Meet the new ordination shortcut...

...same as the old ordination shortcut."
- Pete Townshend (paraphrased)

This insert appeared in the recent issue of the LCMS Reporter newspaper. Notice the front-page article entitled: "Future SMP students seek to serve while in pastoral formation process."

The SMP ("Specific Ministry Pastor") program was "sold" to LCMS confessionalists and traditionalists as a "new and improved" DELTO ("Distance Education Leading To Ordination") program, one that would bring the synodical alternative route to the pastoral office into better confessional compliance.

I was not at the convention last year, but it is my understanding that two seminary professors - one from each institution - argued that the SMP program would put an end to the very thing being trumpeted in this article: laymen claiming to perform Word and Sacrament ministry apart from Holy Ordination. I believe these professors who spoke in favor of the SMP program owe us an explanation for this "bait and switch." In fact, the faculties of both seminaries endorsed this plan. In light of how this program is being implemented, I would like to know why they did not see this coming, and what they plan to say and do about it now - though I won't hold my breath. I do believe they owe us - pastors and laymen alike - some explanation, and not a lot of bureaucratic double-talk either. We weren't born yesterday.

And, another oft-unspoken reality is that the seminaries do send men to vicarages where they are expected to "do Word and Sacrament ministry" apart from Holy Ordination. This violates the vicarage handbook (not to mention the Book of Concord, for crying out loud!), but the seminaries will not insist that this cease. They will not stand up for these scandalized men and will not tell the District Presidents and vicarage supervisors to either knock it off, or they will get no vicars. Men's consciences suffer for this. I know of one young pastor in particular who was so distraught over this that he never recovered from it, and ended up leaving not only the ministry but the LCMS after serving a very short time - and I suspect he's not alone. Why do the seminaries leave these men twisting in the wind? Do the rules not apply to the vicarage supervisors and congregations? Do the District Presidents get carte blanche to violate any rule they wish?

But here are the real fruits of the SMP program, in full color, sent all over the country in the Reporter: "Future SMP students seek to serve while in pastoral formation process." There's even a picture of a lay deacon in shirt and tie officiating at a baptism. This was obviously not an emergency baptism. This was done in a permanent church building at a regular baptismal font - not a hospital, battlefield, or concentration camp. The SMP program is typically sold to us as the solution for that little congregation in the middle of nowhere that would just fall to pieces if this one man were to leave to go to the seminary. But the article says outright that the church where this deacon serves has a real pastor on staff. In fact, they have a senior pastor, a deacon, two DCEs, worship attendance of 380, three new member classes a year, and a preschool. So why is the pastor not conducting this baptism, and why is this layman pretending to be a pastor?

The deacon in this article implies that he's unable to go to seminary, as he's 53 years old, has a wife, and has two sons in school. In other words, he is in the same boat as probably half of my class at seminary - older, second career guys who left established jobs, uprooted their families, took a leap of faith, and made sacrifices for the sake of the Gospel. I guess this fellow can't be bothered. Furthermore, the article tells us he has no college degree, but sold auto parts, worked in a restaurant, and served "as a counselor for couples in communications" (the latter of which sounds to me like the kind of thing one ought to have some formal education to be doing).

I can't claim to speak for anyone but myself, but if my baptismal certificate were signed by a non-ordained person, and the situation was not an emergency, I would be asking an ordained man to baptize me. Why the LCMS is instilling doubt and playing games with the Holy Office and the Holy Sacrament is beyond me.

I had a seminary classmate who was in the DELTO program. He attended classes with us traditional students for, I believe, two quarters. During break, he went home to officiate at a baptism. I asked him why he, a layman, was baptizing. He told me he was "licensed for Word and Sacrament ministry by the District President." I asked him if there were no pastors available. His response: "This is a mission situation." Right. The man came from a major American metropolis of some four million people, a city that hosted the Olympics, for crying out loud. There are LCMS congregations and pastors all over the place where this man was playing pastor. "Mission situation" indeed. He did not return home to an African hut or an igloo in Alaska (and even those places have real pastors!). That "mission" excuse is nothing other than a damnable lie. I expect telemarketers and spam e-mails to lie - but I expect more out of my church. We pastors and lay people should be enraged, enraged, that such nonsense goes on in the LCMS - just as enraged as we rightly were about the Issues, Etc. debacle.

In the insert's article "A new pastor and a new program" Rev. Glen Thomas reveals another "bait and switch." The SMP program was originally sold to us as a solution for specific situations, such as one specific congregation where the SMP pastor will be able to serve unless he upgrades to GMP (General) status. But this is not the case. Thomas explains that the SMP is declared to be in a specific "type of ministry (e.g. church planter, youth pastor, campus pastor), declared at the outset" and that is the "realm in which the SMP is eligible to serve." So, the "specific" part doesn't refer to that specific call or struggling congregation, but rather to that "realm." Thomas adds: "Following completion of the program, the SMP may accept a call to another location only if that call is within his specific ministry category." In the case of the deacon serving the big congregation, he is on track to become an associate pastor of a large congregation. Does this mean that he, as a SMP, will then be eligible to take a call to any congregation seeking an associate pastor? The specificity in the SMP program is already broadening itself, and the program hasn't even started yet!

I'm tired of being fed a line of bull at every turn.

