ROUGHLY EDITED COPY LUTHERAN PASTORAL THEOLOGY & PRACTICE LPTP-7 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. P.O. Box 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 www.captionfirst.com *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *** >> JOSHUA: Dr.�Senkbeil, my name is Joshua. I appreciate Eric's questions and realize I have one of my own. I wonder how pastors get to be pastors. I mean, how do I move beyond being a deacon licensed to preach to become a pastor? >> PROF. SENKBEIL: Okay. Thanks, Josh, for that question. It's not something that we promote ourselves to this office in public ministry. You can't simply just simply say, "You know what? I think I'll be a pastor." In a few days or a few weeks or a few months, maybe a few years for some of you, suddenly one finds themselves to be a pastor. Rather, we understand, certainly, the scriptural qualifications for the office. We talked about those. But remember, when I did talk about those, I also talked about the procedures, that is, the protocols, if you will, that belong to coming into the office. And now I guess it's time to talk about those. The office of the ministry exists by Christ's own institution to serve His own body, the church. But it is both church and ministry. The ministry exists for the sake of Christ's people. It's a ministry of the church and to the church. And, therefore, the church has a central role will in how men become pastors. We call this process the call process. In order to be certified for a call to a congregation, one must prepare for this office. That's what you men are doing right now. And there's a whole procedure that our church body has inaugurated in order for that to happen. Certainly, part of it is the study that you're doing right now. To have these spiritual qualifications is at the core of the matter, but also having the kind of training that's necessary in order to assume the responsibilities of the office is also important. So, hence, we insist that there be a course of study. After all, anyone in your profession, for example, in farming or ranching needs to know something about the process. You can't just walk in from some urban area and suddenly decide to be a rancher. You've got to know something about cattle, for example. You've got to know something about the land in order to do that job. So it is also in the ministry. We need to know the word of God. We need to know what it is to be a pastor, the duties and responsibilities. We need to learn, certainly, the basics of the skills and the aptitudes that are part and parcel of the responsibility of tending the sheep and caring for Christ's lambs. And so it is that we have this whole course of study. Once a man is finished with that course of study, then there is a certification process. The seminary to which you have applied through the Delto program will then, upon the completion of these courses, certify you for this public office. Now, having received certification is one thing. The call, however, remember I told you, is central. In other words, a flock of God's people, a congregation needs to call you to be their pastor. And so every year our church body has the joyful privilege of placing certain men into the ministry upon the completion of their course of study, upon their certification for this public office, and then also upon the call of the congregation. Now, how do these two things come together, the certification and the call? That happens in our midst through the board of assignments, which is really the group of our district presidents together called the council and presidents. They're the ones who we have designated to put the candidates for the office and those who are�-- those congregations that are calling pastors together. And so, once that is done and the call is assigned, then a pastor may legitimately enter into the office of the ministry. A call is valid when it is -- when it's in accordance with God's own institution with the office of the ministry. It's legitimate and it's extended by those who are authorized to call a man into the ministry. Like I said before, a man doesn't promote himself into this office. You don't just suddenly decide to be a pastor. In order to be a legitimate pastor, one must have a legitimate call from a congregation who calls them to serve as shepherd in that place. So, generally speaking, that's the process of how a man is placed in the ministry. *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***