wfn.org | Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod distance education graduates

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod
Board for Communication Services

LCMSNews -- No. 12
March 11, 2002

10 graduate in first DELTO class

By Paula Schlueter Ross

The first class to complete the six-year cycle of Distance Education 
Leading To Ordination, or DELTO, received their certificates of completion 
at a special recognition service Feb. 23 at St. John Lutheran Church in New 
Orleans.

Ten men from three Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod districts -- Southern, 
Texas and Florida-Georgia -- completed the DELTO requirements as a pilot 
project through Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne.  Eight of the 
graduates received calls to serve Synod congregations.  The other two will 
receive their calls later.

DELTO is a seminary program that uses "distance education" to teach classes 
through personal visits by professors, written materials, conference calls, 
e-mail, videotapes, live video classes and tutoring by local pastors, who 
serve as mentors.

The program was started to provide theological education to laymen who are 
serving pastoral roles in congregations or missions that are unable to 
support a full-time pastor.  Many of the DELTO graduates were called to 
serve their home congregations, and many are employed outside the church.

Aubrey Watson Jr. is a full-time postal worker and served two New Orleans 
congregations part time.  He had wanted to attend the seminary in the 
1970s, but personal and financial problems prevented him from enrolling at 
that time.

DELTO made possible "a lifelong dream, that I had been praying and hoping 
somehow that I would get back into the ministry," said Watson, 50, who was 
able to take seminary courses without quitting his job and uprooting his 
family, which includes three children.

Most important, perhaps, he was able to continue preaching at Epiphany and 
Holy Cross -- the two congregations that depended on his pastoral service.

"The DELTO program allows the layman to provide uninterrupted service to 
the congregation, site or mission group," acknowledged Dr. Walter A. Maier 
III, dean of distance learning at Concordia Theological Seminary.  "If the 
layman would leave to go to the seminary," Maier said, "the congregation 
would be without pastoral care, and probably would close."

Maier called the DELTO graduation "an historic moment for the Synod" 
because it heralds "a new form of seminary education."

"We simply came to the realization that what was working in the past was 
fine, but it may not be covering all the needs in the present and future," 
he said.

In his sermon at the graduation worship service, Synod President Gerald 
Kieschnick congratulated the graduates for their hard work and encouraged 
them to serve their "flocks" as "shepherds," but to also "seek and find 
those lost sheep who are out there." Bringing others to Christ, Kieschnick 
said, "is so critical for the mission and ministry of our church body."

Following the first DELTO class are five others -- three are administered 
by Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and two by Concordia Theological 
Seminary, Fort Wayne.  The next class to complete the program, in December, 
also is affiliated with the Fort Wayne seminary and includes men from the 
Atlantic, Eastern, New England and New Jersey Districts.

For more information about the DELTO program, contact the seminaries' 
admissions offices -- (800) 481-2155, Fort Wayne, and (800) 822-9545, St. 
Louis.

****************************************

LCMSNews is published by the News and Information Division, Board for 
Communication Services, of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod.  Please 
note that subscribers to LCMSNews will not be able to reach anyone by 
hitting the "Reply" button when viewing an LCMSNews release. Such replies 
will be deleted. However, if you have questions or comments about this 
LCMSNews release, contact Joe Isenhower via e-mail at 
joe.isenhower@lcms.org, or by phone at (314) 996-1231.

****************************************