{"id":10029,"date":"2025-02-13T16:04:36","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T16:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/news\/?p=10029"},"modified":"2025-04-15T14:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T14:47:12","slug":"what-a-strong-seminary-can-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/news\/2025\/02\/13\/what-a-strong-seminary-can-offer\/","title":{"rendered":"What a Strong Seminary Can Offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I continue to share with you some of the key data points about theological education that we think about and discuss regularly at Luther Seminary, we are grateful to be making strategic decisions from a position of financial strength.<\/p>\n

In fact, our financial position is the strongest it has been in well over a decade. Since 2010, we have reduced operating costs, improved our cash balance and line of credit, and grown the seminary\u2019s endowment. Generous donors have supported the seminary\u2019s ongoing development, including with the remarkable Jubilee Scholarship<\/a>, which allows us to offer a tuition-free education to all Luther Seminary learners.<\/p>\n

Changes in our student population have indeed disrupted enrollment patterns over the past decade, including significant shifts toward distance learning and intensive in-person courses, which we call \u201cresidential focus sessions.\u201d Uncertainty in enrollment presents unique challenges, including how it impacts enrollment-based revenue. But with Luther Seminary\u2019s financial and institutional strength, we are adapting to meet our students where they are now, providing a different kind of seminary education\u2014one that fits 2025 and beyond.<\/p>\n

We are well-positioned to meet the needs of the prospective students who are the future leaders of Christian communities around this nation and the globe. We have built a new constellation of resources for learners who cannot relocate to Minnesota. We have dramatically rethought how seminary education is delivered. And we provide free educational resources to anyone (with internet access) in the world interested in engaging the Christian faith. Open-access digital resources like Enter the Bible<\/a>, Working Preacher<\/a>, and our recently released 2025 Lenten Devotional<\/a> are used by literally millions of people every year, extending the seminary\u2019s broad welcome to learn with us and to share the good news of Jesus with all.<\/p>\n

We will continue to focus our attention\u2014including our finances\u2014on our mission: to educate leaders for Christian communities called and sent by the Holy Spirit to witness to salvation through Jesus Christ and to serve in God\u2019s world<\/em>. We are ever grateful to those who have given generously of time, talent, and treasure to make this a strong and faithful seminary.<\/p>\n

Peace,
\nRobin Steinke
\nPresident<\/p>\n

Read other installments in our winter 2025 series on how Luther Seminary continues to lead in providing theological education for the church:
\nDisruptions and Discernment in Theological Education<\/a><\/strong> – January 2025
\nOne Mission, Many Ways<\/strong><\/a> – March 2025
\nReimagining Leadership Everywhere<\/strong><\/a> – April 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I continue to share with you some of the key data points about theological education that we think about and discuss regularly at Luther Seminary, we are grateful to be making strategic decisions from a position of financial strength. 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