The Luther Seminary board in May 2025 voted unanimously to divest from our current physical campus and seek a new location that will provide us with a smaller footprint while providing the larger spaces needed for the evolution of teaching and learning. This decision is the result of many faithful and strategic conversations about how to amplify and sustain our mission of educating leaders for Christian communities over the long term.

Our mission is enduring, but how we deliver it has been changing for a long time. Divesting from the seminary’s current campus is one part of an ongoing process to embrace more flexible models of education that meet the needs of our mission, the needs of the church, new forms of Christian community, and today’s students. Over 70% of our current students engage primarily online from all over the U.S. Those who live away from campus serve in their local communities while engaging in coursework, then join us in the Twin Cities several times a year for intensive in-person classes. Students are learning in their church communities, not apart from them. Even as we rethink and maintain creative forms of residential learning, we have learned to deliver our mission in many new ways. Alongside our changing student body, we have been deeply engaged in the work of reimagining theological education for years. Having physical spaces configured for the seminary we are today and in the future is paramount to our educational mission.

We are in a strong position to navigate through these changes. The significant institutional shifts Luther Seminary must traverse are not easy, but we believe these changes will help us steward our resources more effectively for the sake of our students and the ministries they serve. Thanks to the generosity of many donors, we are able to offer a tuition-free education to all Luther Seminary students. The percentage of our students graduating without seminary debt continues to increase year over year, with 65% of our 2025 graduates leaving commencement without any seminary debt. This spring, both the Higher Learning Commission and the Association of Theological Schools voted to fully accredit us for another 10 years, giving us strong affirmation after reviewing our finances, curriculum, student services, ethics and integrity, welcome, and mission. This fall, we were delighted to welcome one of our largest entering classes at Luther Seminary in nearly a decade. Our overall financial position is the strongest it has been in years. Since 2010, we have reduced operating costs, improved our cash balance and line of credit, and grown the seminary’s endowment.

We are expanding on our mission, not shrinking it. Trusting the Holy Spirit, we have a tremendous opportunity not only to fulfill our mission but also to live into a more expansive vision of that mission. We continue to think of both our rootedness in a Lutheran theological witness and our outreach to new communities yearning for meaning and purpose. We are committed to change and adaptation for the sake of our mission and will continue to be open to new transformations and to meaningful collaborations with our many partners—maintaining deep, networked relationships locally, nationally, and globally. Together, we are making theological education accessible for a new generation of leaders and learners.

Please continue your remarkable and prayerful support for Luther Seminary as we move forward into a hopeful future.

Peace and blessings,

Robin J. Steinke President

View the 2025 Annual Report