LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 410

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410

Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) Task Force

An eighth route to ordained ministry was initiated by the 1992 convention with the adoption of Res. 3-08, “To Provide for Ordination of
Certain Laymen Involved in Word and Sacrament Ministry”:
(8) Recommended by the Standing Committee for Pastoral Ministry, a
bylaw measure was added allowing licensed lay ministers having
more than 10 years’ experience in preaching and sacrament ministry
to be ordained when approved by the Synod’s Colloquy Committee.

Cost of Online Education
In another area of its research, the task force learned that the notion
that online distance education is less expensive for the institution and
for the student is largely false, as was also supported by conversations with seminary staff involved in the program. An online article
by Get Educated, Inc., states,
A 2009 college costs survey by WCET and the Campus Computing
Project found that among colleges which offer the same courses online
as on-campus about half charge more for online courses. Only 20% reported that they charge less for online courses. (2011 GetEducated.com)

LCMS seminaries are no exception, where in addition to tuition
fees, students must also assume expenses for travel to the seminaries for seminars, all without financial assistance from the seminaries.
Expense is also an issue on the seminary’s side of the matter. Greater
time requirements for teaching online courses compared to classroom
courses have prompted increases in faculty salaries and/or other remunerations and the contracting of the services of teachers outside the
regular faculty roster.
In her “Time for Reflection” article on this subject, Jennifer
Woodruff Tait acknowledges that “even in the world of undergraduate education, online education is hardly a cash cow... Theological
schools, with a less developed technology infrastructure than most
undergraduate colleges—and fewer technology personnel—must be
wary of assumptions that online courses will help the school’s bottom line.” She goes on to say:
Successful distance education programs require careful planning
and significant commitments of time and institutional resources. They
also require serious faculty participation in the entire process of program approval, curriculum design, and individual course development.
(A disturbing trend: some schools are disconnecting the creation of an
online course from teaching that course, assuming that “anyone” can
teach a course once a content expert has designed it.) In this process,
faculty members need time for extensive pedagogical reflection, because
a traditional course cannot simply be transferred to the Internet without
significant changes to methods of presentation and course learning activities... If a school is not prepared to commit its resources, it should
rethink whether it is ready to take on a distance-education program.

IV. What Others Have Written
Task force members spent considerable time reading resources
thought to be helpful to their task, including resources suggested by
seminary faculty members and others. The following are excerpts
from a sampling of the books and articles listed earlier in the report
that are relevant both to the report and to further consideration by the
Synod as it continues to wrestle with how best to provide ministers
for the Synod and how best to provide the best possible training under
today’s circumstances within and without the Synod. The task force
believes that three areas of discussion beg particular attention: (A)
The importance of well-trained clergy; (B) contextual v. residential
education; and (C) the role of the layman in answer to modern-day
ministry needs.
A. About the Importance of Well-Trained Clergy
Throughout the Synod’s discussions of meeting the ministry needs
of today’s church, the importance of well-educated and well-trained
clergy has remained high on the list of prerequisites. As it set in
2013 Convention Workbook

motion the SMP program, 2007 Res. 5-01B was no exception. In
response to the “emerging needs and economic pressures [that] often
make it impossible to call a pastor who has received a broad and
thorough theological education,” the Synod in this resolution also
resolved its commitment to upholding “the Lutheran understanding
of the pastor as theologian and insist[ing] on as much education as
possible for the good of the church.”
Our church fathers said it more bluntly. Luther, zeroing in on the
importance of language training, stated, “And let us be sure of this: we
will not long preserve the gospel without the languages” (American
Edition, 45:360). Francis Pieper picked up on Luther’s comments:
This usus instrumentalis of reason as a tool to hear, apprehend, and
ponder the words of Scripture includes also the observance of the laws
of language (grammar) and the laws of human thinking (logic) as used
in Scripture, for God has adopted the human tongue and the human
manner of thinking. God has deigned, as Luther again and again reminds us, to “become incarnate” in Scripture (Scriptura Sacra est Deus
incarnatus)... Luther again and again remarks, especially in his polemical writings, that everyone who blunders in grammar must necessarily
also blunder in theology.” (Christian Dogmatics I, pp. 197–198)

C.F.W. Walther, in his essay “Duties of an Evangelical Synod,”
states (with no intended reflection on today’s SMP students),
A Synod is not truly Lutheran if it picks up vagrants on the streets,
so long as they can mouth a few pious phrases, inducts them into the
Office of the Ministry, perhaps even gives them a license so they can
mess around [hantieren] with congregations for awhile to see if they can
prove themselves. This is horrible beyond description!... Therefore we
want to solemnly vow: We will exercise every precaution in the acceptance of pastors, and not think, “If we grow a bit, then we have gained
something.” It is better for the synod to remain small and stand correctly
than to be large and have in its midst those who mess around [herumwirtschaften] and do not bring the bread of life. That results in damnable
false teachers, and that is precisely why they must first be thoroughly
tested, as 1 Timothy 3:9–10 says: Those who have a clear understanding
of “the mystery of faith” should “be tested first; then let them serve... if
they prove themselves blameless.” (quoted in At Home in the House of
My Fathers, pp. 238–239)

Daniel Aleshire says the same less bluntly but equally urgently in
his article, “Why Have Theological Schools?”:
At this time, in this culture, for the church in North America, I think
seminaries are not only needed, they are needed more than ever... We
need scholars to guide us—not by casual opinion—but by rich tradition
of ancient people and with a sacred imagination borne of the Spirit. This
groaning world needs good theological scholarship to guide its dealings
with the intractable conflicts and prejudices that bad religion engenders.
The church needs scholarship to guide it through the tendency to assume
that only the practical counts and that personal perceptions are sacred
truths. The scholarship the church needs requires intellectual talent,
books in libraries, and time to read them. The church needs theological
schools that are houses of faithful scholarship... (“Why Have Theological Schools?”)
Theological schools are called to prepare leaders for religious vocation. This vocation requires persons who are faithful and knowledgeable, who understand the Christian story, who are gifted for ministry
and tutored in its exercise, who understand human frailty and faithful responses to it, who understand the gospel’s vision of wholeness, and who
can exercise leadership to increase righteousness and justice. This kind
of learning requires disciplined study, critical reflection on experience,
and education aimed at cultivating an understanding of responsible life
in faith. (Earthen Vessels, p. 21)

The proclamation of the Gospel in the American “culture” referred
to by Aleshire is reflected upon by Charles Arand: “The temptation
will be to speak about God apart from Christ so as not to scandalize
people from other religions. And when Christ is brought up, it will be
in a way that does not identify Him as the definitive, normative, and
final revelation of God” (Witness and Worship in Pluralistic America,