Reflections on 2007 WELS National Convention

Honestly, I have not had time to study Synod financial reports published in the the past few months, so I don't have a handle on the current financial status of the national organization. A tell-tale sign of good financial health would be aggressive payments on internal loans.

The new President of LPS just accepted the call and is taking the reins of power. May God bless his ministry.

Last summer, as the debate over Synod subsidies to MLS and LPS raged, I studied the prep school system and learned a few things; unfortunately, what I learned did not convince me that the prep school system was an essential element of ministerial education. And the attitude of some prep school zealots saddened me: they were willing to risk the entire Synod in toto for a few million dollars of annual subsidy for their alma mater from the national organization. After a few months of study, I could not find any substantial difference between prep schools and ALHSs.

Personally, I fear that the "saving of MLS" will ultimately result in the closing of both Prep Schools within five years.

One year ago we were in the throes of area delegate conferences prelude to our summer 2007 WELS National Convention as doom-saying and soothsaying ran rampant. Hot topics during the spring and summer of 2007 were the Synod's national budget crisis and ministerial education. What did you get out of the 2007 convention season?

Many, like I, discovered and digested the Prep School Study Committee #2 (PSSC-2) Report. The Report was two years in the making in that the Committee first analyzed the ministerial education situation to the best of their ability, developed options and recommendations, then issued a PRELIMINARY report that was flogged around the Synod during the District Conventions of 2006. After the summer of 2006, the Committee refined their Report and issued a FINAL version for publication with Convention 2007 materials. The PSSC-2 Report, intentionally or unintentionally, codifies selected assumptions, policies, and practices of WELS and highlights selected divergent opinions within WELS. In the history of WELS, few reports received so much attention.

One assumption codified by the PSSC-2 Report addresses second-career called workers. An assumption that survived two years of scrutiny and study, and appeared in both the PRELIMINARY and FINAL versions of the Report, is the WELS belief that second-career called workers are a source of false doctrine.

A divergent opinion broached by the PSSC-2 Report is the role, if any, that area Lutheran high schools (ALHSs)play in ministerial education. While PSSC-2 recommended expanding the definition of ministerial education to include ALHSs as partners in ministerial education, defenders of prep school's special status ignored this recommendation, probably for Synod budget reasons.

A shocking revelation in the PSSC-2 Report was that MLC faculty didn't see an academic difference between prep school grads and ALHS grads.

Another shocking revelation for the Synod at-large was that half of all prep school grads (who enjoyed Synod-subsidized high school educations) don't enroll at MLC to continue ministerial education.

A humorous revision made to the PSSC-2 Report occurred between preliminary and final revisions. In the preliminary study, statistics showed ALHS grads surviving at MLC better than prep school grads. Curiously, this statistic was adjusted in the final version showing no advantage for ALHS grads.

As the prep school debate raged during the summer of 2007, WELS-ians who live in outlying districts observed Mid-West infighting and learned about generations of rivalries between Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Minnesota.