I had the joyous privilege of installing a new pastor at one of our district congregations this past Sunday, as well as the opportunity to preach for the occasion. I focused on the Holy Gospel for the Service, which was St. John 10:1-18. At the heart of those beautiful Words, our dear Lord Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep – and takes it up again! – that they should have life abundantly in and with Him. That voluntary suffering and death of our Lord, and His mighty Resurrection from the dead, are surely the most vital and fundamental facts on which His Christian Church depends.
In addition to being the Good Shepherd, our Lord also describes Himself as the Door of the sheepfold, by whom and through whom true shepherds of His sheep enter in and care for them (St. John 10:1-2, 7-9). It is this aspect of the text that makes it especially well-suited for the installation of a new pastor, as we are given to consider how it is that a man becomes an undershepherd of the Good Shepherd, and how it is that he enters upon that service of the Good Shepherd’s lambs and sheep in a particular congregation.
Whereas the Prophets and Apostles were “called and ordained” to the Office of the Holy Ministry by the Lord Himself, acting directly or “immediately,” the pastors of the Church on earth to the close of the age are called, ordained, and sent by the Lord through the agency of His Church – indirectly or “mediately.” The particular ways and means by which the Church has carried out this sacred process have varied over the course of history, since the Lord has left those specifics free to a large extent. But of course, St. Paul does provide significant guidance and guidelines as to the requisite qualifications of a man who aspires to the Office of the Holy Ministry (Titus 1:5; 1 Timothy 3:1-7), which must be taken into account as the Church goes about “set[ting] in order what remains and appoint[ing] elders in every city” (Titus 1:5).
Holy Baptism is the foundational vocation of every Christian, and while it does not make anyone a pastor, it is the bottom-line pre-requisite for a man who would become a minister of Christ and His Gospel. Before becoming an undershepherd of the Lord’s flock, a man should first be a sheep of that great Good Shepherd of us all. Not that the Ministry of the Gospel or the Means of Grace depend upon the faith of the pastor, but only that a pastor has nothing to give which he has not received (1 Cor. 4:7).
Building on that baptismal foundation, the Lord teaches, trains, forms, and prepares some of the men among His Christian disciples to become shepherds of His flock after His own heart. Among us, He has done so through a series of steps involving those already in the Office of the Holy Ministry, the Church at large, and the local congregations of our Synod fellowship. Pastors are typically the ones who identify young men under their care with the appropriate attitude, aptitude, and acumen for the Ministry, and who encourage them to pursue that path. Parents, teachers, and other laity are also instrumental and influential in this sort of way. Our Seminaries are tasked with the responsibility, on behalf of the Synod, of teaching and training such men for the pastoral office, and certifying their readiness for that office.
The Master of Divinity degree (M.Div.) is the academic degree typically associated with this Seminary education, but the M.Div. does not make anyone a pastor, nor does that degree by itself indicate that a man is well-suited for the Ministry of the Gospel. The Seminary faculties rather certify that, beyond the academic achievements of any given student, there are also the necessary qualifications that belong to the office and work of the Lord’s undershepherds. Under our LCMS polity, structure, and governance, the Council of Presidents officially place those men who have been certified in congregations that have called them. And at that point, the whole Church is represented in the ordination and installation of a man to the Office of the Holy Ministry – ordained as a pastor in the one, holy, Christian, and apostolic Church, and installed as the pastor of a particular congregation in a particular place and time. Those rites of ordination and installation are officiated by the district president or his representative, but they are also publicly witnessed and affirmed by other pastors already serving the office, and by the people of God within the congregation and from neighboring sister congregations within our Synod fellowship.
Although the particulars of this process could be done differently, and have been done differently in other times and places within the history of the Church on earth, it is in this way that the great Good Shepherd of the sheep has worked – and continues to work – to bring true shepherds through Himself as the Door into the sheepfold, in order to care for His lambs and sheep with His Word and Sacraments, within the life and work and fellowship of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Indeed, this process is one of the key components of who and what we are as a fellowship of the Lord’s Holy Christian Church.