The UMC description is not exactly correct. A licensed local pastor is not a seminary graduate and is restricted to exercising pastoral functions only at the church to which they are assigned. What you described is called an elder in full connection.
This attempt to characterize the LCMS: 'Once installed, pastors have open-ended terms and cannot be “fired” by their congregations without a doctrinal, moral, or failure-of-duty reason, because the call is “Divine”' is absolutely false. Congregation fire pastors for no just cause all the time. Districts and Synod do nothing about it. And nothing is done for the pastor and his family that endure such persecution. There is absolutely no "cannot" that comes into play here.
One of our local LCMS churches has been without a pastor for four years.
In my little community of 3500 people in Wisconsin, we have 3 LCMS churches. In the 80s, the first church split over financial issues surrounding funding for the school. Then, in the 90s, a third church was planted when planners thought we were going to grow.
They refuse to merge or share pastors. So, now we have three churches with 60, 70, and 40 weekly attendees. Individually, they are so small, they don't have vibrant youth activities, so most of the families with kids drive 15 miles to a large non-denominational church in the next town… and join there.
It would seem that at some point there needs to be the ability to merge several small geographically close churches into a single healthy church.
You can join churches together all day long but unless the focus is on youth and developing them before and after confirmation you’ll have a large church on a slower path to dying. My wife is non denom, very involved with youth, I see first hand what they do to mentor these kids, the kids are many times bringing their parents to the church. The LCMS is focused on how we do church rather than who we are as a church and we scratch our heads wondering why the non denoms are growing as they do.
Excellent summary. This is very helpful and informative. Opinions will vary greatly as to which model best serves the church.
The UMC description is not exactly correct. A licensed local pastor is not a seminary graduate and is restricted to exercising pastoral functions only at the church to which they are assigned. What you described is called an elder in full connection.
Thanks for the correction, Dan, I appreciate. I better understand the differences now and will correct the story shortly.
Ad crucem, for a prospective pastor to the Fort Wayne sem what would your advice be?
The LCMS district Presidents have great authority in preparing the call list.
A congregation can also bypass the DP if it desires.
Yes they can but I believe it is rare.
I can report that we once did it very successfully. Just told the office whom we were calling and when, and that was it.
Wonderful.
This attempt to characterize the LCMS: 'Once installed, pastors have open-ended terms and cannot be “fired” by their congregations without a doctrinal, moral, or failure-of-duty reason, because the call is “Divine”' is absolutely false. Congregation fire pastors for no just cause all the time. Districts and Synod do nothing about it. And nothing is done for the pastor and his family that endure such persecution. There is absolutely no "cannot" that comes into play here.
No argument. The purpose is to describe what the rule is rather than facts on the ground.
Can you perhaps complete a review or post about this specific topic? I feel like something like this should be talked about more.
One of our local LCMS churches has been without a pastor for four years.
In my little community of 3500 people in Wisconsin, we have 3 LCMS churches. In the 80s, the first church split over financial issues surrounding funding for the school. Then, in the 90s, a third church was planted when planners thought we were going to grow.
They refuse to merge or share pastors. So, now we have three churches with 60, 70, and 40 weekly attendees. Individually, they are so small, they don't have vibrant youth activities, so most of the families with kids drive 15 miles to a large non-denominational church in the next town… and join there.
It would seem that at some point there needs to be the ability to merge several small geographically close churches into a single healthy church.
Very sad. This is one of the most significant weaknesses of the LCMS polity.
You can join churches together all day long but unless the focus is on youth and developing them before and after confirmation you’ll have a large church on a slower path to dying. My wife is non denom, very involved with youth, I see first hand what they do to mentor these kids, the kids are many times bringing their parents to the church. The LCMS is focused on how we do church rather than who we are as a church and we scratch our heads wondering why the non denoms are growing as they do.