The program is broken out into two years. Year 1 is the “Foundation Year”, Year 2 is the “Practical Year”. Each year consists of 6 classes that are each 5 weeks long.

Focus on the foundations of the Lutheran Faith

Students learn Lutheran identity, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. The goal is to build confidence and understanding of Scripture. Then focus shifts to living faith daily through worship, sacraments, and Christian life. Students begin connecting theology to everyday life.

Christianity in a Lutheran Key

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  While all Christians share a common set of theological beliefs, Lutherans look at things through a filter of grace.   In this course we will discover more about our Lutheran roots.  We will also look forward to challenges that face us in the future.

COURSE PURPOSE:  To gain insight into what it means to be a Lutheran Christian and to live out our Christian lives as Lutherans. Students be better able to answer the question, “I’m a Lutheran, so what?”

Introduction to Hebrew (First or Old Testament) Scriptures

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  This course seeks to give you the basic knowledge to navigate the ancient, alien world of the First/Old Testament in your heart, mind, and imagination.  We will explore what Scripture intends to be, where it arose and spoke, who wrote and edited it, how various worldviews shaped its contents, and when and especially why these particular things were put on record.  The people then and there can then meet and converse with us in the here and now. 

COURSE PURPOSE:  The purpose of all this is that, as much as possible, you come to know the faithful yet flawed people (like ourselves) you meet there, to share more deeply their love of the God we all worship, and to embrace them as companions in following God.

Introduction to the New Testament

COURSE DESCRIPITION:  The goals of this course are to understand the gospel message as revealed in the New Testament (NT), to explore the life and faith of the Christian church in the first century, to understand how the Bible came down to us in its present form, and to understand and use a variety of tools for interpreting the Bible.  Throughout the course students will reflect on how the New Testament Gospel has shaped our Christian lives.  

COURSE PURPOSE:  To gain insight into the lives of those who first lived and loved the words of Jesus by viewing the NT as a collection of living witnesses that inform our faith and lives today.

Student Feedback

“I find that I cannot grow spiritually without sharing my faith with others. The members in the class have become my friends in Christ.”

Living as a Christian in the World

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  This course allows students to explore their place in a world that is no longer predominately Christian. Biblical images are explored and students learn how to apply these images to congregational life.  Students will discuss and explore their role as a member of a Christian community and the community at large.  They also will begin discernment on future service and ministries in their congregations and communities. 

 COURSE PURPOSE:  Participants will examine the role, function, and purpose of their personal life, and how that plays out in their congregation, at work, and in their community, both local and worldwide.

Worship Matters

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  Why do we worship Sunday after Sunday?  Is worship intended for an “in group” to comfort and console?  Is worship intended to equip for mission and service?  Is worship for God or for us?  As we explore these questions, we will discover tensions in worship:  a God focus or a communal focus, a head focus or a heart focus, a structured worship or a free worship, a universal church focus or a focus on the local assembly and its needs.

How we worship as a community will be informed by our roots in the Western Church’s liturgical tradition as well as by social and cultural experiences in a particular time and place.  Through our conversations we will challenge and equip one another for the ongoing renewal of the worship life of the church.

Lutheran Creeds and Confessions

COURSE DESCRIPITION:  This course provides an analysis of the historical context and theological content of the Book of Concord (the Lutheran Confessions) with an eye to establishing the importance of its witness for Christian mission and ministry.  

COURSE PURPOSE:  To gain an understanding of the chief theological positions of the Book of Concord in their historical setting in order to apply them to the life of the Lutheran Christian today.

Focus on leadership and service:

The practical year offers students the insight into how God is using them now in their churches, workplaces, neighborhoods and what other opportunities the Holy Spirit may be calling them to.

Healthy Congregational Dynamics

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  All faith communities face challenges of change and conflict.  This course will address ways to understand and address change and issues of conflict.  Through the use of family systems theory, we will explore the dynamics of congregational life and pastoral leadership.  This course is required for the Road to Service track in the second year.

COURSE PURPOSE:  To learn how to develop and maintain a healthy congregation through the application of family systems theory.

Pastoral Care

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  Caregiving is the responsibility of the entire faith community.  With differing gifts individuals care in a variety of ways.  This course is intended to assist the faith community in its caregiving ministries and give practical guidance on how to care.  

COURSE PURPOSE:  The purpose of this course is to help participants develop skills in caring ministry, including visitation, eucharistic ministry, and providing support to those suffering and experiencing grief, dying, and death.

Church History

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  Every 500 years society and its institutions go through major changes.  The church, too, has been emerging in the same pattern.  This course will explore those patterns, people, and factors that have led and are now leading to a continuing evolution of the Christian movement.  This course is required for both tracks in the second year.

COURSE PURPOSE:  In this course we will go “back to the future” to attempt to better understand who we are as the Church, how we got here, and where we might be heading, as well as our part in shaping its future.

Student Feedback

“I hadn’t anticipated learning so much from classmates and class discussions. In each course, I learned from my fellow students; questions, answers, insights and ponderings, as well as the diverse life experiences they brought.”

Cultural Diversity/Anti-Bias training

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  Participants will discover their own biases and those of the institutions of which they are a part, why those biases exist, and how to confront and overcome them. 

COURSE PURPOSE:  To help participants become aware of their cultural and racial biases, and of those of the institutions of which they are a part, and learn how to deal with them.

Communicating the Gospel

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  Together we will explore what the Gospel is and how best to communicate the Gospel in the 21st Century.  We will discuss practical ways for living out our baptismal calling.  Our sessions will include discovering the “gospel” in the four Gospels, as well as how the gospel is communicated in worship, read and spoken word, preaching, the sacraments, and the arts.  The gospel is most vividly expressed in communities of compassion and lives of service.

COURSE PURPOSE:  To gain an understanding of the gospel message, as presented in the four canonical Gospels, and multiples ways to share that message both within the Christian community and in the world beyond the church.

Christian Ethics

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  Participants will reflect on the implications of the Ten Commandments for contemporary life.  They will be introduced to concepts and systems by which the Christian tradition has taught personal and public morality, for example, the “Deadly Sins” and “Cardinal Virtues,” the “Just War” theory vs. Christian Pacifism, human nature and human sinfulness, and Luther’s “Two Kingdoms” theology.  The course provides opportunity for disciplined reflection on vexing ethical issues such as sexual ethics, sanctity of life, political witness, and economic justice.  Special attention will be given to the official social statements of the ELCA.

COURSE PURPOSE:  To gain an understanding of the complexity of ethical issues from a Christian perspective.  In particular, attention will be paid to the ELCA social statements regarding ethical issues in contemporary culture.