Bolstering Ministerial Influence and Recruitment at Area Lutheran High Schools for Full-Time Pastoral Ministry in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod

Abstract

The issue of pastoral recruitment is an on-going one. The numbers at the synodical schools of WELS are constantly in flux. How does WELS get a handle on it? How will WELS continue to fulfill Christ’s mission if its pool of candidates for pastors shrinks? Should area Lutheran high schools change something in their program? As the synod tries to make sense of the numbers, the Lord Jesus continues to be the Lord of the Church. He continues to call young men into this noble task. The WELS will certainly never answer these questions definitively. Yet, leaders will want to use all of the institutions in WELS to help sustain the ministerium. The area Lutheran high schools can be part of that equation. They can be utilized to a higher degree than they are presently in recruiting young men to prepare for full-time ministry in WELS as a pastor.