To Direct Pastoral Formation Committee to Bring Recommendation to 2029 Convention to Establish New Route(s) to Ordination, Utilizing and Making More Accessible Treasure of Synod Seminaries

WHEREAS, Jesus commanded His disciples to make disciples by baptizing them and teaching them (Matt. 28:19–20); and

WHEREAS, Scripture teaches us that Jesus gave some to be shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:11–12); and

WHEREAS, Those who are to fill the role of shepherd/teacher/elder/overseer are to be men first of high character—“above reproach … not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined”—and second, they “must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught,” so that they “may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:7–9); and

WHEREAS, Article XIV of the Augsburg Confession states, that “no one should publicly teach in the Church or administer the Sacraments unless he be regularly called” (Triglotta); and

WHEREAS, The Synod’s objectives include to “recruit and train pastors … and provide opportunity for their continuing growth” (Const. Art. III 3); and

WHEREAS, During the history of the Synod, the methods of training pastors have frequently changed due to both external factors(wars, financial depression, and theological movements) and internal factors (surplus of pastors, shortage of pastors, “practical” needs and “theoretical” needs, as well as language, educational, and cultural challenges) (John C Wohlrabe Jr., “The Role of the Seminaries in the LCMS, 1847–2001,” Concordia Theological Quarterly 85 [July/Oct. 2021]: 215–39); and

WHEREAS, Those methods have utilized varying levels of academic training,both at the seminaries and in partnership with the seminaries including a Bachelor of Divinity, Master of Divinity (M.Div.), non-academic certification, Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP), the Cross-Cultural Ministry Center, and others; and

WHEREAS, The Pastoral Formation Committee (PFC) has been charged with “ensuring that the Synod’s objective of training pastors is fulfilled consistently,” with seminaries governed by boards of regents (Bylaws 3.10.4–3.10.5); and

WHEREAS, Through the years, the seminaries themselves have seen the importance for them to fulfill different purposes, including scholarly, theological, pastoral, and missionary needs, and in the case of the Springfield seminary “to train men who, because of their educational background or age, could not fit well into the preparatory school – St. Louis system” (ibid., n54, quoting Erich H. Heintzen, Prairie School of the Prophets: The Anatomy of a Seminary 1846–1976 [St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1975],177); and

WHEREAS, In 2007 Resolution 5-01B, “To Establish Specific Ministry Pastor Program,” which established the SMP program and was adopted [Yes: 908; No: 287] (Proceedings, 133–38), the convention recognized the need to “retain our commitment to the importance, need, and great strengths of residential pastoral education at both the certificate and M.Div. level, along with a commitment to the continuing education of all clergy” (136); and

WHEREAS, That same resolution (pp. 136–37) also recognized the necessity to: a. find a way to meet the existing and expanding needs for pastoral ministry, especially in the variety of contexts of mission and ministry in today’s church; … e. restore our past creativity in recognizing the importance, need, and great strengths of alternative models of pastoral education leading to ordination, including a commitment to continuing education; f. utilize the advances in educational technology that allow for responsible pastoral education and formation through distance-education models; and g. develop a more coherent and comprehensive model for pastoral education by which various routes leading to certification, call, and ordination are coordinated and potentially interrelated, so that, for example, a student in a non residential certificate route might be able to engage also in a residential degree program; and

WHEREAS, “The 2023 LCMS convention appealed to all LCMS congregations, districts and seminaries to prioritize and strongly encourage such full-time, residential formation for prospective pastors (2023 Res. 6-02A and 6-03A)” (PFC, Policy Requirements for the Specific Ministry Pastor Program: Admission, Administration and Supervision, Nov. 2025, Premise 6); and

WHEREAS, The same aforementioned policy states “The SMP program should be structured in such a way that it does not discourage or detract from full-time, residential seminary preparation for men pursuing a lifetime of ministry in the LCMS” (ibid.); and

WHEREAS, The same November 2025 policy requirements for the SMP program state that they are “a reflection of the church’s prior it iz ation of full-time pastoral formation in a seminary community” by creating age restrictions for participation, increasing prior membership and service requirements, and directing seminary admissions to prioritize those SMP applicants who fit a more narrow scope of ministry (ibid., 5); and

WHEREAS, The needs previously expressed from 2007 Res. 5- 01B still exist, particularly with regard to providing trained and qualified pastors for both existing congregations and new church plants; and

WHEREAS, Those needs are projected to increase in the coming years, specifically:

• LCMS Research Services indicates 754 ordained clergy will be reaching retirement age (67) in the next five years, 1,286 in the next 10 years, and 1,770 in the next 15 years. (LCMS Data and Trends, Oct. 10, 2024, as presented to the Texas District Board of Directors [BOD] on Jan. 28, 2025).

