Key Takeaways From Pastoral Formation Conference

A Noble Task: Pastoral Formation in the LCMS. July 15-16, 2025 Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Carlisle, Iowa

Note: AI-generated summaries of recordings made by Gene Wilken / Flaneur Record¹

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The 14th Annual ACELC Conference examined the past, present, and future of pastoral formation within the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. The speakers debate the merits of traditional residential seminaries versus innovative digital pathways, weighing the necessity of in-person mentorship against the pressures of an aging clergy and congregational shortages. Central to the discussion is a shift from quantitative statistics to qualitative standards, emphasizing a candidate's humility, character, and biblical integrity over mere academic achievement. While some advocate for flexible, bivocational models to reach struggling parishes, others warn that bypassing embodied, collegial training risks weakening theological depth and church unity. Ultimately, the sources call for a rigorous return to scriptural standards and classical education to equip pastors for a culturally hostile landscape.

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PRESENTER SUMMARIES

YouTube presentations are embedded below.

Rev. Joe Beran

Representing the Unite Leadership Collective, Beran focuses on the need for innovation in response to a significant pastoral shortage. He notes that roughly 10% of LCMS churches are currently vacant, a crisis exacerbated by an aging clergy. He advocates for competency-based, mentored, and digital learning models (like the Kyros platform) to make education more accessible and affordable, particularly for bivocational “worker priests” in high-cost or underserved areas. He challenges the synod to ask “What if?” regarding new pathways while maintaining a focus on a candidate’s character and craft.

Rev. Dr. John Bruss

Bruss provides a strong defense of residential, face-to-face pastoral formation, arguing that ministry is incarnational and must be formed “in the flesh”. He cites educational data showing that online learning consistently results in diminished student success compared to in-person instruction. Bruss warns that alternative tracks like SMP (Specific Ministry Pastor) are being abused by large congregations to “make their own pastors,” which threatens the unity and theological depth of the synod’s ministerium. He contends that the solution to the shortage is for congregations to actively recruit and send men to the seminaries for traditional formation.

Rev. Willie Grills

Grills outlines the historical evolution of formation, from early church mentorship and the Canons of Nicaea to the development of the university and seminary systems. He observes that while academic rigor increased over centuries, current trends toward online and alternative education may perpetuate the problem of pastors doing “what is right in their own eyes”. He suggests that a hostile modern world requires more rigorous, not less, training, and proposes a return to classical education to instill theological and linguistic depth in future pastors from a young age.

Rev. Dr. Adam Koontz

Koontz emphasizes that pastoral formation must focus on the man rather than the institution. He argues that the primary qualification for a pastor is personal character—specifically piety, sincerity of confession, and humility—rather than mere academic prowess. He views the current “pastoral shortage” not as a statistical deficit but as a challenge of quality, cautioning that treating men as statistics flattens their lives and ignores local realities. His “non-negotiables” include absolute clarity in preaching, personal integrity to avoid a chaotic private life, and a missionary focus on those outside the parish.

Rev. Adam Moline

Moline identifies a lack of repentant faith as the chief issue in the LCMS, leading to the misuse and obscuring of God’s Word. He highlights a deficit in scriptural knowledge among clergy, noting that many pastors rely on formulaic clichés, media screens, and administrative tasks rather than deep biblical study and the primary task of preaching and the sacraments. He critiques the rise of tribalism and bitterness within the synod, which isolates pastors and prevents doctrinal unity. His primary takeaway is a call for urgent repentance and a return to the rigorous study of the Word.

Rev. Rolph Preus

Reflecting on 41 years of ministry, Preus argues that pastoral formation belongs primarily in the home, not the seminary. He critiques a generational shift toward liturgical “niceties” and feminism, which he believes has distracted from sound Lutheran hermeneutics and a focus on the Word. He urges pastors to love their congregations as a “little Eden” and to take preaching the vicarious satisfaction of Christ as their most serious task. His main takeaway is that the most effective formation occurs not through a curriculum but through a pastor faithfully teaching and suffering for the Word.

TOPIC SUMMARIES

How does the tension between qualitative character formation and quantitative clergy shortages shape modern pastoral education?

