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| Lie down with dawgs - git up with fleas. No, I think Liz is quite pretty and feminine. Thrivent is a dawg - and they all have Planned Parenthood fleas. |
http://www.alpb.org/forum/index.php?topic=5347.0
In the January 2014 Forum Letter, Pastor Richard Johnson has an article about theological education.
It raises some questions that perhaps a wider audience could answer or even Editor Johnson.
Two of the ELCA Seminaries have merged with church related-universities: Southern with Lenoir-
Rhyne and Pacific with California Lutheran University.
Two of the ELCA Seminaries are on the ATS Financial
Watch List (Association of Theological Schools):
Philadelphia and Chicago
This leaves us with the remaining four:
Evidently, Luther Seminary resolved a recent financial crisis. Who makes the decisions on
the vitality of these seminaries based on enrollment, finances, etc.
?
Does the ELCA as a church body have a master plan for these seminaries to survive?
Are any of these seminaries too small to last another ten years?
This leaves us with the remaining four:
- Luther Seminary at St. Paul, MN
- Trinity Seminary at Columbus, Ohio
- Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg, PA
- Wartburg Seminary at Dubuque, Iowa
Evidently, Luther Seminary resolved a recent financial crisis. Who makes the decisions on
the vitality of these seminaries based on enrollment, finances, etc.
?Does the ELCA as a church body have a master plan for these seminaries to survive?
Are any of these seminaries too small to last another ten years?
***
GJ - Luther Seminary resolved a crisis by firing their president. Wartburg (started by Loehe) went insolvent, fired some professors, and hired gay activist Stan Olson as their new president. Stan's wife, also a pastor, bragged in the Yale Divinity magazine that their daughter is partnered with another woman - like LCMS exSP Ralph Bohlmann's daughter.
I would not put Wartburg on the financially robust list, but it will last long enough to pad Olson's retirement with a big salary and benefits. He has served Babylon loyally for decades - why not?
Philly and Gettysburg were supposed to merge about 50 years ago. It was planned and funded, with a swath of land at the U. of Pennsylvania. One of them left the other at the altar, proving that shotgun marriages are chancy affairs. The two loathe each other so much that it is a mistake to ask a Philly grad if he went to Gettysburg and vice-versa.
I cannot imagine them merging with each other - too galling.
Trinity in Columbus is little more than Cap Seminary serving Ohio. That does not look promising. Other ventures tend to bleed off students. Tuition = salaries. Depending on where one starts, ELCA has lost 40% of their members
Likewise, Missouri does not need two seminaries. Nor does WELS/ELS.
If we bring the numbers up through 2012 based on the same spreadsheet:
ELCA LCMS
2012 3,964,474 2,196,788
-30.4% -21.2% from 1969 numbers
ELCA LCMS
2012 3,964,474 2,196,788
-30.4% -21.2% from 1969 numbers
ELCA, LCMS, WELS, and the Little Sect have been content to alienate the large congregations that once gave them the most support. The old rule was the biggest parishes were best represented in synodical leadership. The carefully trained LCMS-WELS-ELS bureaucrats make sure only those who agree with them (the dumbest, worst false teachers) have a say, so many simply sit on their hands when the special requests come along.
Large ELCA congregations simply picked up and left. Others divided and the divorce was painfully expensive.
WELS, Missouri, and ELS alienation is quieter, more passive - but pervasive.
The Olde Synodical Conference cannot stand up for Luther's doctrine, unborn babies, or heterosexual marriages. Instead, the love ELCA while pretending to be snotty about the sect they covet.
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| When Patterson and Kelm give papers on how to improve the seminary, head for the hills! Pray it not be in winter. |
