He has had two calls to The Sausage Factory.
QED - the sem board is in bed with Church and Change.
Every so often, someone asks me, "What seminary should I attend?" Unless someone is independently wealthy, the two LCMS seminaries should be ruled out. They provide a hyper-expensive degree that is worth nothing outside of the Missouri Synod. The effective cost includes losing a full-time income for four years. Vicarage provides some income, but it is necessarily disruptive.
Missouri takes everyone's tuition money and misleads people with the false story of 600 vacancies, a lie told for at least 20 years. Once the students are maxed out on student loans they discover that Missouri will never allow them to serve.
Under the watchful eyes of Wayne Mueller and SP Gurgle, WELS managed to increase tuition while reducing student population to the breaking point. Mequon is ideal for non-thinking conformists who despise the Confessions and mock the Word of God, who run to Fuller Seminary and denounce Missouri for being unionistic. If someone has an IQ just above room temperature and a lot of relatives in Church and Change, Mequon is ideal. Otherwise, it is a waste of time and money.
I would suggest the Little Seminary on the Prairie, Mankato. I am not saying the professors are great. They hired Moldstad - lacking a college degree, and promoted him to pope. Schmeling was happy to exchange his soul for a position, so he is sem president. The good thing about the ELS is the lack of baggage. They are more equipped to accept someone who does not fit the synodical pedigree and that graduate could probably plan on being left alone in his parish - unlike WELS.
An ELS pastor can upgrade to the LCMS. That has happened many times. The son of the former seminary president, Petersen, left the ELS for a Missouri call. The Missouri Synod is often nicer to the ELS than they are to their own graduates. Maybe they like someone with experience and a non-confrontational degree. The ELS pastors are not very argumentative.
The ELS has a hate/hate relationship with WELS. They hate each other but hide it under various icky sayings, like "We cherish our fellowship." WELS used to push the ELS around about endorsing Church Growth and other Reformed doctrines, and the ELS complied. However, that is less likely to happen, with Wayne Mueller and Gurgle gone. WELS VP Huebner is a Fuller alumnus, so the farce continues - not that anyone would admit it. Huebner is not a big force at The Love Shack, since he has no salary and must still work for a living.
I am not saying Bethany, Mankato is great - just the least obnoxious for the best price.
The established synods are dedicated to keeping their man-made traditions alive. There may be opportunities as ELCA breaks apart. The percentage loss so far is not very high, but ELCA is losing enormous congregations with the property and splitting others 50/50, where the losers in the exit poll leave anyway.
Whatever is done, the theology student should learn one or two job skills. The ones who really love the Lutheran Confessions are often multi-talented, so that should not be a problem. However, one needs a diploma or certificates to back that up in the job search. I learned web design and Unix for various reasons, not for teaching. The certificates got me into teaching at the university level. I added a master's in adult education when I saw the offerings trending toward "a master's in the field of teaching." When it was time to teach the courses I already taught in MA program in education, the requirements were changed to a master's in education. Without that I would have been excluded from the courses I taught so many times before.
Anyone who is serious about theology should keep tent-making in mind, because the apostates work constantly to get rid of them. The emulsifying pastors, who pretend to be confessional--but are really lick-spittles--are eager to help their apostate pals clear the way for more vacancies.
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Norman Teigen has left a new comment on your post "The Seminary Question":
Interesting post. Whenever I see something about the ELS in your blog, I read with great interest.
I think that the ELS tries very hard to do things right at Bethany Seminary. I have felt that there is a division at Bethany between the Seminary/Synod and Bethany College. The physical boundary between the two locations is the Elm St. hill.
The theological seminary at Bethany has its origins in the late 40s. The ELS sent men like my father and my late uncles to Concordia-St. Louis with a few going to Thiensville.
There was a sense of building an identity for the ELS which resulted in the formation of the Seminary in the late 1940s. The founding fathers of the ELS Seminary were Norman Madson, George Lillegard, and S,C. Ylvisaker. Lillegard was much more of a theologian than was Madson, Madson was, perhaps, a more dynamic personalty than was Lillegard.
The bright shining star for the ELS Seminary in its opening years was Robert Preus. Getting Robert Preus into the ELS was a major triumph. In later years Robert's son's decision to join the ELS was also a major public relations coup for the Synod. The decision of this son was not to work to his personal and professional benefit as your readers are well aware.
The dark side of the ELS is that far too many sons of the Synod have been cast aside over questionable practices and procedures.
You mention the son of the one of the Seminary presidents, and I want to note that the name ends in -sen and not -son.
I don't think that the blood-letting continues. There is a generational shift that is occurring within the ELS. The old ways aren't necessarily the best ways.
There appears to be a feeling of genuine fellowship and good brotherhood between the ELS and the WELS. Old traditional local culture is being reviewed and examined.
I am beginning to feel a bit more optimistic of the relations between the two synods. And, I am beginning to feel better enough about Missouri to even entertain the crazy idea that the old Synodical Conference could be restored.
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GJ - I knew Jack and Robert Preus. I have met three of Robert's sons - Klement (took a class from him at Ft. Wayne); Peter (attended his installation, where Robert preached); Dan (met him at Concordia Historical Institute); Rolf (met him when Barry spoke reluctantly to LCMS conservatives).
I find it odd that Rolf is blamed for Pope John the Malefactor's dictatorial methods. As one classical Lutheran author said, there are three legitimate reasons for removing a pastor: 1) false doctrine; 2) scandalous behavior; and 3) refusal to carry out pastoral work. Pope John and Rolf agreed about UOJ. No one accused Rolf of scandalous behavior or refusal to do his work. Pope John threatened to the parish. If they did not remove Rolf, His Excellency would kick them out of the ELS. They buckled and licked the Shoes of the Fisherman, the Vicar of Christ, the latest incarnation of Peter.
Once Pope John was done, there was not much blood left to let. The ELS was almost drained dry, kosher-like. And this happened because WELS was forcing its idiocies on the ELS, and some ELS pastors and laity questioned it. Emulsifying pastors Schmeling and Webber helped out, of course.
I am not saying that because I liked Rolf or agreed with his UOJ opinions. Both are irrelevant. Pope John was wrong and the ELS was wrong to back him with a re-election.
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Norman Teigen has left a new comment on your post "The Seminary Question":
Yes, Elm St. does indeed become Division St. thanks for crediting me with a pun, but I am not as clever as Mr. Church is.
There was a time when the leadership of the ELS would not allow any of the College professors to teach at the Seminary, to cross over Division Street, as it were.
College professors were deemed to be ideologically unfit to perpetuate the party line as proclaimed by Synodical leaders.
The absurdity here is obvious. The ELS is just a little bit of a Synod. there just aren't that many bodies to fill the empty slots.
For a time, vacancies at the ELS seminary were filled by WELSian clones. Now, with a change in generational ELS leadership, Bethany College professors do teach in hue Sem.
Norman Teigen
ELS layman, Synod historian