Modern pastoral education is currently caught between the urgent numerical need for new laborers and the biblical imperative for high-quality character in those who serve. Rev. Dr. Adam Koontz argues that pastoral formation must prioritize the man over the institution, suggesting that a “shortage” of quality is more concerning than a shortage of statistical numbers. He contends that treating candidates as statistics flattens their lives and that piety, sincerity of confession, and humility are the true non-negotiable qualifications. However, Rev. Joe Beran highlights that nearly one out of every ten LCMS churches currently lacks a called shepherd, a crisis exacerbated by a median clergy age over 50.

This quantitative pressure has fueled the rise of competency-based and digital learning models, such as the Kyros platform, which seeks to make training more affordable for bivocational “worker priests” in high-cost or underserved areas. Proponents of these alternative routes argue that mentorship-focused digital learning can effectively address character and craft while allowing candidates to remain in their local mission fields.

Conversely, critics like Rev. Dr. John Bruss and Rev. Adam Moline warn that these alternative pathways, particularly the Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) program, are being abused by large congregations to “make their own pastors” rather than supporting the theological depth of the wider synod. Bruss maintains that pastoral formation is incarnational and must occur “in the flesh”, citing data that suggests online learning results in diminished student success compared to face-to-face instruction.

This tension significantly shapes the modern curriculum; while some advocate for innovating for accessibility, others insist on a “gold standard” of residential training to prevent pastors from doing “what is right in their own eyes”. Many presenters argue that a hostile modern world requires more rigorous, classically trained men rather than lowered standards, suggesting that the solution to the shortage is for congregations to actively recruit and send men to traditional seminaries. Ultimately, the tension forces a choice between broadening the pathway to increase clergy numbers or restricting the gate to ensure the qualitative integrity of the ministerium.

How can historical pastoral patterns and biblical mandates guide the church through current demographic challenges?

To guide the church through current demographic challenges—including a 10% vacancy rate and an impending retirement cliff—the sources suggest returning to biblical mandates of character and historical models of flexibility and community.

1. Prioritizing Biblical Character over Statistical Quantity

The primary biblical guidance for current challenges is a focus on the qualifications of the man (1 Timothy 3, Titus 1) rather than institutional preservation.

• Quality as the Goal: Rev. Dr. Adam Koontz and Rev. Willie Grills emphasize that the Lord specifies quality, not quantity. Lowering standards to fill vacancies risks introducing “train wrecks” into congregations.

• The Mandate of Character: Qualifications such as piety, humility, and household management are non-negotiable. Rev. Adam Moline argues that the chief challenge is a lack of repentant faith, suggesting the solution is not a new “clever idea” but a return to the Word.

• Trusting the “Lord of the Harvest”: Multiple presenters suggest that the church must address shortages out of faith rather than fear, trusting that God will provide laborers if the church prays and identifies men of integrity.

2. Reclaiming Historical Models of Agility

The sources highlight historical precedents that could alleviate modern geographic and financial burdens:

• The Poly-Parish Model: In the 1890s, the average pastor cared for three congregations and ran a school. Returning to this “circuit rider” or consolidated approach could solve the “time difficulty” for modern pastors and ensure small congregations receive the Word.

• Bivocational “Worker Priests”: Rev. Joe Beran points to St. Paul as a tentmaker to justify a return to bivocational ministry, particularly for “worker priests” in high-cost areas like California where congregations cannot afford a full-time salary.

• Historical Lay Offices: Beran suggests reviving the 19th-century office of the “Colporteur”—laymen who gathered groups for devotionals and distributed materials—to bridge gaps where called pastors are unavailable.

3. The Mandate for Incarnational Formation

A significant tension in the sources is whether historical “mentorship” models can be translated into digital spaces:

• In-person vs. Virtual: Rev. Dr. John Bruss argues that because the Word became flesh (John 1:14), pastoral formation must be incarnational and face-to-face. He cites data showing that online learning results in lower success rates and diminished grades compared to traditional residential training.

• Mentorship at the Feet of Elders: The historical pattern from the early church and the “sons of the prophets” involved men living and eating together. Bruss and Koontz argue this community is where humility is truly formed—a trait often missing in “lone wolf” or digital education models.

4. Strategic Recruitment and Early Formation

History suggests that the church should view formation as starting long before the seminary:

• Home and Early Schooling: Rev. Rolph Preus and Rev. Willie Grills argue that formation belongs in the home. Grills advocates for a return to classical education, training boys in languages and theology from a young age so they enter the ministry already steeped in the “weapons” of the faith.

