An Affirmation of the Generation of an ELCA Social Statement on Education

[Note: The Division for Higher Education and Schools is now part of the Vocation and Education unit of the ELCA]

Learn more about this social statement process

The Division for Higher Education and Schools welcomes the opportunity for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to generate a social statement on education. From our point of view, the very identity of Lutherans and of the "Lutheran" church has always been bound up with bold affirmation of teaching and learning as an appropriate response to the grace of God. It is important that we clarify our understanding of the connection between faith and learning in terms that speak to the people, and to the social conditions, of the 21st century.

Martin Luther and his colleague Phillip Melanchthon championed universal education for all children — boys and girls — and called on the social powers of their day to ensure that it happened. The Reformation itself was a product of Luther’s insistence that obedient faith demanded critical thinking, rather than obeisance to existing authorities. Luther’s writings on the freedom of a Christian, his teachings regarding the variety of Godly vocations for all people in the world, his insistence that discernment and equipping were necessary for us to empower ourselves to fulfill our vocations and to serve our neighbors — these and a host of other connections between faith and learning have inspired Lutherans throughout the centuries to place a high value on education. Many have come to understand Luther’s organizing pedagogical principle in his catechism as "the" Lutheran question, "the" Lutheran attitude: "What does this mean?"

During the last century and a half, Lutherans in this country have expressed their support of education by founding and supporting dozens of universities and literally thousands of schools. And after public universities became significant in the landscape of American higher education in the late nineteenth century, Lutherans led the way in establishing and supporting hundreds of campus ministries — in the conviction that faith and learning should be brought into intimate contact with each other.

The predecessor bodies of the ELCA repeatedly expressed their affirmation of education both in the public sphere and under the auspices of the church. The ELCA is distinctive among major church bodies in providing for the support of its educational ministries through one of the six major divisions of its churchwide expression, the Division for Higher Education and Schools (DHES). Since 1995, DHES has pursued its work in accordance with the following mission statement:

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.

Most recently, in consonance with Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson’s call to renew our strategic planning, the board of DHES has tentatively approved a new mission statement to more clearly focus the work of the division. We expect that all of the language of the previous mission statement will find its way into revised statements of vision, value, and strategic directions. The new mission statement is as follows:

The mission of the Division for Higher Education and Schools is to provide leadership in defining, supporting, and advocating for the interactive ministry of the church in education, and education in the church.

Those of us who work on a daily basis on behalf of the church’s ministry in education have come to identify some guiding theological themes that repeatedly manifest themselves in the panoply of educational work undertaken by the ELCA, its members, and its related institutions and agencies. Among the most important of these themes are Love, Freedom, Vocation, Discernment, Equipping, and Servant-Leadership. There are surely others. We believe that the church’s affirmation of education is important to the vigor and integrity of the church itself, as well as to the power and effectiveness of the church’s witness to the culture in which we serve.

The people of DHES look forward with enthusiasm to the production of the ELCA Social Statement on Education.

Leonard G. Schulze, Ph.D.