Proclaiming June 26 as “National LCMS Director of Christian Education Day,” LCMS President Gerald B. Kieschnick recognized a 50th anniversary of the office of director of Christian education “with the prayer of God’s richest blessings on the DCE ministries of our Synod, past, present, and future.”
A resolution, adopted June 26 by the 1959 LCMS Convention, encouraged congregations “to analyze their parish education program and, where needed, to establish the office of ‘director of Christian education’ in order to provide additional leadership from the educational program of the congregation.”
In a second resolution, that convention granted eligible DCEs “all the rights and privileges” that pertain to teachers, stating that they should be considered as such.
Kieschnick’s proclamation notes that “Congregations and parochial schools benefit from the services of directors of Christian education who are called and commissioned as lifespan education leaders prepared for team ministry in a congregational setting.”
About 800 DCEs serve full-time in the Synod, and six LCMS universities and colleges offer curricula leading to DCE certification.
The full text of the proclamation can be read on the President’s Office section of the LCMS Web site at www.lcms.org/?602.
Posted June 24, 2009
