LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 415

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Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) Task Force

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SMP program is less than half the training of the M.Div. program. The
SMP program provides an easy avenue into the pastoral ministry for
those who may not be up to the task. There needs to be better guidelines regarding what kind of candidates will be accepted into the SMP
program.
The way that SMP is currently structured, pastors of larger congregations are using SMP as a way to provide pastoral service to God’s
people instead of calling pastors from the field or traditional route candidates. Many of these pastors are using the SMP program as a way of
bypassing seminary education and taking on the work of the formation
of pastors for the church at large. This is not what the SMP resolution
was or is about.
The SMP program is also too dependent on the mentor. Is the mentor
engaged in the process? Does the mentor have his own agenda? There
needs to be better training for mentors and better ways to hold mentors accountable. In addition, typically there is only one mentor. At the
seminary a student is blessed with several pastoral mentors. Whether
liked or disliked, all impact the student in one way or another. The residential program has more sets of pastoral eyes on the student. SMP
has primarily one, and that is as strong as the mentor makes it.
When it comes to placing an SMP pastor on a call list or allowing a
congregation to consider a SMP pastor, there are questions regarding
the criteria for moving laterally. For example, if a SMP pastor is trained
and slotted for urban ministry, could he be called by a suburban congregation or a rural congregation? District presidents have answered
that question in different ways.
Another concern is that SMP candidates are not necessarily firmly
grounded in our Lutheran Confessions. Until recently, a SMP candidate could be ordained and take his oath of office to uphold the
Lutheran Confessions without ever having even read the Confessions.
What message does that send to the ministerium? What message does
that send to the SMP candidates? What message does that send to the
church at large? Are our Confessions only part of our heritage (so much
ink on a page), or are they part of our life-blood, part of our identity as
Lutheran Christians? Without our Lutheran Confessions as a check,
our theology and practice will suffer. The SMP program is vulnerable
here.
Online classes take twice as long to develop. Therefore, while the cost
may be less for SMP students, for the seminaries it’s more.
There is not enough face-to-face time with colleagues in the SMP program. A strength of the residential seminary is the face time students
have with each other, where (hopefully) they strengthen each other,
push each other, and bless each other as they talk in person. That is a
huge part of theological formation, just as is ministry experience.
Formation requires three essential elements: (1) cognitive input (academic reading/lecture, Bible study, etc); (2) in-ministry experience;
and (3) reflection on the emergence of the first two. It is that reflection piece, done in community, that is the clear strength of residential
. The SMP program does not match that reflection piece of theological formation.
Men in the SMP program usually have three, maybe four huge
(full-time) commitments that they have to manage simultaneously:
employment, family, study, and ministry. The SMP student has to be
extremely disciplined to meet his responsibilities. The pressure to succeed in all four areas may be overwhelming for these men.
There is no daily worship. Granted, not everyone takes advantage of
the daily chapel at seminary. However, in a Christian community, the
opportunity to develop spiritual habits needed for the rigors of ministry is more likely at the seminary than by oneself. That would be an
issue that the mentor pastor must regularly address with his student.
The SMP student does not have the ability to use the original languages
or at least have facility in using the many tools and exegetical helps
that are built on the original languages.

...As Identified by SMP Mentors
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The SMP program lacks a line of authority by which decisions are
made. Decisions are made at congregation, district, and seminary levels

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which, at times, are based on different standards. Communication
between mentors, seminary, and the district is often lacking.
There is tremendous pressure on SMP students who have families, a
full-time job, and responsibilities at the church while trying to keep
up with their class work. Managing time is an issue for SMP students
because of their responsibilities at home, work, class, and in regard to
their studies.
While learning in active ministry provides immediate application for
what is learned, there is not always enough time for reflection and discussion by the SMP student.

...As Identified by SMP Students
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During the course of this program, some glitches have arisen. The
most glaring glitch encountered has been some of the evaluation tools
used. They are designed for traditional students, and, as a result, are not
well-designed for SMP students who have often been in their parish
for years. One example of this is the vicarage evaluation instrument/
inventory. Either the tool must be redesigned or the results interpreted
independently from data gathered from traditional vicars. Another
glitch is the development of the program. Some members of a cohort
are near the beginning of the program and are not as far along in their
understanding as others. This fact has made for some uncomfortable
situations.
Going through the program pretty much non-stop for 16 or 17 straight
quarters without a summer break has been taxing on some SMP students. As time has gone on, it has become more and more difficult to
keep up the pace, especially as the demands of the day-to-day pastoral
ministry have grown. Determining an appropriate balance as husband,
father, manager, vicar, community leader, and student has been difficult for some.
There has also been a reduction of personal time in Scripture reported
by some students due to current reading and writing demands of the
SMP program. Class workload expectations have been more around
12–20 hours per week rather than the targeted 8.
Technology is at times a weakness because it isn’t always dependable.
Computer crashes, internet service, and other technological issues have
occasionally caused delays or problems. The seminary, in the midst
of these technological issues, has done a phenomenal job of keeping
things running smoothly and has been there to address such issues in
a timely and competent manner.
Some professors did not interact on-line with students, or only on
occasion.

...As Summarized by the Task Force
The Specific Ministry Pastor Program provideThis is s far less
theological formation than the seminary residential program. While
contextualization is its greatest strength given on-the-job training, it
is also its greatest weakness since specific Ministry Pastors are limited to one particular context. SMP students have limited exposure to
a variety of professors and face very real pressures of managing at the
same time family, work, studies, and ministry in the parish. A SMP
student is not taken out of the context where he resides. There is little
or no benefit from the seminary context, either for him or his family.
The SMP program is far less academically demanding compared to
the residential seminary program. Given pressures of time, there is
little time for theological reflection, and the SMP student misses out
on the formative blessing of daily worship. There are fewer eyes on
the student and his progress in the SMP program, and there is no constellation of mentors, just one. Finally, a major weakness of the SMP
program is the failure to require learning of the original languages.
C. Suggestions for Improvement...
Whether faculty and staff, district presidents, mentors, or students,
all without exception had suggestions to offer for improvements to
the existing SMP program.
2013 Convention Workbook