Do we REALLY want more pastors?! - A response to LCMS decisions about pastoral formation

Let's have a conversation around how we are failing to adequately provide the churches of the LCMS with qualified pastors to lead Word and Sacrament ministry, through an increasingly narrow path to ordination—shall we? I offer my thoughts in response to district presidents who have encouraged conversation on this topic and knowing full well that my opinions may be ill-informed. I hold the things I share loosely. I hope to be proven wrong in the assumptions I’ve made about our leadership and its motivations for recent decisions—including and specifically the changes recently announced for the Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) route to ordination. Comments are open. Let's talk.