Discipleship
 All degree-seeking
students in the Master of Arts, Master of Sacred Music, and the
Master of Divinity programs belong to a
discipleship group
throughout the time they are enrolled at Luther Seminary.
Discipleship groups consist of a faculty advisor and advisees from a
variety of programs. Each group ordinarily meets weekly at 11:00
a.m. on Wednesday during fall and spring semesters. Participation is
noted on the transcript.
Five aspects of discipleship are intentionally
incorporated into the weekly group time. They include attention to
the Word of God, prayer, koinonia,
encouragement of vocation, and service. Each discipleship group
establishes its own pattern for how these five marks of discipleship
are honored during a particular semester.
Commuter students and students living
at a distance from campus participate with the discipleship group to
which they have been assigned in a variety of ways. For some it will
be possible to arrange to be on campus on Wednesday mornings. For
others weekly participation in an on-campus group may be impossible.
For still others, particularly students living at a distance or
working full time, participation will mainly occur through email,
online discussions, and a commitment to common disciplines.
For example, one student, living fifty miles from
St. Paul and studying part time, might agree to come to campus the
first Wednesday of each month. The other weeks the student would
agree to read the same biblical texts as the discipleship group and
to share comments on the readings by email. All group members would include one another in daily
prayer. A second student, living in Michigan and studying online,
might never be able to attend in person during fall semester.
The group might agree to use the computer lab for an
online discussion once a month, share journals online, and
participate in a weekend Habitat for Humanity project once a
semester. Specific arrangements for participation by commuter and
distributive learning students will be made by the individual
student and the discipleship group members during the first two
weeks of classes each semester.
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