Luther Seminary has received a five-year, $10 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish the Luther Collective, a seminary-led collaboration that seeks to develop a renewed vision for theological education.

The grant will support Luther Seminary’s strategic work with five partner organizations to develop a new, networked educational paradigm for leaders of Christian communities that is both sustainable and responsive to local settings. The partner organizations in the project—three congregations, an outdoor ministry, and an urban university—represent a variety of vibrant Lutheran ministries who are dedicated to raising up and equipping leaders and are themselves networks. They include:

• Calvary Lutheran Church (Alexandria, MN)
• Lutheran Church of Hope (West Des Moines, IA)
• Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church (Minneapolis)
• Luther Crest Bible Camp (Alexandria, MN)
• Augsburg University (Minneapolis)

“At this moment of seismic cultural shifts in American religious life, we feel strongly that Luther Seminary is called to center local churches and their contexts as the primary location of teaching and learning,” said Luther Seminary President Robin Steinke. “We are thrilled that this grant will allow us to convene the wisdom of a diverse group of partners to address the deep challenges of Christian identity, witness, and leadership in a post-Christian and pluralist culture.”

The Luther Collective project is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative. This initiative is designed to help theological schools across the United States and Canada as they prioritize and respond to the most pressing challenges they face in preparing pastoral leaders for Christian congregations both now and into the future. The grant to Luther Seminary is one of 45 that was approved in this competitive round of funding to support theological schools as they lead large-scale collaborations with other seminaries, colleges and universities, and other church-related organizations.

Lilly Endowment launched the Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative in 2021. Since then, it has provided grants totaling more than $700 million to support 163 theological schools in efforts to strengthen their own educational and financial capacities and to assist 61 schools in developing large-scale collaborative endeavors.

The Luther Collective project will focus on a number of key themes: sharing stories that bring to life the ways in which Lutheran theology speaks to the modern age; exploring new and renewed ways of teaching that keep students anchored in local ministries; partnering with congregations and other ministries to accompany and support different kinds of emerging church leaders; designing and assessing a distributed model of theological education that integrates in-person, online, and contextual learning; and increasing administrative collaborations between institutions to support long-term sustainability.

“Christian communities have always been at the heart of Luther Seminary’s mission, but the forms of those communities and their leaders are changing,” said Steinke. “The future of theological education will require all of us working together to imagine and embrace a new paradigm.”

About Lilly Endowment Inc.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of religion and lift up in fair, accurate, and balanced ways the roles that people of all faiths and various religious communities play in the United States and around the globe traditions in the United States and across the globe.

About Luther Seminary

Luther Seminary educates leaders for Christian communities across the country and around the world. An innovator in theological education, the seminary is committed to exploring leading-edge approaches for Christian ministry, proclamation, and faith formation in a rapidly changing world. As one of the seven seminaries in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Luther Seminary has educated more than one-third of ELCA pastors, lay professionals, and leaders of many global Lutheran and ecumenical churches, with millions more reached annually by digital ministries including God Pause, Enter the Bible, Faith+Lead, Word and World, and Working Preacher.

Media contact: Rachel Farris, farrisr@augsburg.edu or 612-330-1476