LCMS 2026 Convention Field Guide

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Report number/id: R13.3
Report title: R13.3 Report on Unapproved Programs Preparing for the Office of the Holy Ministry (Pastoral Formation Committee, 2023 Res. 6-03A)
Workbook start page: 68
Workbook end page: 71
Source pages: 68, 69, 70, 71
Source status: source_checked
Committee: Not available

R13.3
Report on Unapproved Programs Preparing for the Oﬃce of the Holy
Ministry (Pastoral Formation Committee, 2023 Res. 6-03A)

LCMS Bylaws on Placement, Ordination, Commissioning— Why?
“Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both
yourself and your hearers.” (1 Tim. 4:16)
At the conclusion of the “Preface” to the Christian Book of Concord of 1580, the confessors enumerate
four chief motivations in drawing together and drafting the Book of Concord:
• the extension of God’s name and glory;
• the propagation of His Word, from which we hope for salvation;
• the peace and tranquility of churches and schools; and
• the instruction and consolation of disturbed consciences. (Preface, 22)1
For these reasons also The Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod was formed and still exists, as Article III,
“Objectives,” of the constitution of The Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod attests. Enumerated among
those objectives is also the recruitment and training of pastors. The bylaws of Synod reserve for the two
seminaries of Synod, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (CSL), and Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort
Wayne (CTSFW), the duty, to the exclusion of other seminaries, to recruit, educate, form and train the
pastors of Synod (Bylaws 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 2.13.1, 3.10.5.7.10(h)).
Why?
In the cultivation of a pastorate ﬁt for the high calling of serving the congregations of The Lutheran
Church— Missouri Synod, the Synod has developed a handful of critical mechanisms to ensure two
things:
• that the promise extended by the pastor at ordination can be knowledgeably, faithfully and
conscientiously kept;
• that the congregation’s expectation of the pastor’s ﬁdelity can be met.
The pastor’s promise is to “perform the duties of [his] oﬃce in accordance with [the Lutheran]
Confessions, and that all [his] preaching and teaching and [his] administration of the Sacraments will be
in conformity with Holy Scripture and with these Confessions.”
2 In the boilerplate language supplied by
the Commission on Constitutional Matters and typically encoded in a congregation’s constitution as
Article 2 or 3, the “Confessional Standard,” the congregation expresses its expectation of the standard to
which the pastor will conduct his ministry when it says: “This congregation accepts without reservation:
3.1 The Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament as the written Word of God and the only rule and
norm of faith and practice. 3.2 All the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church as a true and

1 Unless otherwise noted, references to the Book of Concord are from Paul T. McCain et al., eds., Concordia: The
Lutheran Confessions, 2nd ed. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005).
2 “Rite of Ordination” and “Rite of the Installation of a Pastor,” in Lutheran Service Book Agenda (St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 2006), 166, 179.
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unadulterated statement and exposition of the Word of God, to wit: the three Ecumenical Creeds (the
Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed), the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, the
Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles, the Large Catechism of Luther, the Small
Catechism of Luther, and the Formula of Concord.”
3 One might express the matter this way: LCMS
pastors for LCMS parishes; LCMS parishes for LCMS pastors.
Apart from that understanding and the practice that follows from it, the doctrinal ﬁdelity of the member
congregations and pastors of the Synod is wantonly and carelessly placed at risk. Indeed, as one sadly
witnesses all too often, it fails. Such failure is a matter of both temporal and eternal consequence. No
one is saved by his orthodoxy, but a right faith in Jesus cannot be long maintained under a false
confession.
Why This is Vitally Important
In the temporal realm, this failure violates the congregation’s and pastor’s obligation to proclaim the
whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27), to abide by the teaching of the apostles (Acts 2.42) and “not [to]
speak or write anything contrary to this Confession, either publicly or privately” (FC SD XII 40). It also
violates the congregation’s right, as baptized children of God, to receive the unadulterated teaching,
witness and confession of the Holy Scriptures.4 For their failure to preach this Word, the Lord Jesus
upbraids the Pharisees who corrupt His Word when He calls them sheep-killers and opposes them (John
10). It also causes division (Rom. 16:17) thereby constituting a breach of love (1 Cor. 1:10; Eph. 4:3-16).
Eternally, the consequences are dire. Paul warns the Galatians that a little leaven leavens the whole lump
(Gal. 5:9), that the message of the “Christian” Judaizers is a “diﬀerent Gospel” that cannot be called
another, equal Gospel (ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον, ὃ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλο, [Gal. 1.6–7]). It is “the truth” — the Lord’s
Word — that sets free from sin, death and the power of the devil (John 8 :31–32), not just a part of it or
that truth mixed with error.
Heeding the imperative to keep love and a true confession of Jesus Christ, for the sake of both the saints
and the lost, the LCMS has insisted that the formation of our pastors not be left to others who ignore,
despise or eschew the truth or mix it with falsehood, but that, for the sake of both the ministry and
mission of the LCMS, this formation be committed to the LCMS’ seminaries — Concordia Theological
Seminary, Fort Wayne, and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (Bylaws 2.71., 2.8.1 (a), (c), 2.8.3 (a)). Indeed,
to ensure the ﬁdelity of the theological education and pastoral formation,
the LCMS further requires that
all faculty members staﬀed to the two seminaries receive prior approval. The prior approval committee
consists of nationally elected representatives, to wit, “the President of the Synod (or his designee), the
chairman of the Council of Presidents (or his designee), and the chairman of the Board for National
Mission (or his designee).” It may grant prior approval for a man to be called to the faculty of a seminary
only on the basis of “a thorough theological review” of the man and his work (Bylaw 3.10.5.7.3 (a)).
While clergy from other denominations who later in life discover their agreement with the teaching and
confession of the LCMS may be admitted into membership in the Synod and serve parishes in our Synod
through our colloquy program (Bylaw 3.10.2), the Synod, for good and self-evident reasons, does not
admit to the roster men from LCMS congregations who have chosen (a) not to seek a theological
education and pastoral formation from one of the two LCMS seminaries and instead (b) to seek a

