Chuckling at "rich urban congregations" from here in the East New York section of Brooklyn, which is about as urban as urban gets. Please send me a list of those affluent urban parishes so we can partner with them. I think you have written on this, but in truth there's not a clergy shortage, there's a serious and continuing shortage of laity leading to a very serious shortage of compensationally viable congregations (totally not limited to the Missouri Synod). I will say that I am a believer in raising up urban pastors to serve in urban neighborhoods who come from an urban setting and are able to live in a city setting like, say, ours or any big city. So if it's got to be SMP, let it be so as long as we receive workers who won't be scared to death to go outside if they come to a place like East New York. It would be nice if somebody from the 'hood who enjoys the 'hood came to the 'hood.
What an excellent post. Thank God we have thinking people like Ad Crucem in the LCMS.
It was possible to foresee all of these problems with SMP ministry in 2007 when it was voted on at convention. At that time I was one year out of the seminary, twenty-nine years old, and I understood that the program we were voting on was inconsistent with the Lutheran doctrine of the ministry and that, as a result, it was a half-measure from which we could expect nothing good. Having moved to a region with a lot of parishes unable to afford a traditionally trained pastor, I'm still convinced that we need to do something other than make the SMP pastorate the model for pastoral formation, which seems to be the goal of the liberal wing of the synod.
Great post, my only criticism would be against using the term "Industrial Farming." We're in the middle of farm country in Iowa. We also have a lot of those small congregations. 15 within 30 minutes of my house. Farming has gotten bigger but in my area it is still mostly single family farmers. It takes a few hundred acres to make it work in these times. "Industrial Farm" has a negative feeling to it. It's for the most parts families trying to survive while farming. Fyi I'm a very small farmer. Only been at it for 10 years and just passed 200 acres.
To be clear, when I say industrial farming I mean transnational monster ag gobbling up family farms to plant gmo crops and battery farm any animal they can. We appreciate the good farmers out there who are stewarding the land!
Chuckling at "rich urban congregations" from here in the East New York section of Brooklyn, which is about as urban as urban gets. Please send me a list of those affluent urban parishes so we can partner with them. I think you have written on this, but in truth there's not a clergy shortage, there's a serious and continuing shortage of laity leading to a very serious shortage of compensationally viable congregations (totally not limited to the Missouri Synod). I will say that I am a believer in raising up urban pastors to serve in urban neighborhoods who come from an urban setting and are able to live in a city setting like, say, ours or any big city. So if it's got to be SMP, let it be so as long as we receive workers who won't be scared to death to go outside if they come to a place like East New York. It would be nice if somebody from the 'hood who enjoys the 'hood came to the 'hood.
I thought you moved to Wisconsin
What an excellent post. Thank God we have thinking people like Ad Crucem in the LCMS.
It was possible to foresee all of these problems with SMP ministry in 2007 when it was voted on at convention. At that time I was one year out of the seminary, twenty-nine years old, and I understood that the program we were voting on was inconsistent with the Lutheran doctrine of the ministry and that, as a result, it was a half-measure from which we could expect nothing good. Having moved to a region with a lot of parishes unable to afford a traditionally trained pastor, I'm still convinced that we need to do something other than make the SMP pastorate the model for pastoral formation, which seems to be the goal of the liberal wing of the synod.
Great post, my only criticism would be against using the term "Industrial Farming." We're in the middle of farm country in Iowa. We also have a lot of those small congregations. 15 within 30 minutes of my house. Farming has gotten bigger but in my area it is still mostly single family farmers. It takes a few hundred acres to make it work in these times. "Industrial Farm" has a negative feeling to it. It's for the most parts families trying to survive while farming. Fyi I'm a very small farmer. Only been at it for 10 years and just passed 200 acres.
To be clear, when I say industrial farming I mean transnational monster ag gobbling up family farms to plant gmo crops and battery farm any animal they can. We appreciate the good farmers out there who are stewarding the land!