PMC and boards of LCC seminaries meet, initial summary and commitments

Joint PMC-CLS-CLTS initial summary and commitments

CANADA – The President’s Ministry Council (PMC) and the boards of Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC)’s two seminaries met February 14-15, 2023, at Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Catherines, Ontario for a time of prayerful discussion about issues facing our synod and the seminaries who serve her. The discussions centred on our shared privilege and responsibility to guide the formation of pastors and deacons who will serve our Lord and His Church. 

The group acknowledged five broad challenges:

1. Diminishing Resources: increased difficulty of congregations to support pastors and deacons. While the worker deserves his wages (1 Timothy 5:17-18), declining financial resources lead to a lessened ability to provide suitable support to workers.
2. Affordability: stewardship of resources within our synodical family, and particularly the financial challenges faced by the two seminaries serving our synod.
3. Recruitment: the difficult environment for recruiting students, given the cultural and demographic challenges surrounding us in 21^st-century Canada.
4. Formation of Workers: member congregations identify and encourage future workers; both seminaries prepare and train competent workers; synodical family provides and encourages opportunities for lifelong spiritual and professional growth.
5. Synodical Unity: although united in Christ (1 Corinthians 12) and a common confession, we are challenged to live out that unity across our synod.

In light of these challenges, the PMC, in its task of guiding formation of church workers and caring for congregations according to our Lord’s Word and the needs of the church, desires that our synod and her seminaries commit to the following:

1. Increase Prayer: all of synod will fervently pray to the Lord of the Church to send workers into the harvest and provide resources to support them, believing that it is not our wisdom or strength but our Lord’s work through us that will accomplish His will.
2. Strengthen Alignment: the seminaries will strive to bring their curricula and calendars into further alignment over the next two years, so that there may be better unity and ability to share resources such as courses and professors.
3. Acknowledge Reality: over the next two years, the PMC will work together with congregations and Circuit Counsellors to prepare for Word and Sacrament ministry within a wide variety of situations (e.g. multi-point parishes, multi-worker contexts). During the same time, the seminaries will strengthen education and formation of workers to serve in light of those many contexts.
4. Enhance PAT: the PMC and seminaries will begin to work together immediately to strengthen and expand Pastors with Alternate Training (PAT), developing and implementing multiple tracks. The PMC will lead the efforts, in close connection with seminary leaders, to define criteria appropriate to each track within one year.
5. Use Online Tools: the seminaries will continue to make use of online tools, recognizing that they are simply that—tools—and that they will always play a role as supplements to in-person learning and formation, and never as a replacement. The use of these tools may be expanded particularly in order to bring about better unity among the seminaries and the greater church.
6. Apply our Strategic Framework: the PMC will work within synod’s strategic framework, which already has some identifiable goals and timing targets, to lead pre-seminary (e.g. recruitment) and post-seminary (e.g. continuing education) efforts both among congregations and workers. The PMC recognizes the significant expertise and blessing that seminary faculty and staff are to the church at large and will seek to increase partnership in these efforts (e.g. worker conference presentations).

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