3 Commission on Constitutional Matters, “Guidelines for Constitutions and Bylaws of Lutheran Congregations,” rev.
2012, 4–5.
4 “Wherever the Church is, there is the authority [right] to administer the Gospel” (Tr 67).
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theological education and pastoral formation from a seminary lacking the guarantees of ﬁdelity provided
by the bylaws cited above or from a seminary that is heterodox in teaching or unionistic in practice.
These two bylaw provisos — the exclusive use of pastors formed in Synod seminaries and prior approval
of seminary faculty members based upon thorough theological review — protect the right of
congregations to receive the ministration of the Gospel and the whole counsel of God in their midst and
the ability and freedom of the pastors to conduct their oﬃce in accordance with the Holy Scriptures and
the Lutheran Confessions. Without these two bylaw provisos, this right of congregations and this ability
and freedom of pastors are abrogated, and the truth of the Gospel, which alone creates saving faith, is
placed at risk.
Unauthorized Seminary Programs
Notwithstanding our Synod’s agreement described above, two extra-synodical routes to earning the
M.Div. have gained attention in the LCMS: a cooperative between Unite Leadership Collective (ULC) and
Luther House of Study (LHOS) and, more recently, the establishment of The Center for Missional and
Pastoral Leadership through the Center (thecenter.info) within the Institute of Lutheran Theology’s Christ
School of Theology (cst.ilt.edu/cmpl/).
Since at least 2020, the Rev. Dr. Tim Ahlman, along with his congregation Christ Lutheran Greenﬁeld and
the ULC, an organization dedicated to “connecting the dots between theology, ministry, and leadership
to empower you to spread the Gospel in explosive ways,”5 has been running what Ahlman on his
podcasts, Lead Time and the Tim Ahlman Podcast, has repeatedly referred to as an “experiment.” This
experiment consists of enrolling students from Christ Lutheran Greenﬁeld and numerous other LCMS
congregations in LHOS to receive a degree from Kairos University, a completely online program for
theological study. Students may enroll in an M.A. in counseling or an M.Div.
In addition, in February 2025 at the pre-conference in Phoenix, Ariz., for Best Practices in Ministry, the
Rev. Dr. Jeﬀrey Kloha announced a new initiative through the Institute of Lutheran Theology (ILT) to
create an online-only M.Div. program known as the Center for Missional and Pastoral Leadership (CMPL).
Earlier, less public, announcements of the launch of CMPL were made by Tim Ahlman and Jeﬀ Kloha at
the Large Church Network Conference in San Diego on Jan. 24–25, 2025, and on Facebook on Feb. 7,
2025, respectively.6 The program confers M.A., M.M., and M.Div. degrees.
Luther House of Study
The LHOS curriculum is readily available. What follows is an analysis of that curriculum.
Overall Structure
The LHOS curriculum, since its accreditation is through Kairos University, is characterized foremost as
being “contextual” and “competency based.”
7
Competencies
The competencies outlined by the Kairos model consist of the following:

