assure excellence in doctrine

Rob's point is interesting ..especially with the high stakes testing environment in the public schools. I do know of a few WELS teachers that have continued their grad. work and have then left the WELS for secular work and one is even a professor at a Concordia now.

You bring up some good points, Rob. Most secular teachers have some mandatory continuing education as part of their contracts. It may be a very good idea to have some continuing education in basic doctrinal areas for called workers (teachers) as part of their Divine Calls. I would at the same time recommend that the cost be picked up by the calling congregation or body of believers that the teachers are called to serve.

Maybe our called workers should 'recertify' every 5 or 10 years by taking a doctrine exam, perhaps one of the final exams given at MLC to undergrads.

Today I took a vision test to renew my driver's license. Doctors, nurses, policemen, airline pilots, and ECE workers serve in positions of trust and take periodic exams to maintain qualifications. Why not called workers, too?

Truthfully, I'm not concerned about pastors as much as teachers. Pastors as a group seem to keep each other sharp on doctrine with monthly circuit meetings and mandatory attendance at conferences and conventions where pastors lock the doors and listen to long doctrine papers read word-by-word then discuss them. Every sermon is in reality an oral doctrine exam for the pastor.

Attendance at teacher conferences seems to be optional, and (from what I've heard) doctrine presentations at teacher conferences don't engage the teachers. Doctrinal continuing education for teachers is on the honor system. For some, I think their ministerial training ended when they graduated from MLC. Is this impression true?

I think the only thing that "assures excellence in doctrine" is the curriculum. What makes a ministerial education strong is the use of the Word of God. What causes strong confessional Lutherans? A system or the Word? What makes MLC/WLS strong is the permeation of the Word. Whether a student listens or fails to listen is not something we can guarantee. We don't guarantee it in Sunday School, confirmation, Bible Class, or membership, so why do it there?

Therefore, because a person attends or graduates from a school doesn't make them doctrinally sound, unfortunately. One comment made by one ministerial education grad doesn't mean that the whole system is flawed. On the other hand, to assert that MLC/WLS graduates are right just because they are MLC/WLS graduates is an assertion built on sand.

Just because someone has training doesn't mean they can't make a mistake or that they can never be corrected.

Do we in WELS assure excellence in doctrine?

A student asked why God allowed Hurricane Katrina to damage New Orleans, and a school parent heard the WELS teacher respond, "Because God protects only those he loves." The parent didn't think that the answer was good Christian theology, so the parent asked the pastor, and the pastor brushed the parent aside invoking the rule that laity may not question MLC grads.

So how DO we assure excellence in doctrine?