Saint Louis Seminary to Grant 18 Graduate Credits to PLI Students
By Rev. Jack Cascione

 

The Pastoral Leadership Institute (PLI) is a private corporation designed to train 250 LCMS pastors in Church Growth Leadership Training techniques. They pattern the pastoral office more in the business model of CEO's leading a board of directors than Walther's "Church and Ministry."

Many of the LCMS District Presidents are encouraging this kind of training in order to increase the number of pastors they believe will be more qualified to lead LCMS mega-churches. Currently, these District Presidents don't believe that either LCMS seminary is training pastors for "leadership." In other words, the LCMS Convention has only authorized the two seminaries to train pastors and not CEO's.

According to an April 2002 communication from Dr. David Peter of Concordia Seminary St. Louis, PLI students will receive 18 credit [quarter] hours toward a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Seminary. The document was titled: "CONCORDIA SEMINARY D.MIN. PROGRAM WRAP-AROUND ARRANGEMENT WITH P.L.I. PASTORS." PLI students, mentoring pastors and congregations have been advised this is to take place. The tuition cost per year for a PLI student was initially $6,000.00 in 1998 and has increased.

Despite The Board for Higher Education's (BHE) refusal to grant PLI recognized service organization (RSO) status and the 2001 LCMS Convention's refusal to grant PLI authority to teach LCMS pastors, PLI is to become an unapproved, unaccredited, virtual extension of the St. Louis Seminary.

The loophole is found in the LCMS Board for Higher Education/Concordia University System "Campus Policy Manual for March 2002" which reads at 6.5 "Approval Procedures for Off-Site Academic Programs" as follows: "When an institute desires to create a new academic program involving more than 16 semester hours or 24 quarter hours annually to be offered off-site, the new program must be approved under the general procedure for all new programs."

PLI is not a part of the LCMS nor is it accredited by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS). (www.ats.edu). The Seminary will be jeopardizing its own accreditation by accepting credits from a non-accredited school. Indeed, PLI is not a school or seminary. The Seminary now wishes to involve itself with unaccredited Church Growth, pop-culture, quackery and call it pastoral education.

The ATS defines institutional integrity as follows on http://www.ats.edu/accredit/ac2.htm: "Institutional integrity is demonstrated by the consistency of a theological school's actions with commitments it has expressed in its formally adopted statement of purpose, with agreements it assumes with accrediting and governmental agencies, with covenants it establishes with ecclesiastical bodies, and with ethical guidelines for dealing with students, employees, and constituencies."

The ATS speaks about established "covenants" with its church body and "ethical guidelines." The BHE and the Convention have not approved PLI for training LCMS pastors, yet the St. Louis Seminary wants to give credit for PLI training. No one has approved the theology of PLI for the LCMS.

In August 2000, the Synod's Commission on Constitutional Matters (CCM) ruled that PLI should return tens of thousands of dollars in grant money given by the Lutheran Church Extension Fund because PLI had not been approved by the BHE. At this time, to our knowledge, PLI has not returned the funds.

In August of 2000, the CCM also ruled that the Pacific South West District (PSWD) had no authority to issue the Executive Director of PLI, Dr. Norbert Oesch, a call to lead PLI. In May 23, 2002, President Larry Stoterau wrote Congressman Dannemeyer that Dr. Oesch no longer has a call from the PSWD.

It should be remembered that (then Texas District President) Dr. Gerald Kieschnick, St. Louis Seminary President Dr. John Johnson, and Dr. William Meyer, Executive Director of the BHE encouraged Doctor Oesch to begin PLI.

Information for this article was taken from a letter with extensive documentation now being sent to the:
Board of Regents - St. Louis
Board of Directors - LC-MS
Board for Higher Education - LC-MS
Praesidium - LC-MS
Board of Regents - Ft. Wayne
Dr. John Johnson, President, St. Louis Seminary
Dr. O. Dean Wenthe, President, Ft. Wayne Seminary
Dr. David Peter - St. Louis Seminary
Dr. William Meyer - Ex. Director - BHE


Rev. Jack Cascione is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church (LCMS - MI) in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. He has written numerous articles for Christian News and is the author of Reclaiming the Gospel in the LCMS: How to Keep Your Congregation Lutheran. He has also written a study on the Book of Revelation called In Search of the Biblical Order.
He can be reached by email at pastorcascione@juno.com.

June 14, 2002