5 “Get Started,” uniteleadership.org, accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
6 Source of January 22–24 announcement, Ron Mudge, CSL Provost, who was in attendance at the Large Church
Network Conference; the Feb. 7, 2025, announcement is found at facebook.com/watch/?v=2010013649497735.
Accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
7 kairos.edu/academics/programs/master-of-divinity, accessed on Feb. 9, 2026.
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1. Articulate how their life in Christ exhibits the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit as formed in their
Christian community and devoted to the glory of God the Father.
2. Demonstrate skillful exegesis through in-depth biblical study and awareness of methodological
frameworks.
3. Demonstrate eﬀective cultural exegesis and awareness of cultural frameworks, empowering
them for eﬀective, faithful, dynamic, and culturally appropriate communication of the Gospel.
4. Demonstrate a coherent Christian theological understanding and awareness of theological
frameworks, informing their life and ministry, including corporate worship of the Triune God.
5. Demonstrate appreciation and critical awareness of their own and other Christian traditions as
implemented in strategies for ministry.
6.
Articulate their understanding of Christian ethics and demonstrate how it informs daily living and
their philosophy of leadership.
7. Demonstrate competent care and collaborative leadership informed by integrative reﬂection, an
understanding of human and organizational systems, and emotional-relational intelligence.
8. Demonstrate competence in the integration of knowledge, character, and ability speciﬁc to their
ministry context.
9. Articulate and engage their vocation in a mentored life, intentional Christian community, and
whole-life stewardship.
8
Chris Croghan, the academic director of LHOS, has indicated that as he and his team at LHOS were
developing their curriculum in conjunction with Kairos, he advocated for competencies broad enough to
allow for the “Lutheran emphasis” that LHOS sought to have in its curriculum.
9 The same set of
competencies are thus used not only by Lutherans, but by a broad mix of diﬀering confessions.
Mentorship
Each student in the Kairos/LHOS program is assigned three mentors, who accompany the student all the
way through his or her education: an LHOS faculty mentor, a vocational mentor and a personal mentor.10
Students must demonstrate their nine-fold competency to these three mentors.11
Distance education modules
Aside from their interactions with their vocational and personal mentors, students’ academic work
consists of readings, written assignments and online modules. On average, 60–70% of the learning
directed toward gaining a competency is not achieved synchronously, and the ratio of synchronous to
asynchronous work varies greatly. Asynchronous elements require students to watch pre-recorded
lectures, for example; synchronous elements are conducted via Zoom or other similar platforms.
Because
of the ﬂexibility allowed by the preponderance of asynchronous learning modules, there is no speciﬁc
curricular schedule to which students must adhere: Students thus pay a $300 monthly fee for access to
the curriculum and may take as short or as long as they wish.12
Faculty

8 “Luther House of Study Curriculum Master of Divinity Kairos 9.0,”
docs.google.com/document/d/1e8okNL2DW1G0ZA9fLHIqgr6FMQKVEVJqWrX3dbevIUk/edit?tab=t.0, accessed Feb.
9, 2026.
9 Zoom meeting between J.S. Bruss and Chris Croghan on Jan. 2, 2025.
10 “Master of Divinity,” kairos.edu/academics/programs/master-of-divinity/, accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
11 Zoom meeting between J.S. Bruss and Chris Croghan on Jan. 2, 2025.
12 “Students,” lutherhouseofstudy.org/students/, accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
R13.3

2026 Convention Workbook
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OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
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Despite claims to the contrary, the Lutheran faculty of LHOS are not “confessional” Lutherans in the
sense that LCMS has typically understood the term. Confessional Lutheranism, as understood by the
LCMS, is undergirded by (a) confessing the verbal inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and therefore both
their inerrancy (errorlessness) and their infallibility (their inability to mislead or to fail to accomplish that
which they set out to do); (b) subscribing the entire Book of Concord of 1580 as a correct exposition of
the verbally inspired, inerrant and infallible Scriptures, still determinative of doctrine and practice.
LHOS faculty have varied roster status. Chris Croghan, LHOS’s chief academic oﬃcer, was educated as an
undergraduate at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, holds the M.Div. and Ph.D. from Luther Seminary
(ELCA) in St. Paul, Minn., and is rostered in the ELCA.13 CEO Sarah Stenson is a Lutheran, but holds the
M.Div. from Sioux Falls Seminary (Baptist, now Kairos University); she is rostered in the LCMC with
signiﬁcant NALC ties.14 Lars Olson, director of pastoral formation, is rostered in the ELCA; his wife also
serves as a pastor.15 Despite protestations to the contrary (and even the ELCA ordination vows) and
based on the clear evidence of breaking with Scripture on the ordination of women, none of the faculty
hold a quia subscription to the Lutheran Confessions
16 nor do they uphold the verbal inspiration and
inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures. They cite as their favorite work of theology a book by Gerhard Forde,17
which is telling given the signiﬁcant departures of Forde-esque theology from Confessional Lutheranism,
as the LCMS has traditionally understood it.
Curriculum
Transcripts from Kairos/Luther House of Study are markedly diﬀerent from those of institutions, showing
little concern for academic and theological rigor. With one exception, the transcript shows no credits and
no grades; students may meet the requirements for a competency without taking the accompanying
coursework. The confusing nature of the transcripts makes it nearly impossible to understand what a
student has learned.
Overview
Despite these diﬃculties, the curriculum does have a shape. It groups readings and written assignments
under the nine competencies. Competency assessment seems to be built into the curriculum on the
basis of a fairly standard pattern of written assignments: Students may choose one of a handful of
parish-level writing assignments, such as a series of ﬁve 75- to 100-word bulletin inserts summarizing the
four Gospels and Acts, or ﬁve 300-word newsletter articles that give an overview of the four Gospels and
Acts, or a Bible study lesson plan to cover the four Gospels and Acts. The assignment for what appears to

