Building a culture of church work recruitment

Young choir members sing during the 2024 Institute on Liturgy, Preaching and Church Music at Concordia University, Nebraska, Seward, Neb., on Wednesday, July 10. (LCMS/Erik M. Lunsford)

By James Baneck

For over 150 years, we in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) — our congregations, schools, districts and entities — have been encouraging one another to form, identify, recruit and support full-time church workers for the ongoing proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the salvation of all who hear it and believe. Here are a few examples, from the beginning to the present day.

“Everyone knows that in our educational institutions, work is carried out with diligence and faithfulness. Now we only wish that the number of qualified teachers/professors would be increased.” — LCMS President Rev. Friedrich Wyneken, 1857 Synodical Address (Matthew C. Harrison, ed., At Home in the House of My Fathers, Lutheran Legacy, 2009, p. 407).

“We are constantly on the outlook for pious gifted boys whom we can send to our institutions. … Oh, how very much we need workers! This year, 145 candidates for the preaching office were requested, but only 75 were available.” — LCMS President Rev. Dr. Francis Pieper, 1905 sermon (At Home in the House of My Fathers, pp. 621–23).

“That many pious and gifted boys be encouraged to enter our teachers’ colleges in order that a sufficient number of teachers may at all times be available.” — Resolution of the 1926 LCMS convention.

“That the recruitment of ministerial students and teacher training students be encouraged and promoted both in quality and quantity, and that Districts, congregations, and the organizations within Synod be encouraged to implement the effort of expanding student and scholarship aid.” — Resolution of the 1956 LCMS convention.

“That the Synod urge every pastor, teacher, and other church workers to recognize the importance of his influence in recruitment and to assume actively his role as an expositor of the Christian doctrine of vocation and a counselor to individual young people within his care.” — Resolution 6–06, 1965 LCMS convention.

“Continue to assist congregations, the Districts, the synodical colleges, and the seminaries in expanding their recruitment effort by providing promotional materials, addressing all age levels, beginning with age five through college.” — Resolution 6–03, 1975 LCMS convention.

“That pastors and congregations be reminded of their crucial role in encouraging young men and women to study for church vocations, and that every congregation of the Synod be urged to establish an active church-worker recruitment committee.” — Resolution 6–15, 1986 LCMS convention.

Referring to a mission statement of the 1986 Synod convention, it is stated that this mission statement “requires the recruitment of students for professional church vocations which was further supported by the resolve that recruitment for church vocations be made the concern for our entire Synod.” — Resolution 6–16, 1992 LCMS convention.

“That each congregation and district, and each pastor and church worker, identify, encourage, and recruit within the church to be full-time workers in the Lord’s harvest; [and] that congregations, districts, and individuals be urged to increase support for church work students.” — Resolution 5–01A, 2010 LCMS convention.

“All constituents of the LCMS be encouraged to commend, financially support, and directly participate in this comprehensive, multi-year church worker recruitment initiative.” — Resolution 6–01, 2019 LCMS convention. This initiative would become known as Set Apart to Serve.

So often, we have started this work only to stop it a few years later. Let us learn from history. Pray with me, that God would move us all to take up this charge with urgency and passion — making church work formation and recruitment what we naturally do in all our congregations and schools — that it become an abiding part of our culture until the Lord returns.

For a full history of the ongoing charge to form and recruit full-time church workers in the LCMS, read “Building a Culture of Church Work — Formation and Recruitment” at lcms.org/sas.

Posted Oct. 23, 2024