Graduate Theological Leadership
The Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Theology, and Doctor of Ministry steward persons preparing for professional leadership in Christian communities in North America and throughout the world to pursue their learning needs, goals, and objectives. It is anticipated that most of these persons will either teach in colleges and seminaries of the church or serve the professional leadership needs of the church.
Goals
Goal 4.1: By 2005, Luther Seminary will be a place of choice for persons who desire to pursue academic theological scholarship for the needs of the church in a changing world.
Goal 4.2: By 2005, Luther Seminary will have developed in its Ph.D., M.Th., and D.Min. programs concentrations in the fields of biblical preaching and worship, and congregational mission and leadership.
Goal 4.3: By 2005, Luther Seminary will have incorporated into its graduate program in congregational mission and leadership the capacity for research to assist all the educational processes in carrying out environmental scans, research and development, and performance evaluations.
Context and Vision for Goals
Confessional Scholars
- We believe that in the next generation we will need confessional scholars who have all the credentials of the academy and who also relate their scholarship to addressing the needs of the church in a new era of mission.
- Our vision is to become the place of choice in North America for such persons to be educated.
Proactive Recruitment
- We recognize that the new era of mission will require outstanding students to be prepared through graduate theological education.
- Our vision is to take a proactive approach in our recruiting to increase the number and quality of applicants, both international and North American, who have the skills for academic excellence and the passion for educating leaders for a missional church.
International Mentoring
- We recognize that our own faculty replacement process will require finding persons who are prepared to teach in addressing the needs of a missional church.
- Our vision is to use an intentional mentoring process to guide the work of promising current and former M.Div. and M.A. students to engage in graduate studies at Luther Seminary and at other institutions.
Concentrations
- We are committed to excellence and becoming well known at Luther Seminary for the emphases of biblical preaching and worship, and congregational mission and leadership. To do this, quality teaching and scholarship support are essential.
- Our vision is to hire the necessary personnel and commit the necessary resources to put these emphases in place within the seminary, in general, and to develop them as distinct concentrations within all the academic theological programs – Ph.D., M.Th., D.Min.
Future Educators
- We recognize that a distributed learning system that incorporates community-based learning and an expanded continuing education program will require additional teachers and resources.
- Our vision is to use the graduate programs to increase both the number and quality of teachers available for these processes and also to increase educational resources available for use within these processes.
Programmatic Review
- We are presently involved in providing a D.Min. in conjunction with other schools in our consortium.
- Our vision over the next two years is to conduct a thorough assessment of our participation in this D.Min. program and determine how this present program fits into the overall mix of continuing education opportunities, including how it relates to the two new emphases which are being proposed.
Build Capacity
- We recognize that a seminary serving in a new era of mission requires a proactive approach to engaging in environmental scans; research and development; and performance evaluation of our mission, vision, curricular strategy, and four educational processes.
- Our vision is to develop these processes at Luther Seminary and to build capacity for carrying them out through creating in the graduate programs a specialty in congregational mission.
