The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's Board for Pastoral Education provides this page and the documents and pages linked from it in an attempt to portray accurately the need for pastors in the Synod. The current need for pastors will be investigated and projections will be offered through the year 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. As new data are received, they will be added to this site.

The Present Need

The LCMS has more than 800 pastoral vacancies at this time, but roughly half of these vacancies are "non-calling vacancies" (congregations/ministires that are not actively seeking a pastor at this time). In many cases, these non-calling vacancies are struggling economically and are not able to support a pastor. The attached PDF document provides an update on:

• The most recent pastoral vacancy report (submitted by the LCMS Council of Presidents)

The Future Need

Any projections regarding the future need for pastors in the LCMS must be based upon certain assumptions concerning future events and circumstances. These assumptions, all of which are open to revision as conditions change, include the following:

• 2,000 new mission sites will be started by the year 2017 (an average of 200/year) as anticipated in the ABLAZE! movement;
• An average of 35 existing congregations will close each year through 2017;
• The Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) program will provide an average of 50 SMPs/year, beginning in 2010 and continuing through 2017;
• Other pastoral formation programs, both residential and distance-based, will provide an average of 200 pastors/year through 2017;
• The aggregrate number of pre-seminary program students at the Concordia University System schools will average 300 over the next four years;