• Congregational Duty: Bruss challenges congregations not to “circle the wagons” but to actively send their sons to the seminary for the sake of the broader church.

In summary, the sources propose that while demographic trends are “predictable” and “sustainable” through historical flexibility (like consolidated parishes), the church must not abandon the apostolic pattern of rigorous examination and face-to-face formation in its haste to fix numerical deficits.

How does the 'worker priest' model address geographic and economic clergy shortages?

The “worker priest” or bivocational model addresses modern clergy shortages by providing a financially viable pathway for men to serve in regions where traditional full-time ministry is economically or geographically unsustainable. Drawing from the sources, the model’s impact can be understood through its economic utility, geographic flexibility, and the practical tensions it introduces.

1. Addressing Economic Shortages

The worker priest model primarily addresses the financial inability of small or emerging congregations to support a full-time, salaried pastor.

• Affordability for Small Churches: Currently, approximately 9.5% of LCMS churches are vacant. Many of these congregations, particularly in high-cost areas, cannot afford a pastor’s salary solely through tithes and offerings.

• Bivocational Sustainability: By working a secular job (the “tentmaker” model of St. Paul), a worker priest can serve a congregation that might otherwise remain shepherdless. Rev. Joe Beran cites an example of a pastor driving for Uber to afford his ministry and education in a congregation that could not provide a salary.

• Educational Accessibility: This model is often paired with competency-based or digital learning (such as the Kyros platform), which is significantly more affordable and accessible for men who cannot relocate to a residential seminary due to financial or family obligations.

2. Addressing Geographic Shortages

The sources highlight that geographic challenges often overlap with economic ones, particularly in underserved or rapidly growing regions.

• High-Cost Mission Fields: In areas like California, the cost of living is so high that traditional calls are often impossible to fill. The worker priest model allows men already established in these communities to be trained and ordained locally.

• Urban and Immigrant Ministry: The model is presented as a strategic tool for church planting in growing urban centers like Phoenix, where new ministries may lack an immediate donor base to support a full-time worker.

• Local Stability: By training men “in place,” the church avoids the “geographic difficulty” of moving a candidate and his family across the country, which is often a barrier to entering the ministry.

3. Practical Tensions and Critiques

While proponents see the worker priest as a solution, other presenters in the sources offer cautionary insights:

• The “Time Difficulty”: Rev. Dr. Adam Koontz notes that while a worker priest solves a “money difficulty,” he faces a “tremendous time difficulty”. Working two jobs can distract a pastor from his primary tasks of preaching and visiting members.

• Defense vs. Offense: Koontz argues that in the New Testament, bivocational ministry was used for “offense” (strategic church planting) rather than as a “stopgap” for struggling churches. He suggests that the church should prioritize keeping pastors full-time, perhaps through multi-parish (two or three-point) arrangements, so they can focus entirely on the Word.

• Alternative Solutions: Rev. Rolph Preus suggests that calling retired pastors who do not require a full salary might be a more effective alternative to the bivocational model, as they have more time available for the congregation and the circuit.

In summary, the worker priest model provides an innovative and historically rooted (e.g., the 19th-century Colporteur) response to the current vacancy crisis, though it requires the church to weigh financial viability against the pastor’s available time and depth of formation.

Rev. Joe Beran of the Unite Leadership Collective suggests that reviving the 19th-century office of the Colporteur is a potential historical solution to modern demographic challenges, including the current 9.5% vacancy rate in LCMS churches.

The Historical Function of the ‘Colporteur’

The office of the Colporteur² was a layman’s role established in 1852 [in the LCMS] to assist the church’s expansion across the American frontier. These individuals were tasked with:

• Distributing religious materials such as books and devotional goods.

• Gathering people together for devotional groups and studies.

• Leading services by reading through a prepared sermon written by an ordained pastor.

Beran argues that the church was once far more agile and opportunistic in utilizing such lay offices to reach populations where called pastors were unavailable. He proposes that bringing back the Colporteur—alongside other innovative pathways like bivocational “worker priests”—could help ensure that every church has a “rightly called servant of the word” even if a full-time residential pastor is financially or geographically out of reach.

