Valparaiso University (somewhat Lutheran) Is Kicking Out Their Theology Major and Minor

https://t.e2ma.net/webview/g32bun/8a9a26f09e8335a53b15c0ad06317119.

Here is a letter that went out today. Apparently the theology department got the news just this morning.

Dear Friends -
 
I'm writing to give you a heads up about some news that you may hear coming out of Valpo today. Over the past year we have been going through a program review as part of our strategic planning process. Part of that review includes evaluating the number of majors we offer and the enrollment in each program.
 
The decision has been made to place a small number of programs into a program discontinuance process. The Theology major and minor are among those programs. You can find the full information here: https://t.e2ma.net/webview/g32bun/8a9a26f09e8335a53b15c0ad06317119.
 
This does not mean that the programs will definitely be discontinued. It also doesn't mean that Theology would disappear even if the major and miner were discontinued. All of our students have to take 2 or 3 Theology courses depending on their major. Regardless of final decisions, all current students enrolled in these programs will be able to finish their degrees at Valpo.
 
I wanted to let you know about this before you hear about it elsewhere. The campus community received an email at 11:30 AM. The affected departments were informed this morning.
 
Valpo remains committed to its Lutheran identity and faith-based mission to prepare students "to lead and serve in church and society." This is evidenced by the fact that we have the highest number of students we've ever had in our Allen Scholars program. This program helps students discern how they are called to live out their Christian vocations. Many of those students are discerning a call to ministry; all of them will be fantastic leaders in their congregations.
 
What can you do?
 
1.   Please pray for our community...particularly those who are directly affected by the cuts.
 
2.   Feel free to reach out to me and/or the President's office to express your feedback. My email address is brian.beckstrom@valpo.edu and you can email the President at president.admin@valpo.edu.
3.   Please pray for wisdom and guidance for the coming review process. After I learned about the affected programs on Tuesday, I felt a lot of emotions. Now I find myself asking, "What is God up to at this moment? How is God calling us to reimagine the way we prepare ministry leaders and help all our students to develop theological literacy?"
 
Thank you for your prayers and faithful service to the church. May you be filled with the hope of the resurrection even as we travel with Jesus this Lenten season through the darkest valleys.
Blessings,
Brian

From Daniel Lee Gard - Updates on the Ann Arbor and Mequon Dual College Arrangement

 

Daniel Lee Gard earned a PhD from Notre Dame, in theology.

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Yesterday at 04:33:24 PM

This was received today:

Dear members of the Concordia community:

A special session of the CUWAA Board of Regents is taking place today in Wisconsin. Prayers continue to abound.

We will make any outcomes from their discussion public on Friday, March 1, 2024.

Here are the details for how you can access the outcomes:

    Update from Board Chairperson Rev. John Berg to be posted online at www.cuaa.edu/future
    Friday, March 1, 10 a.m. Central/11 a.m. Eastern

Please note that the link isn't live yet, but will be tomorrow!

List of LCMS Colleges Already Gone or Going

1. The Chinese campus was sold to pay down the LCMS college debt, as I recall.
2. The Selma campus was shut down.
3. The New York City campus was sold and another school took it over immediately.
4. The Portland college embroiled itself in HotChalk, with both sides going to court over the online learning dream gone sour.
5. The Ann Arbor and Mequon schools, separate but equal, are getting the publicity now. The new president of the arrangement, with a Jesuit degree, seems to be a closer, not a builder.

Every campus gets a big load of federal student loan money, and foreign students are called "walking bags of money." However, the gradual erosion of Lutheran identity and doctrine has made the colleges very much like the other schools that were almost 100% for the teachers and students.

Online students can be from anywhere, and there is nothing keeping students from bouncing from  campus to campus, via the keyboard. 

ELCA was closing down colleges and slimming seminaries years ago. WELS/ELS are thinking they might be in a Schwan song of their own. Marvin liked to spread the loot around, so his gifts were stretched out between the ELS, WELS, and who knows?  Those shiny new buildings, chapels, and gyms are looking bad, turning into Christian (Pilgrim's Progress, which nobody reads) carrying a heavy burden on his back - his sins.

My high school English teacher asked the class, "Have you read Pilgrim's Progress? If you haven't, you are IGNORANT!"

Zoom Worked Very Well Yesterday in a Test

 

Some setbacks work wonders with practice.

Thursday, just a few hours ago, I took a suggestion and tried a different configuration for Zoom.

1. Everything should work well, whether speaking or using hymn melodies, on the same computer.

2. It is encouraging to have another computer check how it works for the congregation.

This worked well in the chapel, checking results with the library computer. SHARE takes the melody from the computer for a clear broadcast, but now the melody also comes out of the chapel speakers - no feedback, no fighting over the sound or sounds. I can sit and sing with the audience, hearing what they are hearing, but through my speakers, not theirs.

This will work well for the Reformation Seminary.

In other news, My Good Shepherd is being shipped.

Some of the copies have been sent, and more will follow for the rest of the congregation. 

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Lent 3 - "When Christ had become known in the world and the devil’s former kingdom with its idol worship had been destroyed, he adopted another plan and attacked us with heresy and introduced and established the papacy, in which Christ was entirely forgotten, and men became worse heathen under the name of Christ than before he was preached, as we can see now with our own eyes."

Complete Luther Sermon Here -> Oculi. 

Third Sunday in Lent - Luke 11:14-23.  

19. The text continues, “When the unclean spirit has gone out, he wanders through dry places, seeking rest,” etc. This means as much as the saying, “The devil never takes a vacation” and “The devil never sleeps,” for he is seeking how he may devour man. “Dry places” are not the hearts of the ungodly, for in such he rests and dwells like a mighty tyrant, as the Gospel here says; but there are dry and waste places here and there in the country where no people live, as forests and wildernesses. To these he flees in wicked rage because he is driven out. You will remember that the devil found Christ in the wilderness. Now, in Judea, there is not much water, hence we read that it contains many arid wastes. In other countries, however, as in our own, which are well watered, the devils stay in rivers and lakes, and there they sometimes drown those who bathe or sail upon them. Furthermore, at some places there are water spirits, who entice the children from the shores into the water and drown them. These are all devils.

20. That he comes again and finds the house swept and garnished (Matthew adds “empty”) signifies that the man is sanctified and adorned with beautiful spiritual gifts, and that the evil spirit clearly sees that he can do nothing there with his familiar tricks, for he is too well known. Thus when the worship of idols was driven from the heathen, he never attacked the world with that device again. But what did he do then? He tried something else, went out, took with him seven spirits, more evil than himself, and entered in with them and dwelt there, and the last state of that man was worse than the first. So he has dealt with us. When Christ had become known in the world and the devil’s former kingdom with its idol worship had been destroyed, he adopted another plan and attacked us with heresy and introduced and established the papacy, in which Christ was entirely forgotten, and men became worse heathen under the name of Christ than before he was preached, as we can see now with our own eyes.

Such also was the lot of the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Greeks under the Turks. And so all will fare, who at first hear the Word of God and afterwards become secure and weary of it. St. Matthew says, in Matthew 12:14, that Satan finds the house empty. And in Matthew 13:25, he sowed tares among the wheat, by night, while men slept. Therefore it is necessary for us to watch as the apostles always admonish us, especially St. Peter in 1 Peter 5:3: “Brethren, be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”; for wherever he overthrows faith, he easily restores again all former vices.