Preserving the SMP Pathway
- Anthony Giordano
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
I recently had a conversation with a fellow LCMS pastor about the Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) program. His view was that it needs to be shut down. I was surprised at this and asked him if he understood the shortage of pastors with roughly 1000 vacancies and 100 seminary graduates this year. He said he was aware, but the solution is to “close the 500 congregations that aren’t viable.” He went on to say that the SMP program is addressing the symptoms and not the disease itself. The disease being the decrease or lack of Lutheran schools that serve as a pipeline for more pastors.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to continue the conversation. I don’t know why he thinks 500 of our congregations aren’t viable. I don’t know what he means by that, either. I’m assuming it’s based on attendance and finances.
The reality is that those metrics don’t equal success (a word I don’t think belongs in ministry), but they do reveal sustainability. If there aren’t enough people and funds, a congregation can’t pay the bills. But a small group of people can worship together and can be a congregation! My congregation started almost 100 years ago in a storefront. I bet many LCMS congregations started that way. Unfortunately, we sometimes view congregations through the lens of business success. I fall into that trap sometimes. A small congregation is a blessing and can do things some larger congregations cannot.
So, I disagree with the idea of closing 500 congregations, which leads me right back to the questions of SMP and education. I do agree with him that we need more schools. I believe they give children a foundation and immersion in faith that will lead to more church workers.
I don’t agree that the SMP program needs to be shut down. I am friends with or a colleague of several SMP pastors. They are good, faithful, intelligent men. They serve their congregations well. The knock against it is that the education isn’t the same as our residential programs. That’s true. But I think the discussion should be around how to elevate the SMP program and not shut it down or disparage it.
The other point is that we simply don’t have enough pastors and are about to fall off a cliff in the shortage. According to The Lutheran Witness (February 2026), as of 2022, 57% of our pastors were over the age of 55. I’ve heard that the average age of our pastors is 61, but I cannot locate the data to back that up. Full Social Security Age for retirement for that age group is 67. This means that a huge number of us are on track to retire in the next 10 years. Even if some of us stay on for a couple more years, we’re simply not graduating enough seminarians to compensate for those retiring.
I hope and pray the Synod leadership moves towards an expansion of the SMP program and the offering of online M.Div. programs. These are essential solutions to the imminent problems we face.
Great question. I think it is important that the leaders state with clarity their vision for the future of LCMS. It seems we are arguing about course corrections to solve problems but not really defining a strategy that moves us to the place that fulfills a vision. If the vision for instance was to just sustain what we have managing decline then it would make sense to close churches and end a leadership pathway. Though this is rather uninspiring. It does not seem that in scripture a church that gets smaller aligns with what is written. Israel for instance always declined when it aligned itself with the worldly powers and influences and fell into sin.
A well formed vision…
I think about these issues often. There is an overture before this year’s synodical conference to shutdown the SMP program entirely. I doubt it will pass, but it is an exemplar of an element in our synod whom we are commanded to treat as good faith actors. One wonders if there’s a limit to this forbearance. Perhaps that limit is the eighth time they adopt a position that makes our small role in the Great Commission more difficult and less successful. Or maybe we ought to consider that our brothers who, time and again, reject the abundance of the Gospel in favor of worldly scarcity haven’t repented once, let alone seven times.