Challenges and Counter-Arguments

While Beran sees the Colporteur as an opportunity for innovation, other presenters in the sources offer significant theological and qualitative critiques of expanding lay roles to solve vacancies:

• Theological Integrity (AC XIV): Rev. Adam Moline expresses concern over the trend of “farming out” biblical teaching to laypeople in small groups, noting that the Augsburg Confession (Article XIV) states no one should preach or teach without a “rightly ordered call”. He argues that weak doctrine often results when those leading the people lack deep scriptural and historical training.

• The Multi-Parish Alternative: Rev. Dr. Adam Koontz points to a different historical model from the 1890s, where the average pastor was “caring for three congregations and running one school“. He suggests that, rather than creating new lay offices, the church should return to the “circuit rider” or consolidated parish model, allowing one highly trained pastor to oversee several rural locations.

• Quality over Quantity: Multiple presenters, including Koontz and Rev. Dr. John Bruss, emphasize that the current “shortage” is a challenge of quality rather than statistics. They argue that lowering the standard for filling vacancies risks placing “train wrecks” in congregations, whereas a classically trained, residential pastor provides the “gold standard” of care.

In summary, while reviving the office of the Colporteur is proposed as a way to provide immediate local presence and liturgical stability in rural vacancies, the sources indicate a deep tension between this “what if” innovation and the traditional insistence on residential, face-to-face pastoral formation.

Does digital formation risk losing the 'incarnational' nature of ministry?

According to the sources, there is a sharp debate regarding whether digital formation compromises the “incarnational” nature of ministry. While some argue that ministry is fundamentally “fleshly” and requires physical presence, others contend that digital academic delivery can be effectively supplemented by local, in-person mentorship.

The Theological Case for Incarnation

Rev. Dr. John Bruss argues that digital formation poses a significant risk because theology is inherently incarnational. He points to John 1:14 (”The word became flesh”) to emphasize that God saves through physical means—real water in baptism, real bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, and the physical voice of a pastor in absolution. Bruss contends that:

• Ministry is fleshly: Because God deals with people through physical touch and presence, pastoral training must also occur “in the flesh”.

• Biblical precedent: He cites St. Paul’s repeated longings to see his congregations “face to face” (Romans 1, 1 Thessalonians 2) as evidence that spiritual gifts are best imparted and mutual encouragement best experienced in person.

• Apostolic pattern: He notes that scriptural snippets of training—such as the “sons of the prophets” or the disciples following Jesus—always involve a community that lived, ate, and studied together.

The “Missing” Element in Digital Models

Rev. Dr. Adam Koontz, reflecting on his experience teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, notes that while information can be dumped efficiently online, the “part that was missing was the part that had to do with personal knowledge and love” of the student. He and other sources highlight several risks:

• Information vs. Transformation: Digital models risk prioritizing the “imparting of information” over the transformation of the man.

• The “Lone Wolf” Problem: Digital education can lead to isolation, whereas residential education forces men into a “collegium” where they must learn humility and how to work as part of a team.

• Lack of Personal Discernment: Residential professors can spot character issues (like anger or social awkwardness) through daily interaction, whereas digital students can more easily “hide” behind a screen.

The Case for Mentored Digital Learning

Rev. Joe Beran and the Unite Leadership Collective argue that digital formation does not have to be a “lone wolf” experience. They propose a mentorship-based model (such as the Kyros platform) where the student is surrounded by local, face-to-face mentors for their personal, social, and professional lives, even if the academic content is delivered digitally. They contend that:

• Character and Craft: This model intentionally focuses on character and social skills by involving the local congregation and surrounding pastors in the candidate’s daily life.

• Sacrifice and Reality: Beran argues that for a bivocational “worker priest” already serving a local mission, remaining in their context to train is as much of a spiritual sacrifice (”Tentatio”) as moving to a seminary campus.

Academic and Success Outcomes

Bruss provides data to support his concern, citing studies showing that purely online learning consistently results in lower student success, lower grades, and a lower probability of completing a degree compared to face-to-face instruction. He argues that a weaker educational foundation eventually results in a weaker ministerium, which the church cannot afford in a hostile world.

Ultimately, the sources suggest that while digital platforms provide accessibility and efficiency, they risk reducing the pastoral office to a set of competencies rather than a habitus formed through shared life and physical community.