• LCMS Research Services further suggests that without replacement of those who are retiring, the number of current active ordained pastors in the Synod remaining in service will drop from approximately 5,000 to approximately 2,900 in those 15 years. (LCMS Data and Trends, Oct. 10, 2024, as presented to the Texas District BOD on Jan. 28, 2025).

• The Association of Theological Schools(ATS), which isone of two accrediting agencies for the St. Louis and Fort Wayne seminaries, indicates that by the seminaries’ reporting in the Fall of 2024, there were only 322 M.Div. students across all classes between both seminaries. That comes out to an average of only 80 M.Div. students/year that will be ordained in the Synod during this particular four-year cycle. (ATS 2024–2025 Table 2.12 [this is the most recent available data from ATS], ats.edu/files/galleries/2024- 2025_annual_data_tables.pdf).

• If the current trends of retirement and replacement continue, the Synod will have 500–800 fewer active pastors serving in 10–15 years.

• Numbers from LCMS Research Services presented to the Texas District BOD during its 2025 presidential visitation indicated a relatively small number of pastors, only 96, who will be reaching retirement age (67) in 2060 and beyond, suggesting a very small number of pastors currently on the roster who are in their early 30s or younger and further indicating a much more aged clergy roster (LCMS Data and Trends, Oct. 10, 2024, as presented to the Texas District BOD on Jan. 28, 2025). and

WHEREAS, Among the other “good, wise, and appropriate options” set forth by the PFC in their November 2025 SMP policy requirements for the shortage of pastors were “church consolidation or partnerships, multi-point congregations, use of lay readers of sermons, a blessed closure that enables assets to be used for fruitful ministry elsewhere while ensuring existing members receive care at nearby LCMS congregations, and so forth” (PFC, Premise 5); and

WHEREAS, These options that are offered, while certainly appropriate in many situations, also can collectively reflect and subscribe to a shrinking church body rather than finding solutions to increase our proclamation of God’s Word and the footprint of sound confessional Lutheran theology in a world and culture that desperately needs it; therefore be it

Resolved, That the PFC, in collaboration, cooperation, and consultation with the two Synod seminaries and the Council of Presidents, and with additional consultation with the Colloquy Committee for the Pastoral Ministry, bring to the 2029 Synod convention, consistent with Bylaw 3.10.4.1, a recommendation to establish a proposal of a new route or routes to ordination that:

• Considers new levels of residential academic programs available at our seminaries that will cause them, as the 1866 Synod convention charged Synod’s leadership and seminary faculty,to“assume the responsibility that as soon as possible capable men are commissioned as Reise pre diger” (Protokolle, 12.&13. Synodal-Bericht, 74, emphasis added; a Reise pre diger being a traveling preacher who travels from place to place to preach and plant churches, especially serving vacant congregations), such programs to also consider the inclusion of bachelor programs that lead to ordination.

• Considers how to make our seminary training more accessible to those seeking to serve in the pastoral office for the sake of providing “good, wise, and appropriate options” for pastoral ministry:

• To small congregations beyond those options that would involve consolidating or closing the church but rather offer hope and a path for revitalization and a robust participation in Christ’s great commission to make disciples.

• To forming congregations and church plants that would otherwise not be able to offer Word and Sacrament ministry to their people and pastoral leadership to bring the Gospel and our Lutheran theology into new communities.

• To multi-staff congregations who, in the spirit of Titus 1, have identified local leaders to be raised up to further the ministry and Gospel outreach of the church.

• To congregations in regions of the U.S. where the cost- of-living often makes calling and providing for a pastor to move into the area not feasible.

• Considers re imagining existing routes, both residential ly and through distance education/online, to more aggressively address the current and impending pastor shortage for the sake of our Gospel witness and the furtherance of confessional Lutheranism.

• When combined with existing routes to ordination,both non- colloquy and colloquy, develops “a more coherent and comprehensive model for pastoral education by which various routes leading to certification, call, and ordination are coordinated and potentially interrelated, so that, for example, a student in a non residential certificate route might be able to engage also in aresidential degree program”(2007 Res. 5-01B, Proc., 136–37);

and be it further

Resolved, That this recommendation(s) will be made available to the congregations and pastors of the Synod no less than one year prior to the2029 Synod convention in order to receive feedback and further suggestions prior to the publishing of the 2029 Convention Workbook.