LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 136

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136

RESOLUTIONS

WHEREAS, This oversight committee concluded that original assignment, and a revised DELTO Program was deployed by the two seminaries in the fall of 2004; and
WHEREAS, The original and ongoing intent of DELTO
was to “provide ordained pastoral service to congregations
that cannot support a full-time pastor, ordained pastoral
service to contexts where English is not spoken, ordained
missionary personnel where finances and/or conditions do
not permit calling a full-time missionary” (BHE document,
“What Is DELTO?” Sept. 2000); and
WHEREAS, The needs for providing pastoral ministry in
specific and specialized situations where a traditionally
prepared seminary candidate or pastor is not available continue to multiply; and
WHEREAS, Our Synod needs to find a way to provide for
an increase in pastoral ministry to meet such needs of the
church, especially in light of the mission challenges of
today’s world; and
WHEREAS, Our Synod has resolved to plant 2,000 new
congregations by 2017, for which a net gain of 2,000 pastors will be needed; and
WHEREAS, Any way of providing for pastoral ministry
must be faithful to our Lutheran Confessions, faithful to
our historic commitment to a well-educated and wellformed ministerium, faithful to our historic commitment to
provide pastors in both academic and practical tracks, and
faithful to our historic commitment to provide pastoral ministry and leadership at the cutting edges of the mission
fields, wherever they might be; and
WHEREAS, 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 because “[i]t
is taught among us that nobody should publicly teach or
preach or administer the sacraments in the church without
a regular call” (AC XIV); and
WHEREAS, A variety of programs and routes leading to
pastoral service have arisen at both district and seminary
levels; and
WHEREAS, The DELTO Oversight Committee, after concluding its original assignment, was given the further assignment by the President of the Synod to “study the various routes leading to ordination currently available, to
study which routes leading to ordination would be most
helpful to the Synod in producing a sufficient number of
able and effective pastors to provide leadership to Synod’s
congregations in fulfilling the Great Commission”; and
WHEREAS, In carrying out this further task, it was apparent that
a. the existing focus of DELTO, even as it was
redesigned and redeployed, would not be sufficient to
meet these needs;
b. the Synod would benefit from a more coherent and
comprehensive approach to pastoral preparation and
certification for ministry in specialized and specific
contexts;
c. the past years have provided the church, in general,
and the seminaries, in particular, with substantial
experimentation and experience with distanceeducation models, including the evaluation of both the
advantages and disadvantages; and
2007 Convention Proceedings

d. the Synod is presented with an opportunity to build on
such experience and to coordinate and consolidate
programs and curriculum into a more cohesive and
comprehensive curriculum design that engages the
best practices of educational design and pedagogy,
including much of the current course materials
already proven and in use; and
WHEREAS, The process of conversation and collaboration
over the past six years has brought together representatives of the needs of the field with the entities of the Synod
to whom leadership for pastoral education and certification
is entrusted, and in so doing provided a helpful model for
continuing such collaborative work; and
WHEREAS, Both seminaries have provided leadership in
this process and worked together on written documents affirming the need for a new category within the one office of
the pastoral ministry and in affirming an educational
process that will lead to certification and ordination for
such pastoral ministry, utilizing both traditional residential components along with new distance education models;
and
WHEREAS, The DELTO Oversight Committee in seeking
to fulfill its further task has
a. worked closely with both seminaries in honing a
proposal for a category of specific ministry pastor and
an education and formation program that will lead to
certification and ordination for such pastoral ministry;
and has
b. worked closely also with many other constituencies
throughout the church in developing this proposal,
including the Board for Pastoral Education, the
Council of Presidents, district and Synod mission
leaders, and pastors in the field;
and
WHEREAS, The great strengths of this proposal bring together several issues that have concerned our Synod for
many years as it seeks to
a. find a way to meet the existing and expanding needs
for pastoral ministry, especially in the variety of
contexts of mission and ministry in today’s church;
b. respect our commitment to the doctrine of church and
ministry, especially in light of AC XIV;
c. honor our commitment to responsible theological
education that provides the church with well-educated
pastors, who as missional leaders are faithful to
Lutheran theology and practice;
d. retain our commitment to the importance, need, and
great strengths of residential pastoral education at
both the certificate and M.Div. level, along with a
commitment to the continuing education of all clergy;
e. restore our past creativity in recognizing the
importance, need, and great strengths of alternative
models of pastoral education leading to ordination,
including a commitment to continuing education;
f. utilize the advances in educational technology that
allow for responsible pastoral education and formation
through distance-education models; and
g. develop a more coherent and comprehensive model for
pastoral education by which various routes leading to
certification, call, and ordination are coordinated and