13 “Chris Croghan,” kairos.edu/faculty/chris-croghan, accessed Feb. 9, 2026; Rostered Ministers Results for
“Croghan,” accessed Feb. 10, 2026.
14 “Sarah Stenson,” kairos.edu/faculty/sarah-stenson, accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
15 “Get to know the Luther House of Study staﬀ,” lutherhouseofstudy.org/get-to-know-the-luther-house-of-study-
staﬀ, accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
16 A quia subscription to the Lutheran Confessions indicates that the one who subscribes them does so because
they are a correct exposition of Holy Scripture. Conversely, there are Lutherans who hold a quatenus subscription
— a subscription that indicates they accept the teaching of the Lutheran Confessions only to the extent they feel
the Lutheran Confessions accurately represent the teachings of Scripture. While there are numerous varieties of
quatenus subscription, they all tend to fall into one of two varieties. In the ﬁrst variety, the subscriber holds a
diﬀerent confession than that of the Lutheran Confessions on one or more points; in the second variety, the
subscriber verbally assents to the Lutheran Confessions (quia subscription) but teaches and allows teaching and
practices that deviate from Lutheran Confessions.
17 “Get to know the Luther House of Study staﬀ,” lutherhouseofstudy.org/get-to-know-the-luther-house-of-study-
staﬀ, accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
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be academic assessment is a 750- to 1000-word treatment of a passage from the Gospels or Acts.18 The
assignments are at best appropriate for an undergraduate survey course on the New Testament. This
level of appropriation of theological content is found throughout the curriculum.
Finally, each of the nine competencies are measured by a “master assessment.” In the case of
competency two, which focuses on the Bible, students submit two sermons, one on the Old, one on the
New Testament, for evaluation. The sermons may be written out or recorded. Presumably the three
mentors come to an agreement, or at least vote, on whether the sermons demonstrate competency.
19
It is diﬃcult to see how the ability to engage in close, critical reading is engendered by this curriculum.
Reading Assignments
Perhaps the most distressing element of the curriculum, besides its low expectations for the level at
which theology is to be grasped, is the reading list. While punctuated here and there by LCMS authors
and Luther, the reading list is utterly dominated by Steven Paulson, Gerhard Forde and James Nestingen,
ELCA and former ELCA theologians. With their well-known problems in the areas of scriptural inerrancy,
the atonement and the third use of the law, and their Barth-inﬂected proclamation theology, the
preponderance of these authors in the secondary literature that makes up so much of the curriculum
represents a signiﬁcant divergence from confessional Lutheranism. According to one student, LCMS
theologians and teaching are often used as a foil.
Furthermore, the assignments in Luther are surprisingly basic. The vast majority consist of his
introductions to the books of the Bible and some of his basic writings, such as those contained in
Dillenberger’s Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings.
Students do encounter the entire Book of Concord. The interpretive readings that accompany the Book
of Concord assignments tend to come from Paulson, Forde and Nestingen, along with some LCMS
authors. But on the whole, the “pattern of sound words” (2 Tim. 1:13) that our LCMS seminaries, CTSFW
and CSL, uphold is utterly lacking.
Center for Missional and Pastoral Leadership20
According to a video on the CMPL site, the program is intended to be “a fully-online, fully-accredited
master of divinity program” aimed at missional leadership in the local congregation.21 The CMPL
program rests on ﬁve pillars: biblical, reformational, missional, aﬀordable and global.
In line with its name, the video referenced above claims that the Center for Missional and Pastoral
Leadership weaves mission into every class.
More concerning is the Center for Missional and Pastoral Leadership’s claim to be educating and forming
pastors for the church. Such formation occurs entirely outside of the healthy LCMS oversight to which
the LCMS seminaries willingly and gladly submit for the sake of maintaining sound doctrine. According to
the CMPL FAQ, CMPL was founded at the request of (presumably LCMS) “congregations and church
leaders” to “equip potential pastors and church workers for missional ministry in areas that are not

18 “Luther House of Study Curriculum: Master of Divinity Kairos 9.0,” 7.
19 “Luther House of Study Curriculum: Master of Divinity Kairos 9.0,” p. 9.
20 Information on CMPL can be found on the Center for Missional Pastoral Leadership Facebook page,
thecenter.info and at cst.ilt.edu/cmpl.
21 “The Pillars of the Center for Missional and Pastoral Leadership Formation,” cst.ilt.edu/cmpl, accessed Feb. 9,
2026.
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currently being served.” Quite explicitly, “The program is designed for students who are seeking to grow
in service in their local ministry context, perhaps eventually to become a pastor or church leader.”
“Congregations in every tradition, and in particular Lutheran congregations, are struggling to ﬁnd pastors
to serve them. In some cases, congregations go without a pastor for three and four years. This program
will help raise up more pastors and leaders for congregations that need them, and especially
congregations in settings where maintaining a full-time pastor is a challenge. Students are equipped not
simply to occupy the oﬃce of pastor, but with tools to engage their congregations and communities with
the Gospel, so that the Lord of the Church might call even more people to himself.”
22
Overall Structure
CMPL is housed in the Institute of Lutheran Theology in Brookings, S.D., a completely online institution
of theological education, oﬀering seven degrees: Ph.D., D.Min., S.T.M., M.Div., Master of Chaplain
Ministry (M.C.M.), Master of Ministry (M.M.), and an M.A. CMPL presently enrolls students in one of
three of those programs: M.A. [in Religion], M.M., and the M.Div. The curriculum for those three
programs is structured in such a way that the M.A. (36 credits) uses a subset of coursework for the M.M.
(45 credits), which in turn uses a subset of coursework for the M.Div. (90 credits). According to CMPL
leadership, the enrollment of the “25–26” students is split roughly 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 among the programs. In
other words, students who enroll and begin coursework in one may apply for admission to another and
bring their credits along.
23
Mentorship
Mentorship in the ﬁeld for the program, which, as noted, enrolls both LCMS and non-LCMS students, is
coordinated by CMPL faculty member the Rev. Todd Jones (LCMS rostered pastor), who serves as CMPL’s
Director of Formation.24
Distance education
The CMPL program uses primarily synchronous, online coursework. While the CMPL model seems to
have been dependent upon the formation of cohorts as a powerful educational tool, most students
enrolled in Fall of 2025 vary in how many courses they are taking,
25 meaning that the starting cohort will
soon break apart and its power as an educational tool will diminish. These distance courses are taught
on a Fall Semester/J-Term/Spring Semester/Summer Semester schedule.
Faculty
The CMPL faculty includes the following: Jeﬀ Kloha (Associate Pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church,
Arlington, Va. [LCMS]), James Marriott (Associate Pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, Georgetown, Texas
[LCMS]), Todd Jones (Candidate, living in Bella Vista, Ark., but rostered in LCMS Michigan District),
Benjamin Haupt (Assistant Pastor at Christ Memorial Lutheran Church, St. Louis, Mo. [LCMS] and Global
Executive Director at the Pastoral Leadership Institute, a non-RSO para-church organization).
26 Dale
Meyer (President Emeritus of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis [LCMS]) served as a guest professor during

22 “Frequently Asked Questions,” cst.ilt.edu/cmpl, accessed Feb. 9, 2026. Emphasis added.
23 Zoom meeting with Jeﬀ Kloha, Sept. 22, 2025.
24 facebook.com/61572676226956/videos/718371994311322, accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
25 Zoom meeting with Jeﬀ Kloha, Sept. 22, 2025. At least one student is presently enrolled in three ILT/Christ School
of Theology courses (some which are not CMPL courses), while others are enrolled in one or two.
26 “Center Contributors,” cst.ilt.edu/cmpl, accessed Feb. 9, 2026; current assignments from locator.lcms.org/worker,
accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
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Fall 2025; and Matthew Borrasso (Pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Lexington Park, Md. [LCMS]) was
likewise enlisted to teach in Fall 2025.27 None of these faculty have received Synod prior approval for
these teaching positions and are not sanctioned by the LCMS. CMPL instructors in Fall of 2025 included:
• Haupt — Introduction to Pastoral Ministry
• Borrasso — Faith, Knowledge and Reason
• Meyer — 1 Peter (elective)
• Kloha — Biblical Hermeneutics
Notwithstanding the numerous LCMS clergy associated with and teaching in the CMPL program, CMPL
students may take ILT/Christ School of Theology courses, and ILT/Christ School of Theology students may
enroll in CMPL courses. While the courses in the ﬁrst term of oﬀerings were taught by the LCMS pastors
listed above, as of February 2026, CMPL courses are cross listed with ILT courses and staﬀed by ILT
instructors.
28
Curriculum
The CMPL M.Div. curriculum is a boilerplate four discipline, theological seminary curriculum with courses
in Biblical Theology (24 credits), Historical and Systematic Theology (24 credits), Philosophical Theology
and Ethics (12 credits) and Pastoral Theology (21 credits). Together with introductory courses in
hermeneutics, New Testament Greek and classical Hebrew, the M.Div.
program comprises 90 credits. The
M.A. [in Religion] (non-thesis, 36 credits) and the M.M. (45 credits) use smaller bits of the same
curriculum. While the M.Div. requires Greek and Hebrew, the M.M. requires Greek only, and the M.A.
requires no language. Language is taught not with the goal of interpreting or even translating the text on
one’s own (“The student will still be dependent upon others’ translations”
29), but with the goal of being
able to make sense of a commentary. The curricula are shared with ILT/Christ School of Theology.
Deﬁnite marks have been made on this shared curriculum by the CMPL faculty: Biblical Hermeneutics
and the entire Pastoral Theology curricula have been rewritten by CMPL faculty and adopted by
ILT/Christ School of Theology.
30
To be noted is that only three credits are devoted to the reading of the Book of Concord, while the
description of Biblical Theology courses is isagogic rather than exegetical (related, no doubt, to the Greek
and Hebrew proﬁciency aimed for in the curriculum).31 In other words, the level of close reading of the
text of the Bible is diminished. The quick reading of the Book of Concord represents a deﬁcient exposure
to and encounter with the Book of Concord, and may hint at what is meant by the term “reformational”
in the ﬁve pillars that undergird CMPL. The LCMS does not take “Lutheran” to mean a vaguely deﬁned
“spirit of the Reformation” but connects it speciﬁcally to the teachings and spirit of the Book of Concord
of 1580. Nor should the sub-minimum level of proﬁciency in Greek and Hebrew be waved oﬀ. As Martin
Luther put it, “We will not long preserve the gospel without the languages. The languages are the sheath
in which this sword of the Spirit [Eph. 6:17] is contained.”
32

27 Zoom meeting with Jeﬀ Kloha, Sept. 22, 2025. Current assignments from locator.lcms.org/worker, accessed Feb.
9, 2026.
28 Conversation with ILT faculty member on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026.
29 Academic Catalog 2025–2026 The Christ School of Theology Institute of Lutheran Theology, p. 44; cst.ilt.edu/wp-
content/uploads/2023/10/CST-2025-2026-ﬁnal-5.3.pdf, accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
30 Zoom meeting with Jeﬀ Kloha, Sept. 22, 2025.
31 Academic Catalog 2025–2026, pp. 25, 45, 49.
32 Martin Luther, “To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany That They Establish and Maintain Christian Schools,”
in Luther’s Works, vol. 45 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1962), 360.

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Student Body
Of the “25 to 26” students currently enrolled in CMPL, “between ﬁve and six” are not in The Lutheran
Church— Missouri Synod. The remaining students “have a connection” with the LCMS and identify their
congregational and synodical membership as LCMS, but when queried on the ILT application regarding
the church body in which these students wish to serve, many put down a question mark.33 Four to ﬁve of
the 26 students in Kloha’s Biblical Interpretation class in Fall 2025 are from other [Lutheran?] church
bodies, and at least one is an ELCA woman seeking ordination in the Canadian Association of Lutheran
Congregations, whose oﬃcial seminary is the Institute of Lutheran Theology.
34 CMPL leaders express
hope that their graduates may be rostered in the LCMS, despite Bylaw 3.10.2.4.
Is CMPL Distinct from ILT/Christ School of Theology?
(1) Since the CMPL link on thecenter.info directs to the Christ School of Theology site, CMPL and Christ
School of Theology share a curriculum, even as CMPL faculty have had a hand in re-shaping some
coursework.35 (2) Because of (1), there is no evidence that Christ School of Theology and CMPL courses
are diﬀerent courses. (3) Because of (2), the only conclusion one may reach is that the courses CMPL
students enroll in are those that Christ School of Theology students enroll in. (4) Finally, because of (3),
the only conclusion one may reach is that CMPL students, notwithstanding the advertisement of four
LCMS clergy as “Center Contributors” (namely, Ben Haupt, Jeﬀ Kloha, James Marriott, and Todd Jones),
may or will be taught also by ILT faculty members.
Indeed, the statement on the CMPL FAQ in response to the question, “How does the [CMPL] program
balance deep theological learning with practical application in daily life?” that “the faculty of ILT and
CMPL have years of experience” gives every indication that it is the intention of CMPL that its students
will, indeed, learn from ILT faculty.
36 Finally, in a CMPL Newsletter 1:7 dated May 8, 2025, Kloha directs
prospective CMPL students to ILT courses that were on queue for Fall 2025. Along with LCMS instructors
Kilcrease (non-rostered), Kloha, Kolb and Schumacher, the instructors for those courses include Robert
Benne and Dan Lioy.37
There is a certain amount of opacity regarding the roster status of ILT faculty, though with some
investigation one may discover members of the ministerium of the LCMS (Rynearson), the NALC (Sorum),
CALC (Kwok) and the LCMC (Hillmer). One member of the faculty holds dual roster status in the NALC
and the Evangelical Church Alliance (Lioy).38 That said, of the nine teaching faculty, a couple (Benne,
Kilcrease) are not ordained and others’ ordination status is unclear (Hackman, Vestrucci), at least calling
into question assertions by CMPL that “the faculty of ILT … have years of experience serving as pastors,
missionaries, and church planters…”39
Like the LHOS program, the CMPL/Christ School of Theology/ILT program is inadequate for the purposes
of cultivating a ministerium in and for the LCMS that is faithful to the Holy Scriptures and our Confession.
The aﬃliation of numerous faculty with the North American Lutheran Church (NALC), a church body