Statistics and the Man

The sources provide a multi-faceted critique of statistics in pastoral education, primarily arguing that a quantitative focus risks “flattening” the individual man and obscuring the biblical mandate for qualitative character.

1. The Reduction of the Individual

Rev. Dr. Adam Koontz offers the most direct critique, stating that treating a candidate as a statistic flattens out his life, causing the church to fail in knowing or caring for him as a human being. He argues that reducing a man’s career to data discussed when he was 21 ignores the complex economic and personal realities he faces, such as student debt or the needs of his family. Ultimately, statistics cannot measure the “non-negotiables” of the ministry—piety, sincerity of confession, and humility—which are more critical than any quantifiable academic or numerical metric.

2. The “Shortage” as a Static Snapshot

The common use of the term “pastoral shortage” is critiqued as an insufficient “snapshot of today’s reality”. Koontz contends that:

• Context is ignored: Statistics often fail to ask whether a specific congregation is sustainable or if it should consolidate with a neighbor five miles away.

• The need for localized data: Instead of broad denominational stats, the church requires regional and circuit-level data to understand what truly needs to be supplied versus what is a natural result of shifting demographics, such as the post-baby-boom “retirement cliff”.

• Fear vs. Faith: Rev. Adam Moline suggests that focusing on numbers can cause the church to address challenges out of fear rather than faith, forgetting that the Lord of the harvest is the one who provides workers.

3. Statistical “Puffing Up” and Educational Decay

Rev. Dr. John Bruss uses statistics to critique the perceived “growth” of theological institutions, noting that overall enrollment spikes are often “puffed up” by non-pastoral programs like certificates and counseling degrees rather than a genuine increase in Master of Divinity (M.Div.) candidates. He further uses educational data to critique the push for digital education:

• Diminished Success: Statistics from various studies show that purely online learning results in lower grades (diminished by 5 to 10 points) and lower completion rates compared to face-to-face instruction.

• The Efficiency Trap: While digital models are often championed for being “efficient” or “cost-effective” statistics, they risk killing the theology of the church by weakening the quality of the ministerium.

4. Statistics as a Spiritual Distraction

Rev. Adam Moline uses modern statistics to highlight a lack of pastoral discipline. He notes that the average American’s seven hours of daily screen time is a metric that many pastors are not immune to, suggesting that these “digital well-being” stats represent a significant diversion from the study of God’s Word.

In conclusion, the presenters argue that the Lord of the church does not specify a quantity of laborers but is “specific about quality” and “frustratingly vague about the math”. Therefore, relying on management theory and sports-broadcast-style stats can lead the church to prioritize filling vacancies over forming faithful men.

1. Credits: On the Infrastructural and Laborious Preconditions of Contemporary Large Language Model Functionality

The development and operation of large language models (LLMs), though routinely framed in current polemics as an abrupt and unheralded assault upon human creativity and intellectual sovereignty, represent merely the latest increment in an unbroken, centuries-long succession of material extraction, energetic conversion, infrastructural engineering, and cognitive offloading. The following enumeration, necessarily schematic, traces the principal strata of labor and apparatus upon which the present moment of automated text generation quietly depends.

1. Conceptual and energetic domestication of the electron
   From J. J. Thomson’s 1897 identification of the electron through the consolidation of Maxwellian electromagnetism, alternating-current standardization, transformer design, and large-scale generation, electricity was rendered not an occult phenomenon but a fungible commodity—produced, transmitted, metered, and billed. Absent this multi-generational conquest of subatomic behavior, no subsequent appeal to “intelligence” in silicon would possess even a physical carrier.

2. Subterranean carbon mobilization
   Coal miners, across the long eighteenth to twentieth centuries, extracted bituminous and anthracite seams under conditions of acute physical peril and cumulative pulmonary insult. The thermal energy thereby released drove steam turbines that, in turn, supplied the baseload electrical capacity sustaining early computation, mainframe proliferation, data-center expansion, and—still today—a non-trivial fraction of GPU-cluster draw. The energetic foundation of LLM inference rests, in literal thermodynamic terms, upon strata of fossilized sunlight extracted by hand and later by machine.

3. Generation, transmission, and grid maintenance
   Power-station operators, substation technicians, and linemen constructed and preserved the vast reticulated network that conveys electrons from turbine hall to wall socket. Performed at elevation, in adverse weather, and in proximity to lethal voltages, this labor converted geographically concentrated generation into the illusion of omnipresent, always-on availability now mistaken for a background condition of existence.

