Ad Crucem NewsLCMS 2023 ConventionCommittee 6Pastoral Ministry and Seminaries
To Call for Re-evaluation of Specific Ministry Pastor Program
- Committee
- 6. Pastoral Ministry and Seminaries
- Submitted by(2)
- Circuit 26 (Racine)circuitSouth Wisconsin Districtdistrict
- Workbook page
- 331
WHEREAS, The Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP)program finds its ancestry in the Lay Minister program, the Licensed Lay Deacon (LLD) program, and the Distance Education Leading To Ordination (DELTO) program; and
WHEREAS, The 1989 Synod convention instituted the Lay Minister program in 1989 Resolution 3-05B, “To Adopt Recommendations of Lay Worker Study Committee Report as Amended,” resolving that “… when no pastor is available, and in the absence of any specific Scriptural directives to the contrary, congregations may arrange for the performance of [the distinctive functions of the pastoral office] by qualified individuals, lest God’s people be deprived of the opportunity for corporate worship and the celebration of the sacraments,” (1989 Proceedings, 112); and
WHEREAS, 2007 Res. 5-01B, “To Establish Specific Ministry Pastor Program,” established the DELTO program to “provide ordained pastoral service to congregations that cannot support a full-time pastor,ordained pastoral service to contexts where English is not spoken, ordained missionary personnel where finances and/or conditions do not permit calling a full-time missionary,” (2007 Proceedings, 136); and
WHEREAS, In short, the specific problem these original programs were intending to remedy was the need for Word and Sacrament ministry in congregations or contexts that could not afford a full- time pastor such as small congregations; and
WHEREAS, The SMP program, as it is currently utilized, has far exceeded this original purpose (e.g., a large congregation, which has a pastor and can afford additional pastors, ordaining a SMP pastor, whose ministry is neither extraordinary, nor all that specific); therefore be it
Resolved, That in light of the variations of use of this program within our Synod and the original intent behind its creation, the Council of Presidents in consultation with Concordia Seminary and Concordia Theological Seminary re-evaluate the SMP program with the possibility of restricting those as men serving congregations of less than 300 baptized members.