Furthermore, Fort Wayne's most recent For the Life of the World magazine has devoted the back page to "Frequently Asked Questions about the SMP Program." One question asks: "Does SMP represent a dumbing down of our standards for pastors?" Of course, the answer is predictable: "Absolutely not," - though it admits that the SMP program "will, of necessity, be more limited than in our residential programs." But we are assured that "the standards will remain high." So, a program that requires no residential requirement, almost no face time with profs and fellow seminarians, almost no experience worshiping and debating with brother seminarians, a lack of hearing and observing the diversity of preachers in chapel, and a requirement of only eight classes before ordination - is not a "dumbing down" when compared to the traditional program of three years of full-time onsite class work and a year of vicarage? How am I supposed to buy this?

Can a SMP student sing in the chapel choir, join the Kantorei, participate in student government, drink beer every Friday with faculty and fellow students, get grilled by Dr. Scaer for three years, struggle with the formidable Early Church course, browse around a world-class theological library every day, attend Good Shepherd Institute and Symposia every year, participate and in some cases lead daily Matins, Vespers, and Compline in addition to a daily preaching office and a weekly Mass with the community, load and unload trucks as fellow students move in and move out, learn Latin, German, or even Swedish from faculty and fellow students, experience Q-parties, or go through the crucible of summer Greek with one's class? Pastors are formed not only by the classroom, but by the experience of being part of a worshiping community of men in the same boat, by access to profs outside the classroom, by a semi-monastic setting of prayer and study, and by allowing the Spirit time to work. Even our Lord trained His disciples for three years.

If it's true that SMP isn't a "dumbing down," then why not make those same eight classes the requirement for ordination for all seminarians? If the standards are just as high, it would be poor stewardship to condemn the residential students to years of student loan indebtedness. And if that were to happen (the SMP standards being applied to all students), would the overall standards of our ordained ministerium remain the same?

And here are some unforeseen (to put on the best construction) results that are likely to happen:

• SMP pastors will serve start-up congregations that may not make it financially. The church closes. Another congregation nearby needs a pastor, and will petition the District President to allow the SMP guy to take a call there. If he refuses, a pastor will be left with no way to make a living and feed his family. If the District Presidents allow these exceptions, the entire SMP premise is blown to hell (which may be appropriate under the circumstances).
• Someone will argue that restricting SMP calls is a violation of the confessional principle of the equality of bishops, and the CCM or the COP will simply overturn the SMP restrictions by fiat.
• Since "the seminaries anticipate the ability to enroll 40 SMP students each this fall" (80 in total), there is going to be a huge shift away from the traditional paradigm. 80 students in a year's time is the size of some entire graduating classes at Fort Wayne. The traditional (residential) students are going to increasingly question why they are spending so much time and money, racking up student loans, causing their families to move four times (to seminary, to vicarage, back from vicarage, and then to a call - if they even have one) - when the SMP guys get to learn by correspondence classes, and even have a guaranteed call waiting for them when they finish their 8 classes spread over two years (which run concurrently with their home-congregation vicarages).
• This influx of students through non-traditional routes will almost certainly result in a glut of pastors, especially of men with: M.Div degrees, huge student loan debts, and no calls to be had.

There is no clergy shortage. There will be no clergy shortage. It is simply unrealistic to expect numerical growth among Lutherans when our people are practicing "family planning." All the programs, slogans, and gimmicks in the world cannot replace procreation as an effective tool of generationally sustainable church growth. The decline of the Christian population is simply a fact in western countries - especially non Roman Catholic countries where contraception is king. In many western nations, the native population is plummeting, and only the influx of immigrants - many of them Muslims - is preventing a total societal economic collapse. Of course, this is almost never discussed in the context of long-range planning for future pastors. Instead, we're given an almost hysterical dystopian picture of clergy shortages and desperate congregations ready and willing to call and pay for a pastor, but with none to be had. We are assured that the more men that we can run through the conveyor belt the better. I remember the sainted professor Kurt Marquart saying: "You cannot mass-produce pastors."

Even among our traditional students, the educational standards have slipped. Personally, I think we should be adding a year (if not two) to the M.Div. program, not reducing the ordination requirement to eight classes. Instead of increasing enrollment, maybe we should be reducing it, raising admission standards, and finding ways to increase financial aid for each man willing to slog through the years of training and formation required to become a pastor. In generations past, men knew their biblical languages, not to mention Latin and German, before setting foot in a seminary classroom. There is simply no way to continue to cut back on the rigor of the program without giving the church less-educated and less-prepared pastors.

Would you want your cardiologist or airline pilot trained in this way? I believe this kind of flippancy toward ordination, toward the office of the Holy Ministry, and toward the importance of a properly educated ministerium is one reason why some of our brightest and best pastors and theologians leave the LCMS and go elsewhere. This goes beyond "playing church" and is moving toward just "playing."

But in the midst of all the pragmatic smoke and mirror arguments to justify this program, what about our Lord's example of devoting three painstaking years to onsite pastoral formation? What about Matt 8:19-22? Or Luke 5:27-28? Or Luke 9:61-62? In 1 Tim 1:18, St. Paul calls the carrying out of the ministry as "the good warfare." Even the military, which wages temporal warfare, has no SMP version of basic training. Recruits go to boot camp in person. There is no substitute for actually going through the experience. How much more must we "soldiers of the cross" be prepared for battle? The pastoral ministry is real warfare, not a computer game. One cannot prepare for the Holy Office in front of a computer screen any more than a marine, soldier, airman, or sailor can do boot camp on a PlayStation or Xbox - that is, unless we see the ministry as somehow less of a militant office than the guy carrying an M16 or flying a fighter jet.

And in spite of all of this, the original premise of the SMP program was that this would at least be an improvement over DELTO and would ensure that only ordained men are serving in Word and Sacrament ministry. But here it is in the Reporter, complete with a picture. It's just not true.

So, who is going to step up to the plate with some answers?