LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 408

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408

Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) Task Force

distributed by the Specific Ministry Pastor Committee (attached as
Addendum B). The following is a summarization of those portions
of the White Paper that the task force believes are of particular significance to this report.

enrollment (545) resulted in a 1SMP to 4.3 residential enrollment; and
the 2011 SMP enrollment (157) compared to the residential enrollment (491) resulted in a ratio of 1 SMP to 3.1 residential students.

Enrollment History: Numbers of Students (Addendum B, p. 55)

A topic of current discussion is the specific categories of service
intended to be addressed by the Specific Ministry Pastor Program. In
the minds of many, the program was to take the place of and assume
the intentions of the DELTO program, preparing pastors for hard-toserve ministries not suited to calling full time, residentially trained
men. Res. 5-01B, while granting that to be the case in part, placed
emphasis on other specific ministries such as mission developers and
planters, staff pastors, and the like.
Initially, attempts were made to categorize types of service, resulting in more than a dozen categories, some with only one student
identified (White Paper, p. 18). A March 2012 effort to categorize
students in more general categories has resulted in a general picture
of the students participating in the SMP program and the service they
anticipate providing in the future.
With 154 of 157 current participants responding, 94 students
(61%) identified themselves as “staff pastor (or vicar)” in a multipastor congregation, working primarily internally (e.g., youth, music,
education, evangelism, or their congregation’s satellite site); 17 students (11%) identified themselves as “staff pastor (or vicar)” in a
multi-pastor congregation working primarily externally (e.g., mission developer, church planter, etc.). Of 154 participants, therefore,
111 (72%) consider their work to be that of a staff pastor of a multipastor congregation.
Of the remaining 43 participants (28%), 30 students identified
themselves as “sole pastor (or vicar)” providing Word and Sacrament
ministry in an established site that is economically challenged (e.g.,
few people, remote location, etc.), one that cannot support a “general
pastor” (e.g., with an M.Div. degree or Alternate Route certification).
The remaining 13 students (8%) identified themselves as “sole pastor (or vicar)” working as mission developer or church planter (not
working from the context of a multi-pastor congregation).
These numbers and percentages change somewhat when the 154
respondents identified what they anticipated would be their future
service. Now 82 students (53%) anticipated serving as a staff pastor working internally in a large congregation; 20 students (13%)
anticipated serving as a staff pastor working externally in mission
outreach; 37 students (24%) anticipated serving as a sole pastor in
an economically challenged site; and 15 students (10%) anticipated
working in mission outreach apart from the context of a multi-pastor congregation.
This study also obtained information regarding current and future
employment circumstances. Of those responding, 72 students (47%)
are employed in another paid position in addition to their SMP service, while 81 students (53%) are not employed otherwise than their
SMP position of service. When asked what they anticipated in their
future service, 50 students (32%) stated that they anticipate employment in another paid position in addition to their SMP service, while
104 (68%) anticipate full-time employment as an SMP pastor.

When the on-campus orientation of the first group of students
(“cohort”) took place in the fall of 2008, Concordia Seminary (“St.
Louis”) began its program with 29 new students, while Concordia
Theological Seminary (“Fort Wayne”) began with 26. After adding
25 students in the fall of 2009, 24 in the fall of 2010, 19 in the fall of
2011, and a total of 34 new students in the spring quarters the latter
three years, St. Louis had enrolled 131 SMP students. According to
the White Paper, 20 students left the program during the four years,
leaving 111 enrolled in the St. Louis program by early 2012. During
the same period of time, Fort Wayne added 10 students to the original 26 in 2009, 8 more in 2010, and 7 more in 2011, for a grand
total of 51 enrolled during the four years. Five students left the Fort
Wayne program during the four years, leaving 46 enrolled by early
2012. In short, SMP enrollment at both seminaries after four years
totaled 157 students, 25 having left the program (16.5%) during the
course of those years.
Enrollment History: Comparison of Student Body Composition
(Addendum B, p. 58)
A topic of current discussion is the comparative size of the SMP
student enrollment and the residential student enrollment at the seminaries, and the consequences of those comparative enrollments for
the Synod’s seminaries going forward. The White Paper provides
helpful information.
How do SMP enrollment numbers relate to residential student
enrollment numbers? In St. Louis in 2008, the 29 new SMP students and the 93 new residential amounted to a ratio of 1 SMP to 3.2
residential students. In 2009 that ratio dropped to 1 SMP to 3.5 residential. And in 2010 and 2011, the ratio was 1 to 2.9 and 1 to 4.1
respectively. At Fort Wayne, the 2008 enrollment of 26 SMP and
55 residential resulted in a 1 SMP to 2.1 residential ratio, followed
by ratios of 1 to 6.2; 1 to 6; and 1 to 5.1 students. The new student
enrollments of the two seminaries combined and averaged out over
four years resulted in a ratio of 1 SMP student to roughly 4 residential students.
When SMP total enrollment numbers are compared to the total
residential populations of the seminaries, St. Louis’ 2008 SMP enrollment (29) compared to residential (408) resulted in a ratio of 1 SMP to
14.1 residential; 2009 total SMP (49) and residential (376) resulted in
1 SMP student to 7.7 residential; 2010 SMP (87) and residential (326)
resulted in 1 SMP student to 3.7 residential; and 2011 SMP (111) and
residential (309) resulted in 1 SMP student to 2.8 residential.
Making the same comparisons with Fort Wayne total enrollment
numbers, the 2008 SMP enrollment (26) compared to the total residential population (252) resulted in a ratio of 1 SMP to 9.7 residential
students. In 2009, total SMP enrollment (32) compared to total residential enrollment (246) resulted in a ratio of 1 SMP to 7.7 residential
students. 2010 SMP (40) and residential (219) resulted in 1 SMP to
5.5 residential students, while the 2011 SMP enrollment (46) compared to the residential student population (182) left a ratio of 1 SMP
to 4 residential students.
When combining the numbers for both seminaries, the 2008 total
SMP enrollment (55) compared to the total residential enrollment
(660) resulted in a ratio of 1 SMP to 12 residential students; the 2009
total SMP enrollment (81) compared to the total residential enrollment (622) resulted in a ratio of 1 SMP to 7.7 residential students;
the 2010 total SMP enrollment (127) compared to the total residential
2013 Convention Workbook

Enrollment History: Types of Service (Addendum B, p. 60)

Licensed Deacon Program (Addendum B, p. 91)
In the minds of many, the introduction of the SMP program was
expected to reduce the use of the licensed lay deacon program that had
been introduced by the 1989 Synod convention. Eighteen months following the 2007 convention, a special task force sought to gain from
the Synod’s 35 district presidents their initial reaction to the SMP
program by conducting a survey. The survey also sought to determine the extent to which licensed lay deacons were being used. Three
years later (February 2012), the survey was repeated to compare data