{"id":8373,"date":"2025-11-19T00:50:56","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T00:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/story\/?p=8373"},"modified":"2025-11-19T21:20:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T21:20:47","slug":"a-seminary-without-walls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/story\/2025\/11\/19\/a-seminary-without-walls\/","title":{"rendered":"A seminary without walls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Glenn Jones \u201928 M.Div.<\/strong> starts his Sunday long before the sun peeks over the horizon. By the time many of his neighbors are taking their first sip of coffee, he has already spent hours working through an intensive reading assignment and putting together the outline for an upcoming paper. Then he heads to church, pulls on his robe, and steps up to the pulpit to preach as a lay minister at his small Lutheran congregation in Ocala, Florida.<\/p>\n

Jones is a Master of Divinity student at Luther Seminary\u2014but you won’t find him in a classroom on the St. Paul campus most days. Like many of his classmates, he is shaping his call to ministry from a distance, integrating seminary coursework with a full-time job, deep church involvement, and a vibrant personal life.<\/p>\n

“My call is a very deep sense that\u2019s informed by 59 years of living,\u201d Jones says. \u201cIt has since developed into a deeply spiritual journey of reviewing my life and saying, \u2018This just makes sense right now. I\u2019m just going to roll with it.\u2019 I\u2019m absolutely loving it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Student paths while at Luther are as wide-ranging as their physical locations across the country. Some study full time on campus. Others join remotely from homes and churches across the country. Jones\u2019 journey started with a phone call from a close friend.<\/p>\n

They are united not by a single schedule or setting, but by a shared commitment to their faith journey and a seminary program designed for flexibility and supporting their varied needs. \u201cWhen I talk to people about Luther, I mention the flexibility and the support I get from the administration and professors,\u201d says Melissa Wiseman \u201927 M.Div<\/strong>., who lives in Bryant, South Dakota. A member of Luther\u2019s first graduate certificate cohort, she is now in her first semester pursuing an M.Div. degree. \u201cThis community I\u2019ve been able to build has supported me throughout the whole journey. It\u2019s certainly not easy; I\u2019ve also been challenged.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I really enjoy a challenge,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

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Melissa Wiseman \u201927 M.Div.<\/b> resides in Bryant, South Dakota. (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘I instantly felt at peace’<\/h2>\n

Along with full-time work for a local electricity cooperative, Basin Electric, Wiseman and her husband raise goats, cows, and chickens about 20 miles from where she grew up.<\/p>\n

\u201cRural life has always been where I\u2019ve been centered,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Despite considering returning to school for seminary in recent years, Wiseman wasn\u2019t sure about the financial burden and how it would fit into her life. Her considerations became more urgent as her local parish faced trying discussions and decisions around ELCA membership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sat through a lot of parish council meetings and heard a lot of hateful things being said. There was no biblical standing behind them,\u201d she says. \u201cI wanted to be able to talk with these people and have my understanding of things really rooted in a strong biblical background. I thought my studies at Luther would help get me that.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Wiseman discovered Luther\u2019s Jubilee Scholarship and graduate certificate program in 2023, she committed. Despite feeling \u201ca bit nervous\u201d journeying to Luther\u2019s campus for the
\nfirst time that fall, her experience over three days of residential focus sessions (RFS) set the tone for her experiences since.<\/p>\n

\u201cI instantly felt at peace,\u201d she says. \u201cAs soon as I got into that classroom, there were 25 other like- minded people there to support each other. That community has really helped me stay engaged with the whole program. I\u2019ve made some really good friends through our cohort and even beyond that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those relationships and the support of her professors have helped Wiseman stay connected to Luther, even from a distance. Her full-time job is remote, which creates flexibility and helps her prioritize her time and energy where she wants to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the commute, I\u2019m able to do my readings at lunch, my homework after work, those kinds of things,\u201d she says. \u201cIt has also allowed me to stay more engaged in my community and in the church. I\u2019m able to dedicate my hours there instead of on the road.”<\/p>\n

Her role allows her to stay deeply connected to her rural community while pursuing a vision for ministry that grows from that very soil.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thinking more about how our local church fits into our community. How the church can expand its walls and bring the church out to the people,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m learning a lot from the people I\u2019m taking classes with\u2014different ideas of how they\u2019re doing ministry in this world we live in. Taking the church to the people, what it could look like for me and for us, is on my mind a lot these days.\u201d
\nThat exploration guided Wiseman\u2019s decision to continue into the M.Div. degree program, knowing Luther would support the development of her future role in the church.<\/p>\n

