LCMS president encourages ‘walking together’ in pastoral formation

Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison statement on unauthorized non-LCMS pastoral formation programs

“Synod” means “walking together.” Throughout the history of the LCMS, men have been certified for the Office of the Holy Ministry by seminary certification or by colloquy (if coming from another church body). We have been very careful about this because the proper “handling [of] the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15) is a matter of spiritual life and death for us all. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). If we lose the Word of God, we lose everything that finally matters in the church — in time and for eternity. “If You abide in My word, … you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31). Unless the Word of God, especially the precious Gospel of Jesus Christ, governs our lives together, we lose our Lord’s mission (Matt. 28:19) and our precious and God-given unity. That’s why we have agreed to do pastoral training together as a Synod, including several educational options, all of which require seminary certification.

In the 1970s, some left our seminary and purported to establish seminary education without Synod oversight. The church responded with the very clear reassertion that only graduates of our official seminaries may be certified for service — straight out of seminary — in LCMS congregations. This was done solely for the sake of the Word of truth, our very life as a church. As a church of 5,800 congregations, we all must have the confidence that our pastors are confessors of the inerrant Scriptures and the truth confessed in our Book of Concord. And we must have this for the sake of all, well into the future of the LCMS.

As events around the formation of independent institutions and other routes toward the ministry have gained notoriety among us, many assertions (often contradictory) have been made about the nature of these efforts. Our seminaries and the Synod’s Pastoral Formation Committee have quietly endured this discussion. I have now requested they speak, particularly after the statement of the LCMS Council of Presidents appeared, to further clarify matters. No matter the goodwill of those involved, the Synod does not — cannot — diverge from its process of certification of pastoral candidates, authorized by seminaries fully accountable to all of us. Nor may men be trained and placed in our congregations under a different name, while in effect serving as pastors. This is for the sake of the Gospel of Christ, that it continues to dwell in and among us until the return of Jesus.

We need pastors. We need men to enroll in our seminaries (and there are numerous routes and options, some making use of online instruction). Your Synod is working very hard through Set Apart to Serve to meet the pressing need to fill pulpits and send missionaries. And the urgency of the mission to share the Gospel is alive, well and growing at our schools. “Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers” (Matt. 9:38). Let us pray and work while it is day.

Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison
President of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod