Missouri Synod Lutherans Debate Licensed Lay Deacons’ Role in Preaching and Communion

Five centuries after Martin Luther’s break with Rome, the Rev. Heath Curtis told a conference at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, Illinois, last month that “we are fighting a 500-year battle.” The dispute he described concerns the role of ordained clergy and the laity in Lutheran churches. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, a conservative-leaning body of about 6,000 churches with headquarters in Kirkwood, Missouri, has more than 2 million members across the United States.

The synod, like other mainline churches, has struggled to recruit pastors. Some men, often in remote and inner-city areas, have bypassed four years of seminary to serve congregations in need. The church ordains only men. Since 1989, when the synod moved to officially allow trained deacons to serve as pastors in exceptional situations, the practice of elevating a parishioner from within a congregation to ministry has grown to include more than 500 people, according to the report.

The Hamel conference was organized by Gottesdienst, a journal on Lutheran worship, for traditionalists planning how to curtail the practice, which some presenters described as a threat. The Rev. Burnell Eckardt, reading from a prepared paper, said he was “not surprised by the entire lay ministry fiasco we have had to endure for nearly 30 years,” adding that “confusion, division, and unrealistic expectations have ensued.”

The licensed lay deacon issue is expected to be raised for debate at the synod’s July convention in Milwaukee, where the synod’s president, the Rev. Matthew Harrison, is expected to back reform. In a speech at the Hamel conference, Harrison said the church had “gone far beyond” the “controversial action” taken at a 1989 convention in Wichita, Kansas, that created the deacon program. He endorsed a task force that, in the report’s words, “essentially seeks to strike and rebuild.”

Among the task force’s recommendations, licensed deacons who preach and administer communion would apply to be examined by the synod and, in some cases, receive more theological training before being approved for ordination. Their new status would be “specific ministry pastor.” The task force also said districts should explore other means of meeting pastoral needs, such as “multipoint parishes, technological aids, and greater use of inactive pastors.” Harrison said, “We believe that through the mild suggestions of the task force we shouldn’t have to close a single congregation. In fact, we want more people trained to assist their pastors in the appropriate way.” Hearing both the task force’s aims and the concerns of those who oppose them, the synod’s debate will test whether a fair account of each position can be reached (Proverbs 18:17).

The report notes that Harrison, president for the past two terms, has publicly held a hard line against homosexuality and interfaith worship, and has called for intensive theological training for clergy and expanded international missions. In a recent writing about the “brutal facts” of the synod’s 40-year membership decline, Harrison said 95 percent of members are of European descent and are not having nearly as many children.

Source: Read the original report