The Story

Second Quarter, 2007

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Notes from the Mission Field Graduation on May 27 was a great celebration of leadership for the church. The leaders walked up to the altar and promised to serve their Lord faithfully wherever the wind of the Spirit sends them. In all, 178 leaders graduated—the largest graduation in over 10 years!

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First Graduates Complete New D.Min Programs Both the CML and the Biblical Preaching programs continue to grow. Together, the programs have more than 80 students and have a broad ecumenical appeal. This spring, the first two cohorts graduated from the new Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) programs at Luther Seminary.

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Luther Seminary Confers 178 Degrees at 138th Commencement Luther Seminary conferred degrees on 178 witnesses to Christ’s gospel at the 138th Commencement on May 27, at Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis. The class was the largest in over 10 years.

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Distributed Learning M.Div. Pilot Program Launches This Fall This fall, 14 new Luther Seminary students preparing for ordained ministry will begin their academic journeys, although not on campus. Rather, they will be earning their degrees in the context of their own ministry settings.

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Seminary Honors Leadership Circle of Congregations Many congregations across the United States give generously to help Luther Seminary educate leaders for Christian communities. Over the past fiscal year, 17 congregations gave leadership gifts of $10,000 or more to Luther Seminary. They are being honored as charter members of the seminary’s Leadership Circle of Congregations.

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Preserving and Learning from Lutheran Heritage The Thrivent Reformation Research Program has already established itself as North America’s largest collector of Reformation-era books on microfiche. Now, thanks to a new $300,000 endowment, the program will grow from that collection into a larger conversation.

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Lay School of Theology Offers Online Classes Luther Seminary has terrific faculty and a long history of stimulating classes for laity. But what if you live in Texas?

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Muslim Student Provides Opportunity for Cross-Cultural Involvement at Luther What would lead a Turkist Muslim student to Luther Seminary? Why, Google, of course.

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Karoline Lewis Joins Facutly Karoline Lewis joined the Luther Seminary faculty on July 1 as an assistant professor of preaching.

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Luther Seminary Elects New Board Directors and Trustees Two new members have been appointed to the Luther Seminary board of directors for a four-year term, Beth Lewis, CEO of Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, and Bob Torkelson, retired executive, Excelsior, Minn. They join 22 other directors on the Luther Seminary board.

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Filling the Stewardship Education Gap Luther Seminary’s stewardship education programs are helping Christian leaders become good stewards of money, time, volunteers and other assets.

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Like Daughter Like Mother, Like Father Like Son Students commonly follow their parents in attending Luther Seminary. Kate Schruba and her mother, Tryphine, and Carl Fiskness and his dad, Alton, though, have had the more unusual experience of walking the seminary halls side by side.

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Congregation Worships Without Borders If Sean Whelan and his parishioners at North Emanuel Lutheran Church had stuck to their comfortable Sunday routine, they would have all spent the morning of March 25 in their sanctuary in northern St. Paul, Minn. Instead, they found themselves standing in the street outside a nearby home—a crime scene where three people had been killed two mornings earlier—and worshiping with members of the victims’ families.

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It's All About Vocation When asked about the connection between pitching for a minor-league baseball team and going to seminary, Charlie Ruud answers like a good Lutheran: It’s all about vocation.

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