LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 209

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

SEMINARY AND UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 209

5-03

To Approve Proposal to Implement a Specialized
Ministry Program
WHEREAS, The needs for pastoral ministry continue to increase,
needs that DELTO was intended to address, as well as those related
to the desire to raise up church planters and missionaries for mis-
sion opportunities in communities without LCMS congregational
or pastoral presence; and

WHEREAS, Such needs for pastoral ministry are properly met by
men who will serve from within the pastoral office, in accordance
with Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions, particularly AC XIV;
and

WHEREAS, In examining this situation, the faculty of Concordia
Seminary, St. Louis, has identified five biblical and confessional
principles that should guide the practice of the church in this mat-
ter; to wit:

Principle 1: All those who regularly and publicly perform the func-
tions of the Office of the Holy Ministry should be in that office.

Principle 2: The unity of the Office of the Holy Ministry is not un-
dermined either by recognizing grades within the office or by distin-
guishing the degree of supervision under which a minister serves.

Principle 3: The church may establish, by human authority, restric-
tions upon the scope of the service of ministers so long as these restric-
tions do not compromise the authority of the office, undermine the
Gospel, or burden the consciences of Christians by confusing human
regulations with divine commands.

Principle 4: Ordination vows may be taken prior to the conclusion
of a complete course of study provided that the ordinand has received a
preparation sufficient to preach and teach the Gospel rightly, administer
the Sacraments correctly, and take his vows with integrity.

Principle 5: The church may provide for a minister who has been
initially prepared and ordained to serve in a specific kind of ministry
subsequently to serve the church more broadly through a combination
of further academic preparation, accumulated ministerial experience,
and examination;

and

WHEREAS, The theological rationale and study behind these
principles have been made available to the church in the document
“Meeting the Needs of the Church for Pastors to Serve in Specific
Kinds of Situations” (attached below for reference); and

Whereas, As the principles affirm, all men authorized to con-
duct and who regularly and publicly perform the functions of the
Office of the Holy Ministry should be in that office, and

WHEREAS, The Synod has previously identified as an emergency
situation the need to provide pastoral care for small congregations
that were either geographically isolated or whose circumstances
were otherwise such that they were unable to sustain a full-time
pastor prepared at a seminary in the regular way; and

WHEREAS, In Resolution 3-05B of its 1989 convention the
Synod authorized the licensure of layworkers to conduct Word and
Sacrament ministry in such emergency and exceptional circum-
stances; and

WHEREAS, When a practice created to deal with an emergency
continues for an extended time, thus becoming institutionalized and
no longer an emergency measure, the church must move to regu-
larize its practice with theological integrity; and

WHEREAS, In its document “Information and Position Statement
on the Question of ‘Lay Ministry’ in The Lutheran Church—Mis-
souri Synod” (1991) our beloved sister synod The Independent
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (SELK) has admonished
us:

{I]nstead of considering the temporarily limited “commissioning”
of laymen, proper ordination ought to be considered, if the regulations
of the LCMS concerning the use of laymen in pastoral functions are to
be legitimate and responsible. Amongst others the Old Lutheran Church
in East Germany did just that when there was a lack of fully trained pas-
tors: certain men without the full regular seminary education were or-
dained;

and

WHEREAS, It has been suggested that the theological integrity
of the Synod can be preserved by a program that allows for the or-
dination of a candidate as pastor before he completes his course of
theological education, provided that he is required to complete his
studies after ordination; and

WHEREAS, The seminaries of the Synod, working together with
the DELTO Oversight Committee and in consultation with others,
have proposed the framework of a specialized ministry education
program for training pastors for the kinds of specialized ministry
situations described above that implements these five principles;
therefore be it

Resolved, That the convention approve the proposal submitted
by the DELTO Oversight Committee to implement a program for
training pastors for specialized ministry situations; and be it fur-
ther

Resolved, That laymen licensed by the districts to perform
Word and Sacrament ministry under 1989 Resolution 3-05B and
who are, and intend to continue to be, active in such ministry
should apply for admission to the pastoral office by colloquy under
the process established in Bylaw 3.8.2.4, and upon certification and
ordination shall be rostered as Specific Ministry Pastors (a cate-
gory established in the proposal referred to above); and be it finally

Resolved, That the congregations and specialized ministry situ-
ations whose circumstances are such that their need for pastoral
service cannot be met by pastors trained in the residential M.Div.
programs of the seminaries should seek pastoral service through
the specialized ministry education program of the seminaries.

Faculty
Concordia Seminary
St. Louis, Mo

Addendum

Meeting the Needs of the Church for Pastors
to Serve in Specific Kinds of Situations

Introduction

During the 1980s the need arose in The Lutheran Church—Mis-
souri Synod to provide pastoral care for small congregations that
were either geographically isolated or whose circumstances were
otherwise such that they were unable to attract or sustain a full-time
pastor prepared at a seminary in the normal way. To meet what was
then characterized as an emergency situation, the Synod, in its 1989
convention in Wichita, allowed for the licensure of (predominantly
bi-vocational) layworkers with little or no theological education to
conduct Word and Sacrament ministry in such situations. A similar
need-has now been identified in conjunction with the Ablaze! cam-
paign. The perception exists that the church needs to identify
(again, largely bi-vocational) laymen already in place in a local
community to serve as church planters and missionaries. This
work, too, will certainly entail their engagement in Word and
Sacrament ministry. While we recognize that emergency situations
exist to which the church may respond in an extraordinary way,
once a situation has become institutionalized and is continuing in a
regular and ongoing manner, such a situation can no longer fairly
be characterized as an emergency. When this is the case the church
should move out of its emergency mode to regularize its practice
with theological integrity. .

Historically The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and its an-
tecedents have attempted to meet such needs by creating what
might be characterized as a “fast track” to ordination. The service
of men prepared in such a fast track has often been restricted in
some manner. Within the LCMS the need for such a fast track to
ordination was initially embodied in the seminary begun by F. C.
D. Wynecken and Wilhelm Lohe in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. However,
developments in ministerial formation since World War II have ef-
fectively eliminated such a fast track altogether. It is the purpose
of this document to propose a way of meeting the expressed needs
of the church that regularizes our practice in a manner that is more
consistent with what Lutherans have generally maintained to be the
teachings of the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions by rein-
stituting a fast-track program that balances a commitment to faith-