GET INVOLVED.
DIG DEEP And venture into the unknown.
TOUCH THE WORLD and let the world touch you back.
COMPETE IN AN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP.
UNLEASH
THE POWER of a liberal arts education.
Higher education
With so many initiatives focused on stewardship and reducing pastoral debt load, the ELCA hopes to foster a culture of generosity to assist pastors with their loans. That would help pastors like
Leitzke, who is paid about $10,000 below her synod’s salary guidelines and hasn’t had a pay increase in two years. When she couldn’t pay her student bills, she put the loans into emergency deferment until they could be consolidated with a longer payout date. The resulting $230 a month pay- ment (due to climb under a progressive payback formula) is now more man- ageable, but the debt will be part of her finances for the next 25 years. Leitzke is glad the whole church is rising to help. “We are called to be pastors of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,” she said. “It’s a larger concern of the ELCA. “This is where I’ve been called to be. God’s not done with me yet. We haven’t gone hungry; we’re not in danger of los- ing our house; the baby doesn’t eat that much. We’re going to be OK.” M
How to help
For a visit, call 1-800-GUSTAVUS.
gustavus.edu
• Find out how much debt your pastor is carrying. Make a con- gregational plan to help pay it off. Support a pay scale for your pastor that is above the synod’s minimum guidelines. • As a congregation or individual, consider donating to the ELCA Fund for Leaders (
www.elca.org/ fundforleaders) or one of the eight ELCA seminaries (www.
elca.org/seminaries). • Support or start a plan in your synod to reduce the debt of pastors called to your area. • Strengthen your congregation’s mission support and advocate for strong synod and churchwide grants to seminaries.
44 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
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