"What is God doing here?" Patricia Lull tried each day as a parish pastor to answer that question. It's a question she now focuses on as Luther's dean of students.
Lull has three main responsibilities. The first is what she calls "traditional dean work," which includes overseeing new student orientation, placement, the work of the seminary's admissions team and the candidacies of those who will be on the ELCA roster. She makes herself available to students both formally, by meeting with individuals to discuss personal and academic concerns, and informally, during a weekly "dean's hour" in the cafeteria.
As a member of Luther's administrative cabinet, Lull is also involved in strategic planning for the seminary. This means thinking about "who will come and how they will succeed." It also means asking, "Who needs to come?"
"We must be deeply grateful for those who come ready to study and serve," Lull says. "But we must also ask ourselves where an inviting voice could be heard in a new way."
Lull's third area of responsibility is to be that "inviting voice." She travels the country talking to young adults at church-related colleges, in campus ministries, at Lutheran camps and churchwide events. Some will be called to ordained leadership. Others will enter professions, such as college teaching, youth and family ministry, or parish nursing, that combine a theological grounding with other gifts.
In addition to her parish ministry experience, Lull has also served as a campus pastor and as the ECLA director for campus ministries. She was surprised by her call to Luther, but she says, "It's a good match for my gifts. It gives me a chance to say to a new generation that God needs them, that their whole life can make a difference. And I'm banking my reputation on the idea that they will find this a compelling message."
Patricia Lull Biography
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“ We must be deeply grateful for those who come ready to study and serve,” Lull says. “ But we must also ask ourselves where an inviting voice could be heard in a new way.”
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