A pastor who leads a congregation will be “less


of a performer and more of a coach,” Lose said, adding that the challenge to seminary education is to develop a curriculum content and style of teaching “to train that kind of leader.” Congregations calling newly ordained pastors


will have to prepare themselves for these kinds of leaders (see “A new kind of pastor,” page 19).


The value of seminary Those studying for ordained ministry are also more diverse and varied in age than previous generations. The needs of these people, sometimes entering seminary after a career in another field, are different from those who have prepared for seminary in college and begin their theological education as soon as they receive their bachelor’s degree. To expand their service to students who


might be interested in seminary but aren’t seeking ordination as pastors, some schools are adding degrees. “We offer seven new degrees,” said Rick Barger, president of Trinity, including a master’s in leadership and two-year degrees in areas such as anti-racism, environmental justice and global ethics. “The future of seminary education,” Barger


added, “goes beyond divinity degrees.” At Lutheran Southern Seminary, leaders are


developing more programs of interest beyond Lutheranism to attract more students. The high cost of postgraduate education is


also a major concern for the seminaries and their students, and there are significant plans to make it possible for people to get through seminary without incurring tens of thousands of dollars of debt. The seminaries, too, often operate on a deficit budget, draining reserve funds or incurring the heavy costs of debt. In an effort directed both at reducing student


debt and developing a new form of seminary education, Trinity is changing its master of divinity program into a “2+2” package. A student spends two years in seminary and then two years on an internship during which time they also take online classes. When he was a parish pastor, Barger said he


had 15 interns and eight of those were in the congregation for two years. “The difference that


18 FEBRUARY 2017


the two years made was astonishing; it was a much better formation of a new pastor,” he said. Distance learning technology makes that kind of


education possible, said Johnson from Wartburg. Her school was working with students in North Dakota who would be serving in congregations while taking online courses. “Our distance learning programs use video so the faces of the online students are seen in the classroom by the other students,” she said. To help, synods and congregations are


encouraged to support seminarians with grants for housing and living expenses, as well as tuition costs. The ELCA Fund for Leaders will provide full tuition scholarships for up to 60 students over the next three years (elca.org/fundforleaders), and seminaries are seeking to build endowment funds to help students pay tuition costs. “We are re-prioritizing our budgets, and


scholarships are at the top of the list,” said Cooper-White, adding that the new United Lutheran Seminary hopes to make it possible for all students to have full scholarships. The declining number of students in seminary


remains a concern. A report from the Theological Education Advisory Committee (see “What’s TEAC? on page 17) says it is the job of the whole church—congregations, synods, seminaries and churchwide agencies—to help people discern whether God is calling them to professional ministry in the church. The ELCA also has fewer congregations than


previously, and this changes the number of pastors needed to serve them. Seminary leaders, however, say the schools can also serve as educational resources for laypeople in congregations. Lose of Philadelphia says if seminaries are only seen as schools for training pastors, the ELCA may have too many such schools. But if seminaries are places for “lifelong learning, for laypeople learning more about their faith,” then we have too few, he said. The future of seminary education and the


training of new pastors is the task of the whole church, Lose said, citing the report from the advisory council. “The question in front of our church is: do we value a network of Lutheran seminaries? We will succeed or fail to the point that congregations and synods and the whole church decide that we do,” he said.


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