“There is a willingness, especially in my personal experience with Director of Rural Ministries Jon Anderson [\u201985 M.Div.], to always be willing and available to talk and to think through an idea or something I might be struggling with,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s just a lot of support from the professors and administration in discernment. I see a lot of leadership championing for the future of the church, and that supports my exploration of that in my community.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘People who come together for the fellowship in Christ’<\/h2>\n
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Jack Hendricks \u201926 M.A.<\/b> leads a tour at Luther Seminary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Growing up, Jack Hendricks \u201926 M.A.<\/strong> and his family moved frequently as his father\u2019s pastoral callings led them to different parishes. After Hendricks was diagnosed with asthma as a child, doctors recommended that he join choir to help build strength in his lungs. What started as a routine breathing exercise soon evolved into a different kind of support; Hendricks found a community and passion that carried through his years as a philosophy and religious studies major at Augsburg University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really kick-started me toward theology on a further level,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Life, however, had different plans than a straight-line continuation into theological study. After his father was diagnosed with cancer, Hendricks prioritized supporting his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of wandered for six or seven years in terms of my career path. I worked in retail, some health care, and at a coffee bookshop. At one point, I worked at an industrial decal factory as a service representative,\u201d he says. \u201cI was talking to my partner, Lindsey, and she really helped encourage me to get back to school and a community I could grow with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hendricks was aware of Luther from his time at Augsburg, and as he explored it in 2023, he found \u201can educationally oriented, academically robust community of faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

He decided to fully immerse himself into campus life, living and working on campus while pursuing his Master of Arts in History of Christianity.<\/p>\n

A typical day is split between working in various departments on campus\u2014offering him different views, a deeper understanding of Luther, and focused studying. That leaves him a few hours each day to socialize and connect with others on a personal level.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiving here really brings you into the community\u2014the understanding that it’s not just disparate students but people who come together for the fellowship in Christ,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

As Hendricks works through the final year of his master\u2019s program, he plans to continue his studies with an eye toward teaching adult education or at the college level. He\u2019s particularly interested in \u201cintegrating where digital ministry and platforms can help grow the church or reorient mainstream denominations.\u201d<\/p>\n

His holistic experience in seminary is helping inform his continued journey as a developing leader within the church, whether his next steps continue at Luther or move him outward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe continued support, the access to faculty and staff, the resources, the networking, the education of theological standing: those are things you can\u2019t quantify and that I\u2019ll always take with me,\u201d he says. \u201cLuther does such a great job of really giving you that broad picture and then helping you to not only have the motivation but the tools to address it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Glenn Jones \u201928 M.Div.<\/b> balances full-time work with seminary studies from Ocala, Florida. (Courtesy photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘The balance I need’<\/h2>\n

Back in Ocala, Jones\u2019 reflections on his faith journey go back well before the fateful phone call that helped push him to Luther.<\/p>\n

After being charter members of a Lutheran mission church in the New York Adirondack Mountains in the early 1990s, Jones and his wife, Carol, struggled to bond with a congregation after moving to Florida. Finally, in 2017, they reconnected with the Lutheran church and have been deepening their spiritual connection and community ever since. That deepening also opened Jones up to the idea of attending seminary, even as he applied without a specific goal in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know what my ministry would look like. I just had this sense that this call, literally and figuratively, needed to be heard,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

As he prepared for his first course in 2024, Jones says he was nervous about the dynamics of weekly classes centered on discussions over Zoom. The in-person RFS session with his classmates and professor made all the difference.<\/p>\n

“I’m not going to St. Paul four times a year for the buildings. It’s the professors, my fellow students, and the support and community we build together than means so much to me.”<\/p>\n

\u2014Glenn Jones ’28 M.Div.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cHaving those three intensive days to get to know everyone was amazing,\u201d he says. \u201cReally getting to know them in that in-person context and then spending time with them digitally once a week works really well for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That flow from a foundational RFS session into coursework from Florida has continued through each of his certificate courses\u2014all while balancing work as a senior manager for the United States\u2019 largest fire truck pump manufacturer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy career has grown in the past year, but I\u2019m still getting the balance I need with sleep and the rest of my life,\u201d he says. \u201cI give myself some grace during the week and on the weekends really put my brainpower into my studies.\u201d<\/p>\n

As his studies progressed and Jones continued heeding this call, it led to his decision to transition from the graduate certificate into the M.Div. program. He says he\u2019s come to realize the significance of being able to preside over communion in his ministry. That significance informs a potential call to become a pastor, even as he\u2019s still exploring what that will look like.
\n\u201cI\u2019m sort of searching for that and am going to let it happen,\u201d he says. \u201cThe support I have from Luther on that journey is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community, wherever you may be<\/h2>\n

As Jones, Wiseman, and Hendricks embark on the next leg of their individual journeys at Luther, they share a community that supports every step they take. That reality is all the more important, Jones and Hendricks say, as Luther transitions into the next leg of its own journey, away from its current physical campus in St. Paul and into a new space.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to St. Paul four times a year for the buildings,\u201d Jones says. \u201cIt\u2019s the professors, my fellow students, and the support and community we build together that means so much to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a feeling shared by many in the Luther community. Their paths to Luther are and will remain wide-ranging, but they share a steady commonality that defines their experiences: They are shaping Luther\u2014and Luther is shaping them\u2014no matter where they are physically. From Ocala to Bryant to St. Paul and countless other cities on the map, students are intertwining their journeys with Luther and continuing to build their and the church\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s not going anywhere.<\/p>\n

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Read more from Winter\u00a0 2025<\/h2>\n