How Are Lutheran Pastors Formed?

Thank you to Pastor Askins and Presidents Egger and Bruss for this presentation regarding pastoral formation at our two LCMS seminaries. This is the first of a series, and I look forward to future offerings.

In a time when there are a lot of discussions about making formation cheaper, quicker, and easier, I think it is crucial for the members of our churches to know what formation is all about. Too often, people think of seminary as simply classrooms where future pastors learn information and skills. Seminary includes that, but there is also so much more to formation!

Jesus called the first apostles by means of a three-year intensive, immersive, residential formation. Many of these men were second career students, such as Andrew, Peter, James, and John, who left their fishing businesses. Our Lord said, “Follow Me,” and they did. They did not look back from the plow, or seek out a shorter, more convenient and easier path into the ministry. They certainly didn’t know what they were getting into, or ultimately what it would cost them - but they took the leap of faith. They studied together, to be sure. But they also ate, prayed, worshiped, sang, worked, walked, bickered and reconciled, and even went on a kind of internship - together, in the flesh - incarnationally.

While the Internet is a tool that can be used for learning in many ways, we certainly learned from Covid that there is simply no substitute for gathering in person - especially for building community and for the kind of sacramental worship that we Lutherans practice. And in our seminaries, the men who are training to be our shepherds share three years of their lives together, in community, in the classroom, in the chapel, in the confessional, in the dining hall, in the dorm, working together, sharing one another’s joys and sorrows, learning how the Word of God works and moves in real life, all while sitting at the feet of some of our synod’s greatest theologians and scholars - not to mention fathers in Christ. Seminarians form bonds of brotherhood with men from all over the country and the world - men with whom they will serve in the Lord’s vineyard.

As Presidents Bruss and Egger discuss, seminary life is immersive. It is the difference between learning Italian by living in Milan for a year versus doing a few minutes of Duolingo at home every day. At the seminary, you eat, sleep, and breathe God’s Word, day in and day out, and you do so together with your brothers. And you go through the formation together, supporting one another and building each other up, over and over again.

A lot of younger people are generationally more risk-averse than their parents and grandparents. They tend to be more cautious and afraid to commit. And this is borne out by people living with parents longer, delaying marriage, and being less decisive about career matters. But I would challenge young (and even older) men that if you think God may be calling you to serve in the vineyard of the Lord’s kingdom, make it a priority to investigate. Pray about it. Learn about what the life of the pastor is like. Talk to your own pastor. Visit our seminary campuses. If God is calling you, He will make it happen. Your doubts and your fears will be overcome, as you will be amazed to see doors open, and things that you thought would be a stumbling block suddenly becoming a wide-open gate for you. The Father is still calling the shots. The Son is still Lord of the Church. The Spirit is still at work in forming servants of the Word. Jesus still says, “Follow Me,” and we still follow Him. We are called not to be served, but to serve.

And what risk could be more worth taking, brothers?

Being a pastor is not a 9-5 job. The pastor’s life is not compartmentalized. It is simply who he is, whenever and wherever he finds himself, and no matter what he is doing. It is his identity within his greater identity as a Christian. And it is also the identity of his family, not unlike the wives and children of the Levitical priests who lived a different kind of life. It is a privilege to serve. And going to seminary is like that. It changes you. It is transformational. And there is no shortcut, no assembly line to formation. God is still calling men to serve, and also calling families to be part of the ministerial life. And He still works through means that are incarnational. He calls us to show up and to get our hands dirty. Seminary life is rigorous at times, but it is also a great blessing, joy, and privilege - just as is the pastoral ministry itself. And there is certainly no shame in looking into the possibility that God is calling you into the ministry, should you discover that He has other plans for you. But if He is calling you, if He is bidding you to become a fisher of men, I would encourage you to emulate the example of the apostles and go to where the Word is still preparing men to serve!

Thanks be to God for our seminaries, literally the “seed-beds,” where our future sowers of the Word are formed!

As a bonus, this is a video that many of the men who went to seminary in the late 90s and early 2000s may remember. I believe it also makes a beautiful case for seminary formation.