Official Handbook Source Text
Handbook page 59
Source: LCMS Handbook 2023, page 59.
This page reproduces text from the 2023 LCMS Handbook for study and navigation. Readers should verify procedural, legal, parliamentary, or governance questions against the official LCMS Handbook and appropriate LCMS authorities.
satisfactory testimonials that each candidate so classified is still qualified for recommendation for a first call to serve in the church.
2.7.5 A pastor emeritus from another church body, after having completed an
approved colloquy program of the Synod, may be placed on the roster of the Synod without call by action of the Council of Presidents on the basis of policies adopted by the Council of Presidents.
(a) Such placement shall be acknowledged by a rite of recognition in a worship service preferably of the congregation of the Synod where he holds membership.
(b) Such rite is to be authorized by the district president.
2.8 Qualification for First Call
2.8.1 Candidates shall be declared qualified for first calls.
(a) They are those who before the effective date of the first calls will have satisfactorily completed the prescribed courses of studies and will have received diplomas from their respective seminaries of the Synod or in Synod-affirmed programs of colleges or universities of the Synod or have fulfilled the requisites of a colloquy or other approved education program of the Synod (Bylaws 2.7.2 and 2.7.3).
(b) In addition, they must have indicated complete dedication to the ministry and evidenced a readiness for service in the church.
(c) Finally, to be declared qualified and recommended by the faculties or colloquy committees for their specific types of service in the church, the appropriate faculty or colloquy committee must be satisfied that the individual will meet all personal, professional, and the theological requirements of those who hold the office of ministry to which the individual aspires.
(d) In addition, an academic year of supervised internship (vicarage) is required of all seminary students before graduation, ordinarily in the second year before graduation.
2.8.2 It shall be the responsibility of the Synod’s colloquy committees or, subject
to the policies of the Colloquy Committee for Commissioned Ministry and within programs for which their respective institutions are currently affirmed by the Synod, the faculties of Synod colleges and universities to declare colloquy candidates qualified for first calls.
2.8.3 For purposes of declaring candidates qualified for placement and
recommending them for membership in the Synod, the Synod considers a “faculty” to be defined as follows:
(a) Seminaries: all full-time faculty members who are in good standing on the Synod’s roster of ordained ministers.
(b) Colleges and universities: all full-time faculty members who are in good standing as individual members of the Synod or are members in good standing of a member congregation of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod.
2.8.4 The faculty of a Synod college or university may declare qualified and
recommend candidates for first calls only while affirmed by the Concordia University System, and only with regard to programs leading to candidacy