33 Zoom meeting with Jeﬀ Kloha, Sept. 22, 2025.
34 “Training Clergy,” calc.ca, accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
35 Note that thecenter.info/cmpl directs users to cst.ilt.edu/cmpl; accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
36 “Frequently Asked Questions,” cst.ilt.edu/cmpl, accessed Feb. 9. 2026.
37 Jeﬀ Kloha, “Fall Courses Announced!” in https://thecenter.info/cmpl-notes1-7, accessed Feb. 9. 2026.
38 The Evangelical Church Alliance denies the eﬃcacy of the Sacraments, confessing Baptism merely to be a symbol
and for believers only and the Lord’s Supper merely as a commemoration. See “Tenets of Faith,”
ecainternational.org/images/uploads/ECA_Standards/Tenets_of_Faith_15_July_2020.pdf, accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
39 “Frequently Asked Questions,” cst.ilt.edu/cmpl/, accessed Feb. 9. 2026.
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which, contrary to the Scriptures, ordains women — indeed, aﬃrms the ordination of women 40 —
betrays the unfaithful stance on Scripture shared or tolerated by numerous of the faculty.41
A concluding word on online theological education
There is clearly not no value in online education (yes: the sentence reads “not no”). It has been widely
eﬀective in helping students earn certiﬁcations for various professional specialties. It helped, albeit
limpingly and with signiﬁcant negative downstream impacts, sustain U.S. education through the recent
pandemic. And, in the absence of other modes of learning, it is one way to learn.
Indeed, numerous studies uphold the value of online education. Truly, students come out of online
education knowing more than when they entered. But no one measures the value of education that way.
The measure of educational goodness must always be of the relative value of one mode of education
versus another, one curriculum over against another, this teaching method in comparison to that. Thus,
the question before the church is not whether online is of some value — we readily concede it is. The
question for the church must be of its value relative to that of face-to-face, in-the-ﬂesh, residential
seminary education. Nor is the church’s question limited merely to education and knowledge; it must
also extend to the formation of a man personally, spiritually, intellectually, emotionally and pastorally.
The answer to the question of the value of online education is more sober and sobering when
considered in relation to face-to-face, in-the-ﬂesh, residential education, as numerous studies
demonstrate.
42
One study frequently cited by LCMS advocates for online theological education is titled “(Not) Being
There: Online Distance Theological Education.”43 A closer look at the study, however, reveals signiﬁcant
ﬂaws: It deals with only one year of data and asks no longitudinal questions on issues such as attrition
from the ministry. It also works with a data set that asks only students whether they feel they are
prepared for the ministry, with no objective evaluation of their preparedness. One alarming statistic

