Close Down The Surrendered Fort and Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrows, aka, The Two Concordias?

Both schools are on double secret probation.

Tim Rossow - <--Mequon grads, left click on the link
As I read the opening editorial in the most recent Concordia Journal (page 10 or 346 here) from the St. Louis Seminary I was pleased to find the president, Dale Meyer, defending residency seminary education. He writes a stirring description of life for seminarians in an urban setting at the St. Louis campus and it is worth the read.

This is quite ironic (or maybe purposeful) since just last week President Kieschnick met with President Meyer and President Wenthe in Ft. Wayne to noodle the idea of closing down the seminaries and instead remaking pastoral education to be done in some sort of drive-by style combination of on-line courses and a few seminars at one of the Concordias, colleges that is, not seminaries.
Kudos to President Meyer. We have been critical of the seminaries, joining in with our cartoonist Scott Blazek in referring to the seminary professors as dust bunnies. In this editorial however, President Meyer takes an excellent stand on a timely issue. We would appreciate Dale Meyer being a little more direct. He never mentions the threat of closing down the seminaries but clearly this is a defense of on-site, residency based seminary education.

This is an important issue. How would you like your doctor to perform surgery on you based on a few on-line courses? If your MD messes up you only pay for it temporally. How would you like your pastor to operate on your soul based on a few on-line courses? If your M Div messes up you pay for it for eternity. (M Div refers to the Master of Divinity degree awarded to seminary graduates.)

There were some troubling aspects to the editorial. President Meyer announced a new program of joint work with the adjacent Fontbonne College. That is fine except that it is a Roman Catholic school To his credit President Meyer is quick to point out that the sharing is only in non-theological areas. That’s good but I just can’t imagine Martin Luther or C. F. W. Walther proposing any sort of joint work with a Roman Catholic college.

One of the proposals is the seminarians take some business courses at Fontbonne. I think it is good for seminarians to learn the basics of goal setting and how to create and manage a program in the parish where helpful to the Gospel but this is the least of our problems. Our problems in the LCMS are not of a practical, business nature but of a theological nature.

Thank you President Meyer for defending residency seminary training. Keep it up. We encourage you to be a little more direct but this is certainly a start toward the “dust bunnies” rising up and hopefully becoming a herd of stampeding “jackelopes” running over the proposals to close the seminaries, stampeding the BRTFSG proposals, and ultimately trampling the non-Lutheran Ablaze movement.

Note: For those of you unfamiliar with the “jackelope,” it ain’t no dust bunny! It is a mythic character, the product of some early photo-shop work that combined a jack-rabbit with an antelope. It was a fearsome looking character. It was seen on countless vacaton (sic) postcards mailed home from the great west back in the 60’s and 70’s.  I think you can still find them in various tourist traps out west.

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GJ - Do you remember how long ago I said Missouri would close the Ft. Wayne seminary? Nevertheless, The Surrendered Fort went ahead with a multi-million dollar expansion of the library.

St. Louis bought the entire college adjacent to it, later selling it for a loss. St. Louis has enjoyed princely donations from the Schwan Foundation. They built the Chapel of St. Timothy and Titus and Marvin with a princely donation from him. St. Louis also spent millions on the cafeteria and dorms.

Wisconsin, Missouri, and the Little Sect on the Prairie should have viewed St. Marvin of Schwan as a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, since all three have been in dire straits after enjoying an avalanche of money poured over their heads.

Incompetent leadership stretches back to the Bohlmann years (at least). The Shrinkers and women's ordination buffs got their start during The Terror, as the Bohlmann administration is fondly remembered. One faculty member of Missouri ordered something from me, but made sure I mailed it to his home address - not the school - during those years.

Nine years of Barry and McCain gave Pentecostals, Shrinkers, and unionists a playground larded with fat financials. Barry led boldly and decisively - in every direction. I met Kent Hunter (DMin, Fuller Seminary) on his way into the Purple Palace, where he taught the DPs and Barry how to grow the synod. The statistics, as Hunter and Werning taught me in their books, tell the story. Missouri has been in steep decline ever since.

There is the argument for the Church Growth Movement in graphics too horrifying to deny. There too is the bitter fruit of UOJ. The old Synodical Conference began with Pietism and Enthusiasm, aided by  healthy flirtations with orthodoxy. Over time, all three synods have returned to their Pietistic roots.

Zinzendorf is a good example to remember - for bad results. With the best of intentions, he devoted his life to helping others at Herrnhut and supporting missions. His son got another settlement going that was so bad the guys could have starred in Party in Fire Island Pines.

Dale Meyer is defending his hyper-expensive residential seminary? How charming. The seminary posted a video of Meyer interviewing heresiarch Leonard Sweet, the Missouri leader looking like a devoted puppy ready to spring into Sweet's lap and nibble his ear. For that alone, St. Louis should be closed.

Our Lady of Sorrows gave Paul Calvin Kelm a DMin in Church Growth. For that alone, St. Louis should be closed.