LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 448

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448

Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) Task Force
Appendix 1

To Establish Specific Ministry Pastor Program
RESOLUTION 5-01B
Overtures 5-01–10 (CW, pp. 205–216)
Background

Amidst today’s mission challenges, including the persistent need
to provide pastoral ministry in ways that go beyond the current residential models, we will do well to engage the best collaborative
thinking and creativity that we can muster to provide missional pastoral leadership driven by the depth of theological integrity that remains
a hallmark of our church and its ministerium. The mission focus
ignited by the Ablaze! movement has generated the need to identify laymen already in place in a local community to serve as church
planters and missionaries. This work will certainly entail Word and
Sacrament ministry. Historically, The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod and its antecedents have attempted to meet such needs by preparing men as quickly as possible to be called and ordained in order to
meet the urgent mission needs of the church. Such men were prepared
to catechize, preach, and provide pastoral care. Within the LCMS, the
need for such a track to ordination was initially embodied in the seminary begun by F. C. D. Wyneken and Wilhelm Löhe in Fort Wayne,
Indiana. However, developments in ministerial formation since World
War II have effectively eliminated this track altogether.
Ministers of religion—ordained will have two designations.
“General ministry pastor” will serve as the designation for pastors
graduated from a current approved theological education program
(e.g., M.Div., Certificate, DELTO), and “specific ministry pastor”
will be the designation for those educated for a specific ministry context through distance education.
The Specific Ministry Pastor Program seeks to address the needs
of the church by reinstituting a multiple-track approach and by developing a program that combines a commitment to faithfulness to a
Lutheran theological confession with a missionary perspective and
that is tailored to the preparation of men for service in specific kinds
of ministries.
Such an effort must attempt in some measure to uphold two significant considerations in the service of our Lord’s mission and Great
Commission. On the one hand, we are committed to upholding the
Lutheran understanding of the pastor as theologian and insist on as
much education as possible for the good of the church. On the other
hand, emerging needs and economic pressures often make it impossible to call a pastor who has received a broad and thorough theological
education to every congregation or mission station where, nevertheless, people need to hear the Gospel.
This proposal is offered as a sincere and thoughtful attempt to
address real-world needs with an urgency for bringing the Gospel to
a dying world and to do so with theological integrity with respect to
both the doctrine of the ministry and our commitment to high standards of pastoral education and formation.
Theological Foundations Guiding the Proposal
1. 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. “It is taught among us that nobody should publicly
teach or preach or administer the sacraments in the church without a
regular call” (AC XIV). As it is true that means of grace, the Gospel
and the Sacraments, are the rightful possession of all believers in
Christ as members of the priesthood of all believers, only the one
Office of the Holy Ministry is entrusted with the public exercise of
these means. As such, we affirm that only those who are rightly and

publicly called and ordained should publicly exercise the functions
which are entrusted to this ministry.
2. Lutherans affirm that there is only one Office of the Holy Ministry,
established by God for the public conduct of the ministry of Word and
Sacrament. However, the church may recognize certain distinctions
within that one Office of the Holy Ministry and establish degrees of
supervision without undermining the unity of the office.
a.	All those who serve Christ and the church in the Office of
the Holy Ministry exercise de iure divino (by divine authority) the power to preach the Gospel, forgive sins, administer
the Sacraments, and exercise church discipline. There is no
distinction within the one office with respect to this power
and authority.
b.	Nevertheless, all ministers serve under supervision. In ancient times, the practice of making certain distinctions within the one Office of the Holy Ministry de iure humano (by
human authority) was established so that those ministers
with broader and deeper theological understanding should
be able to provide doctrinal supervision for less experienced, or less well-prepared, ministers. These distinctions
were made to ensure that the Gospel was rightly preached
and taught, and to preserve the unity of the church.
c.	By the time of the Reformation, the common way of talking
about such distinctions within the Office of the Holy Ministry was to speak of the differentiation between the power (or
authority) associated with the Office of the Holy Ministry
and the jurisdiction (or scope of the administration) of the
office.
3. The church may establish, by human authority, distinctions in jurisdiction and in categories of service of its pastors so long as these
distinctions do not compromise the authority of the office, undermine the Gospel, or burden the consciences of Christians by confusing
human regulations with divine commands.
4. Ordination vows may be taken prior to the conclusion of a complete
course of study provided that the ordained has received a preparation sufficient to preach and teach the Gospel rightly, administer the
Sacraments correctly, and take his vows with integrity.
5. The church should provide the opportunity for a pastor who has been
certified and ordained to serve in a specific kind of ministry subsequently to be prepared to serve the church more broadly through a
combination of further academic preparation, accumulated pastoral
experience, and examination.
Overview of the “Specific Ministry Pastor” Program

The student will take a core curriculum so as to acquire a foundational competency in Lutheran theology for pastoral ministry. This
foundational core will be both contextualized and specialized within
and for a specific ministry.
In addition to the original objective of the Distance Education
Leading To Ordination (DELTO) Program to provide pastoral ministry where full-time ministry cannot be maintained, such specific
ministries will include such categories as church planter, staff pastor, and others as needs arise.
The specific curriculum will be determined and developed by the
seminary faculties, in collaboration with those from the field who represent the specific ministerial contexts at district and congregation
levels. It will be based on the following principles:
1.

Curricular goals based on outcome competencies appropriate to the
stages of the program
2. The contextual nature of this educational model, which includes experiential learning within a mission context
3. The engagement of supervisors/mentors by the seminary in consultation with the district president as a critical element of the distance
education model
4. A combination of distance education and residential components
(likely through short-term seminars and the option to take courses
within the residential curriculum)