The process leading to the calling of the 10th president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, began on Tuesday, Oct. 12, as the Seminary’s faculty elected three members and one alternate member to the Presidential Search Committee. During its regularly scheduled October meeting, the faculty elected Dr. Charles P. Arand, Dr. Andrew H. Bartelt and Dr. James W. Voelz to serve as its initial three members on the Search Committee and Dr. William W. Schumacher to serve as its alternate member on the committee. The Seminary’s current president, Dr. John F. Johnson, has accepted a call to serve as the 10th president of Concordia University, River Forest, Ill.
“The four members elected have a combined 59 years of full-time service on the Concordia Seminary faculty,” commented Rev. Glen D. Thomas, the Seminary’s vice president for seminary relations. “In fact, 53 of the 59 years of combined service have been accumulated by Profs. Arand, Bartelt and Voelz alone.”
The Bylaws of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS) divide the work of the Search Committee into two distinct phases. During the first phase of activity, the three members and one alternate member, together with three members and one alternate member elected from the Seminary’s Board of Regents, “shall make a written report of the needs of the institution, the requirements of the Synod, and the required and desired qualifications of the nominees” (Bylaw 6.11, e).
The Seminary’s Board of Regents will elect its three members and one alternate member to the Search Committee during an Oct. 18 meeting on the Seminary campus. The alternate faculty and Board of Regents members participate in all meetings but are not permitted to vote.
In the second phase of the Search Committee’s activity, three additional faculty members are elected by the Seminary’s faculty to join the members of the original committee. The committee’s second phase of activity includes preparing reports on the credentials of nominees and submitting to the electors a report of evaluations and recommendations regarding the candidates. The LCMS Bylaws also state that, “Open forums shall be conducted with administrative staff, students, and other constituents as deemed essential by the Search Committee to gather extensive input to the process” (Bylaw 6.11, e).
The LCMS Bylaws also stipulate that candidates for consideration as the 10th president of Concordia Seminary may be nominated by congregations of the LCMS, the Synod’s Board for Pastoral Education, the Seminary’s Board of Regents and the Seminary’s faculty (Bylaw 6.11, b).
“The process of calling a president is likely to take six to nine months to complete, and the procedure for doing so is carefully delineated in our Synod’s Bylaws,” commented Thomas. “We invite the members of the Synod to join us in continued prayer for God’s guidance throughout this process.”
For more information, contact Seminary Relations, Concordia Seminary, 801 Seminary Place, St. Louis, MO 63105; 314.505.0882; [email protected] [1].