In December 2025, Luther Seminary received a five-year, $10 million grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish the Luther Collective, a seminary-led collaboration that seeks to develop a renewed vision for theological education. Together, the Luther Collective aims to meet leaders where they are to cultivate God’s calling in their lives.
The Luther Collective project will focus on a number of key themes in order to discover sustainable pathways for leadership development.
- 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
- Increasing administrative collaborations between institutions to support long-term sustainability
Through their innovative grant programs, the Lilly Endowment is at the forefront of efforts to help theological schools across the United States and Canada as they prioritize and respond to pressing challenges in preparing pastoral leaders for Christian congregations both now and into the future. The partner organizations in the Luther Collective project—three congregations, an outdoor ministry, and an urban university—represent a variety of vibrant ministries whose common Lutheran identity is lived out and expressed in different ways across rural, small town, suburban, and urban contexts.
For more information, contact collaborationgrant@luthersem.edu