LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 133

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5. Seminary and University Education
To Establish Specific Ministry
Pastor Program
RESOLUTION 5-01B
Overtures 5-01–10 (CW, pp. 205–216)
Background
Amidst today’s mission challenges, including the persistent need to provide pastoral ministry in ways that go beyond the current residential models, we will do well to engage the best collaborative thinking and creativity that we
can muster to provide missional pastoral leadership driven
by the depth of theological integrity that remains a hallmark of our church and its ministerium. The mission focus
ignited by the Ablaze! movement has generated the need to
identify laymen already in place in a local community to
serve as church planters and missionaries. This work will
certainly entail Word and Sacrament ministry. Historically,
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and its antecedents
have attempted to meet such needs by preparing men as
quickly as possible to be called and ordained in order to
meet the urgent mission needs of the church. Such men
were prepared to catechize, preach, and provide pastoral
care. Within the LCMS, the need for such a track to ordination was initially embodied in the seminary begun by F.
C. D. Wyneken and Wilhelm Löhe in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
However, developments in ministerial formation since World
War II have effectively eliminated this track altogether.
Ministers of religion—ordained will have two designations. “General ministry pastor” will serve as the designation for pastors graduated from a current approved theological education program (e.g., M.Div., Certificate,
DELTO), and “specific ministry pastor” will be the designation for those educated for a specific ministry context
through distance education. The Specific Ministry Pastor
Program seeks to address the needs of the church by reinstituting a multiple-track approach and by developing a
program that combines a commitment to faithfulness to a
Lutheran theological confession with a missionary perspective and that is tailored to the preparation of men for service in specific kinds of ministries.
Such an effort must attempt in some measure to uphold
two significant considerations in the service of our Lord’s
mission and Great Commission. On the one hand, we are
committed to upholding the Lutheran understanding of the
pastor as theologian and insist on as much education as
possible for the good of the church. On the other hand,
emerging needs and economic pressures often make it impossible to call a pastor who has received a broad and thorough theological education to every congregation or mission
station where, nevertheless, people need to hear the
Gospel. This proposal is offered as a sincere and thoughtful
attempt to address real-world needs with an urgency for
bringing the Gospel to a dying world and to do so with theological integrity with respect to both the doctrine of the
ministry and our commitment to high standards of pastoral
education and formation.

Committee 5 Chairman Jon Diefenthaler

Theological Foundations Guiding the Proposal
1. All those who regularly and publicly perform the
functions of the Office of the Holy Ministry should do
so as those called to and placed into that office. “It is
taught among us that nobody should publicly teach or
preach or administer the sacraments in the church
without a regular call” (AC XIV). As it is true that
means of grace, the Gospel and the Sacraments, are
the rightful possession of all believers in Christ as
members of the priesthood of all believers, only the
one Office of the Holy Ministry is entrusted with the
public exercise of these means. As such, we affirm that
only those who are rightly and publicly called and
ordained should publicly exercise the functions which
are entrusted to this ministry.
2. Lutherans affirm that there is only one Office of the
Holy Ministry, established by God for the public
conduct of the ministry of Word and Sacrament.
However, the church may recognize certain
distinctions within that one Office of the Holy
Ministry and establish degrees of supervision without
undermining the unity of the office.
a. All those who serve Christ and the church in the
Office of the Holy Ministry exercise de iure divino
(by divine authority) the power to preach the
Gospel, forgive sins, administer the Sacraments,
and exercise church discipline. There is no
distinction within the one office with respect to this
power and authority.
b. Nevertheless, all ministers serve under supervision.
In ancient times, the practice of making certain
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2007 Convention Proceedings