An Evaluation of the “Affirming Rural Mission” Workshop as a Vital Part of the Preparation of Lutheran Pastors for the Town and Country Ministry

The purpose of this paper, first of all, is to examine the many problems faced by the people living in town and country communities. By citing various authorities on the rural church, I will demonstrate how these problems also affect the church in town and country. Secondly, I will discuss the need of a more specialized training for ministerial candidates for the town and country ministry. My research for this section included a study of the placement of ministerial candidates of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod between 1962 and 1967 by Allen Nauss. I also studied the placement of the 1970 ministerial candidates of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod in order to determine the type of congregation most graduates received. In addition to this, I studied the backgrounds of the 1970 graduates of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, to determine what kind of experience the majority of the class had with the rural community previous to their graduation from the seminary. Thirdly, I will examine what the three major Lutheran Synods have done in the area of specialized training for their town and country pastors. The methodology used for this section was primarily researching records of workshops and college catalogues of the two seminaries of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod