Education. Our Heritage

We are proud of our theological heritage — a heritage that firmly places education in the church and the church in education. We are building confidently on the rich legacy that Martin Luther and the Reformation have left us. We are hopeful and excited about what lies ahead.

The schools, colleges and universities, campus ministries, and seminaries that are related to this church will play a central role in educating the future leaders of the church, and of our society. This has been a crucial part of the Church’s agenda in education since Luther’s days (Martin Luther on education). There are not many institutions of learning that combine striving for excellence and inculcation of humble service in the way our institutions do. Their “Lutheran-ess” is found primarily in their programs and activities, and in the reasoning behind those activities, not in the numbers of Lutheran faculty and students.

In his 1991 book Interpretation and Obedience, theologian Walter Brueggemann offered the following insight:

The faithful practice of ministry in the church is rooted in the abiding claims of the gospel. But that faithful practice is also in part shaped by and responsive to the particular social setting of the church. The practice of ministry is increasingly squeezed between greedy secularism through which we become brutalized, and reactive religious fearfulness that provides alternative grounds for the same brutalization. At issue in this squeeze play between secularism and fearfulness is the integrity of ministry itself.

The work and ministries of the Vocation and Education Unit of the ELCA seek to contribute to the continuing integrity of the ministry of this church. We resist the forces in our culture that would reduce learning to the service of greedy secularism. We also resist the forces in our culture that would make learning the handmaiden of religious fearfulness. We boldly assert, in the tradition of Martin Luther, that learning and faith can and do empower one another. When they do, the Church and its people are served well.

There is no surrogate for the peace and wisdom of the Gospel. But Lutherans have always understood education as a vital expression of our faith and our calling as Christians. Education can help liberate us from the tyrannies of ignorance, incompetence, and self-centeredness. It can free us to fuller lives of service, useful work, appreciation of one another, and understanding of the world. It is toward such freedom and integrity that all the work of the division is directed.

The mission of the ELCA in education is to integrate its Christian theological heritage rooted in Word and Sacrament into the academic setting, to advance excellence which embraces every field and level of learning, and to build community. In partnership with other churchwide units, synods, congregations, and individuals, this division offers programs, leadership, support, advocacy, and counsel to early childhood centers, schools, campus ministries, and colleges and universities to assist them in nurturing members of their communities for service to God, to church, and to the world. The distinctiveness of the Lutheran tradition in education is a precious heritage and a magnificent resource. We must ensure that we share this gift effectively and persuasively with the church, with our full-communion partners, and with the American culture of the twenty-first century.