4. Mechanical textual interfaces
   The QWERTY keyboard, engineered by Christopher Latham Sholes and collaborators (patented 1878) to forestall typebar entanglement rather than to optimize human ergonomics, remains the canonical input schema for digital composition. That present-day jeremiads against “machine authorship” are themselves composed upon this nineteenth-century mechanical compromise constitutes a minor but persistent historical joke.

5. Early computational augmentation of clerical labor
   Standalone word-processing systems (Berezin / Redactron, 1969 onward) displaced manual retyping, carbon copying, and correction fluid, transferring repetitive textual drudgery to magnetic media and electronic revision. The clerical anxieties provoked by these machines have long since been consigned to archival footnotes.

6. Networked substrate and protocol agonistics
   The client–server dialectic—embodied in the perpetual arms race between browsers and HTTP servers (feature creep, security theater, latency optimization, cookie consent kabuki)—yielded the distributed corpus from which LLM training data was scraped. “The cloud” is neither ethereal nor accidental; it is the sedimented outcome of decades of contested code and copper.

7. Metabolic and environmental stabilization of the cognitive worker
   The contemporary critic of LLMs operates within an envelope of thermal constancy (HVAC), artificial illumination independent of solar position, uninterrupted electrical supply, potable water delivered under pressure, and wastewater invisibly conveyed away. Caloric security is furnished by mechanized monoculture, synthetic nitrogen fixation, refrigerated transoceanic logistics, and just-in-time distribution networks. These systems relieve the objector of nearly every biologically imperative labor—hunting, gathering, planting, harvesting, preserving, cooking, laundering, mending—while simultaneously enabling the leisure to compose extended laments about technological displacement.

8. Present computational terminus
   LLM inference proceeds on GPU arrays whose prodigious power consumption is met, in non-negligible proportion, by legacy coal- and gas-fired baseload supplemented by variable renewables. The generative output thereby produced offloads compositional labor in strict continuity with prior mechanizations rather than in rupture from them.

To this genealogy one further, particularly mordant, element must now be appended. The same cohort that most vociferously decries LLM “deskilling” is frequently attired in athleisure garments—moisture-wicking leggings, performance hoodies, cushioning sneakers—manufactured in Vietnamese industrial parks from petrochemically derived synthetic fibers. These textiles originate, upstream, from crude oil whose extraction, refining, polymerization, spinning, knitting, dyeing, and global distribution entailed labor inputs and environmental externalities that the wearer has neither performed nor, in most cases, contemplated. The critic thus stands before the screen—electrons flowing, coal historically combusted, Vietnamese factory operatives having stitched the very leggings in which indignation is expressed—complaining that large language models have finally gone too far in relieving humans of toil.

Such objections, when viewed against this extended ledger of delegated effort, appear less as principled defense of human dignity than as a late-stage variant of romantic anti-mechanization sentiment: selective in its historical horizon, fastidious in its choice of which labors merit moral protection, and conveniently blind to the vast preceding cascade of extraction, risk, and offshoring that sustains the critic’s own material and cognitive comfort.The electrons, having traversed theorem, turbine, pickaxe, pole, plow, polymerization reactor, container ship, and finally logic gate, persist in their indifferent circuit. They do not pause to register the latest paroxysm of selective outrage; they merely flow.

Vide supra: the apparatus rests, in the end, upon the coal seam, the transmission tower, the QWERTY compromise, the offshore sewing machine, the refrigerated supply chain, the pulverized hydrocarbon feedstock, and the filament in the air-conditioned study lamp. The complaints are composed in athleisure; the electrons remain unimpressed.

2. The role of the colporteur, defined as a traveling peddler of religious books, tracts, and Bibles, was already well established in various forms during the 18th and 19th centuries. The term itself originated in 18th-century France to describe itinerant sellers of books, especially religious ones. In the United States, the American Tract Society (ATS), founded in 1825, employed colporteurs extensively to distribute religious literature. For example, in 1850, ATS colporteurs visited over 500,000 families and distributed nearly half a million volumes. The role was also prominent in Finland, where colporteurs were active in the 19th century, particularly after the repeal of the Conventicle Act in 1870, which allowed for greater religious freedom and the rise of revivalist movements.