40 Andrew Ames Fuller, “An Aﬃrmation of Women in Ordained Ministry,” thenalc.org/en-us/2020/07/23/an-
aﬃrmation-of-women-in-ordained-ministry/, accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
41 The NALC’s “The Bible as the Word of God,” p. 8, shows this weakness. See thenalc.org/en-us/2018/11/28/the-
bible-as-the-word-of-god, accessed Feb. 9, 2026.
42 A good study on the impact of screen culture, including online education, is Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious
Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing Mental Illness (New York: Penguin, 2024). Most studies
of online education are undertaken by advocates of online education. The following studies were undertaken by
people who are genuinely interested in the most eﬀective and cost-eﬀective way to educate: William T. Alpert, et
al., “A Randomized Assessment of Online Learning,” American Economic Review 106, no. 5 (May 2016): 378–82; Eric
P. Bettinger, et al., “Virtual Classrooms: How Online College Courses Aﬀect Student Success,” American Economic
Review 107, no. 9 (Sept. 2017): 2855–75; Cassandra Hart, et al., “Online Course-taking and Student Outcomes in
California Community Colleges,” Education Finance and Policy 13, no. 1 (2018): 42–71; Nick Huntingdon-Klein, et.
al., “Selection into Online Community College Courses and Their Eﬀects on Persistence,” Research in High Education
58 (2017): 244–69; Stephanie Cellini and Hernando Gueso, “Student Learning in Online College Programs,” AERA
Open 7, no. 1 (2021): 1–18. These studies indicate signiﬁcant deﬁciencies with online education. Most interesting,
perhaps, is the California Community Colleges study. The State of California clearly has an interest in maximizing
outcomes and reducing costs. The study found that students who take the same course online as peers in person
lag in learning, and that the lag in learning only builds over time. Deﬁcient learning in a fundamentals course leads
to greater deﬁciency in a mid-level course, which leads to even greater deﬁciency in an advanced or capstone
course.
43 Sharon L. Miller and Christian Scharen, “(Not) Being There: Online Distance Theological Education,” Auburn
Studies, no. 23 (Fall 2017). Available at auburnseminary.org/reports/as2017-distance-education. Accessed Feb. 9,
2026.
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cited in the study indicates that overall seminary enrollment among schools accredited by the
Association of Theological Schools declined by 11% from 2006 to 2016, even as online enrollment grew
by 195%. In other words, the expansion of online theological education coincides with an overall drop in
enrollment in theological education.
In fact, in the online game, there are a handful of huge “winners” and a mountain of “losers.” In a study
of 14 prominent seminaries who oﬀer the M.Div. online, 3 show a gain in M.Div. enrollment (both online
and residential) after introducing an online option for the M.Div.: Midwest Baptist Theological Seminary
posted a gain of 358%, Reformed Seminary, a gain of 22%; and Palmer, a gain of 2%. But they are the
outliers. The remaining 11 seminaries posted an average loss of overall M.Div. enrollment (both online
and residential) of 32%. The average length of time it took to achieve that loss of enrollment was 8.3
years — a 4% decline per year. The same seminaries have lost 31% in their M. Div. enrollment since 2016,
a time during which the two LCMS seminaries have enjoyed a ﬂuctuating but stable enrollment in their
M.Div. and Alternate Route programs.44 While some M.Div. programs have seen astounding growth, that
is coupled with global and extra-denominational expansion. But if the most pressing need LCMS
seminaries ﬁll — indeed, if this is their only charge — is supplying pastors for LCMS congregations and
missions, both domestic and overseas, the surest route to meeting that need is through the residential
M.Div. and Alternate Route programs. Inﬂating enrollment numbers through overseas and non-LCMS
enrollments does not help the LCMS. And the surest way to decrease the number of theological
candidates is by oﬀering online M.Div. and Alternate Route programs.
But even such studies are insuﬃcient. The charge given pastors is of eternal consequence: They must
give an account, before God, for those in whose midst they are called by the Lord God to proclaim the
Word and administer the Sacraments (Heb. 13:17). At every turn they encounter troubled consciences, a
world set against the Lord and His Chosen One, and a cacophony of false teaching meant to deceive and
mislead the believers, jeopardizing their eternal salvation. Yet, it is speciﬁcally in this context where they
are called upon by the Lord and their solemn charge to shepherd the ﬂock of Christ, to be ready in
season and out, with patience and persistence, to reprove, rebuke, exhort (2 Tim. 4:2–5). For that
reason, Paul instructed Timothy not to lay on hands hastily. It takes time, concentrated, intense time, to
instill in a man in the theological, pastoral, personal and spiritual qualities that make a pastor.
Nor is the church’s long-standing insistence on residential education a historical hiccup, as if the only
hurdle to be cleared for non-residential, dis-enﬂeshed theological education and formation was the lack
of online delivery. The word has been technologized and available for broad dissemination since before
the time of Jesus, since the invention of papyrus. It was enhanced with the development of the
minuscule script; the minuscule’s impact was multiplied many times over with the advent of scriptoria;
printing press followed scriptorium; voice recording succeeded printing press; the wide dissemination of
video superseded even that feat. And yet, at no time throughout those two millennia did the church use
those means to replace the face-to-face, in-the-ﬂesh, residential formation of pastors.
That’s because residential education and formation of the future pastorate of the church are rooted in
the Lord’s own enﬂeshment among us (John 1:14). The reﬂection of His enﬂeshment among us cast itself
over the education and formation of His emissaries, who stand vice Christi (in Christ’s stead), in both the
Old and New Testaments. The Levites, charged with teaching the people the things of God, dwelled in

44 Statistics available at ats.edu/Data-Visualization - DVT. Schools included in the study: Midwest Baptist
Theological Seminary, Reformed Seminary, Palmer Theological Seminary, Westminster Theological Seminary in
Philadelphia, Luther Seminary, Fuller Seminary, Denver Seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Asbury
Theological Seminary, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Bethel
Seminary, Talbot School of Theology, Northern [Baptist Theological] Seminary.
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their own cities, where their business was the transmission of the things of God so that every new
generation of Levite could faithfully teach it to all Israel. The “sons of the prophets” located in Bethel,
Jericho, Gilgal and Ephraim gathered, lived, slept and ate together as they learned to become prophets in
Israel (2 Kings 2–6). The apostle Paul was educated and “raised up” in his own rabbinic training far from
his home, Tarsus, at the feet of Gamaliel in Judea (Acts 22:1–3). And the Lord Christ called His disciples,
the future apostolate of the holy Christian church, to drop their nets and follow Him (Luke 5:1–11; John
1:35–51). To those unwilling to leave behind nets, parents, plough and livelihood, the Lord Jesus had
words of rebuke (Luke 9:57–62; Matt. 8:18–21): he cannot stand in loco Christi who must have a place to
lay his head. Indeed, in one of the few educational-formational scenes we get in the New Testament
after Christ’s ascension, Apollos, the teacher, has gathered around himself “about twelve” disciples
(future pastors) in Ephesus, where together they were instructed and grew in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ so that they might in turn bring this message to church and world (Acts 19:1–10).
O Lord, grant unto Your church faithful pastors who shall declare Your truth with power and live
according to Your will. Send forth laborers into Your harvest and open the door of faith unto all
unbelievers and unto the people of Israel. Amen.

2026 Convention Workbook
71
OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
1

Report

R13.3 Report on Unapproved Programs Preparing for the Office of the Holy Ministry (Pastoral Formation Committee, 2023 Res. 6-03A)

Official Workbook report source text

Pause and Pray at 3:07 p.m.