to the church,
since such a review in effect seeks to establish that a candidate is
“above reproach.” At issue, however, is when this review takes
place. In response to a request concerning a Minnesota statute, the
CTCR stated in a 1998 opinion that
unconditional calls have always been the rule in the Synod. In fact,
in the opinion of the CTCR, conditional calls are inconsistent with
Lutheran theology because they appear to contradict the nature of
the divine call as unconditionally given by God through a Christian
congregation. It is the understanding of the CTCR that, were a con-
gregation to extend a call to a pastor subject to a satisfactory Min-
nesota Statute 148a background check, this would constitute a con-
ditional call. It is our strong opinion that congregations should not
issue conditional calls. Such practice would set a dangerous prece-
dent and would open the door to misunderstanding, mischief and
possible legal action. It is our recommendation, therefore, that as
congregations comply with Statute 148a they be encouraged to ex-
hibit patience and await the response called for in this statute be-
fore issuing a call. an

In this opinion the CTCR encourages compliance but cautions that

the background check should occur prior to, not after, the issuance

of a call.

May a Call be Terminated?

The Holy Spirit calls a man into the office of the public min-
istry through the instrumentality of the church. He entrusts to, the
church the responsibility of determining how best to administer the
call for the sake of the proclamation of the Gospel in all its purity
and clarity. In the faithful exercise of its stewardship of the mys-
teries of God in various ages and cultures, the church has adopted
procedures suitable for its time and place. These procedures deter-
mine not only how a man enters the full-time, public ministry of
the Word, but also how he leaves the office. How and on what
basis removal takes place is a serious and sensitive matter. As we
have seen earlier, C. F. W. Walther affirmed that a congregation
has a right to remove a pastor, but this dare not be done presump-
tuously or arbitrarily. A pastor should be removed only after cause
has been sufficiently established by lawful procedure, after he has