wfn.org | [LCMSNews] New pastor program opens

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>9.15.2008		
>	LCMS News	 	
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>THE LUTHERAN CHURCH Missouri Synod  	 	
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	September 15, 2008 .................... LCMSNews -- No. 48

New pastor program opens with some 50 students

>By Paula Schlueter Ross

Mark Couser, 26, has been working with the Lutheran Inner-City Network
Coalition (LINC) North Texas, in Dallas-Fort Worth, for the past five
years, helping to train church planters and other leaders.

He's "felt the call to pastoral ministry for awhile," Couser admits, but
also feels called to serve in the rapidly growing, ethnically diverse,
Dallas-Fort Worth area.  It would be hard for him to leave the ministry
-- and relationships -- he's been building for five years to attend a
traditional residential seminary program, he says.

And now, he doesn't have to.  As one of the first 29 students admitted
to the new Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) Program at Concordia Seminary,
St. Louis, Couser is elated that he can fulfill both dreams: train for
the pastoral ministry and continue his full-time work with LINC.

While he's excited about finally beginning seminary studies, which will
give him a "stronger theological foundation," Couser says he's glad he
can also stay with LINC, continuing "to be in that [ethnically diverse]
field and to plant more churches and to reach the lost, reach the
nations" with the Gospel.

The SMP program -- endorsed by LCMS convention delegates in July 2007 --
prepares a new category of clergy via "distance education," enabling
students to continue their own "specific ministries" as they complete
seminary courses at home.

Some 50 SMP students are beginning their studies this fall at both
Missouri Synod seminaries.

Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, kicked off its SMP classes with a Sept.
3-5 orientation on its campus.  Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort
Wayne, is completing reviews of some 25 applications to its program,
which begins in October.

A prospective SMP student does not initiate the application process
himself, but leaders at a site that has a pastoral ministry need --
together with the president of the LCMS district in which that need
exists -- nominate the candidate for admission.  The candidate is
expected to serve at that site, in his "specific ministry," during the
four-year SMP program and after graduation.

Students serve as vicars during the first two years of the program,
which includes eight seminary courses that are completed under the
supervision of a local "mentor pastor."

After completing the two-year vicarage, the student is eligible to
receive a call to serve as a "specific ministry pastor" at his vicarage
site.

Once ordained, he completes eight additional seminary courses over the
next two years and remains under pastoral supervision, even after
graduation.

The application for admission to the SMP program was first available
online March 31, according to Rev. Glen Thomas, executive director of
the Synod's Board for Pastoral Education and chairman of the SMP Program
Committee.

"Given the relatively short time that students had to complete the
extensive application process and be ready to begin course work this
fall, I think the fact that we will have approximately 50 students
enrolled in this first group of SMP students indicates that there is a
need for this program in the church and that the church has embraced it
as a high-caliber program of formation for pastoral ministry," Thomas
said.

Even though the convention resolution establishing the SMP program
passed with a 76 percent vote of delegates and the program has "broad
support in the church," it is still "in its earliest stages," Thomas
noted, "and we will be doing a lot of analysis and assessment as we move
forward."

"What we learn could lead to some changes," he acknowledged, "but I want
to emphasize how pleased we are at this very early point with the
program, with the cooperative spirit between our two seminaries as they
work together in this program, and with those who are enrolling in the
program."

Rev. Oscar Benavides, director of LINC North Texas and Couser's mentor
pastor, says the SMP program is "excellent" because Couser "gets to use
the things he's learning" in the seminary classes in an immediate,
practical way.

Couser's brother, Peter Couser of Fort Worth, also is in the inaugural
SMP class at the St. Louis seminary.

Rev. David Brighton, pastor of Mount Calvary Lutheran Church in Warner
Robins, Ga., and mentor for SMP student Dr. Clarence Riley, 53, said the
SMP program provides "opportunities" for both students and
congregations.  It's giving Riley -- a full-time professor with two
teenage sons -- an opportunity to become a pastor without uprooting his
family, and it's giving the neighboring 40-member congregation he works
with an opportunity for outreach.

"Clarence has a gift for evangelism," Brighton said, "and he's going to
work to really get [members] looking outside themselves and have an
outreach mentality that I think could really help that congregation
grow.  So we're excited about it."

Riley said the program "absolutely fits my need and allows us, as a
congregation, to help a sister congregation that's struggling."

He added that he is "just so very thankful that the sem has decided to
put this program out there for us."

Says Thomas:  "There are many situations throughout our church that
present both challenges and opportunities for pastoral ministry.  A man
serving as a specific ministry pastor could provide a solution for some
of these situations.

"From new mission starts to congregations that are struggling to provide
Word and Sacrament ministry, the SMP program provides a pastoral
ministry possibility to be considered."

And, as The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod leads the Ablaze! effort to
plant 2,000 congregations in North America by 2017, specific ministry
pastors, Thomas adds, "can provide a part of the solution to the
challenge of providing Word and Sacrament ministry in so many new
locations."

To read FAQs about  the SMP Program, click here
<http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/Pastoral%20Education/SMP20FAQ
s-2.3.pdf> .  For more information, contact your district office.  To
see contact information for LCMS districts, go to www.lcmsdistricts.org
<http://www.lcmsdistricts.org> .

Editor's note:  With this dispatch LCMSNews begins sending a top news
story in its entirety each week, in addition to the weekly update
"What's new on Reporter Online."

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If you have questions or comments about this LCMSNews release, contact
Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org
<mailto:joe.isenhower@lcms.org>  or (314) 996-1231, or Paula Schlueter
Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org <mailto:paula.ross@lcms.org>  or (314)
996-1230.

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