ELCA Seminaries...an unknown future

There is a lot of buzz going around with alumni of Luther Seminary where I received my masters of divinity. Mainly because at the close of the semester this week the president Richard Bliese resigned his position. Apparently a campus meeting was held for the announcement. It's the talk among my fellow alumni. A classmate of mine in fact is going to get an armchair theologian shout out to her blog post on the president's resignation.

Ever wonder where the term "scapegoat" comes from, well it is actually part of the Old Testament Day of Atonement. A specific word in the text will in some translations say "scapegoat" or others like the NRSV will have a footnote reading "traditionally rendered scapegoat", but whether the word belongs there or not is irrelevant, one can see how the colloquial term has its origins here. "The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness." (Lev 16.22). My two cents on when Bliese resigned was that he was made into a scapegoat for the failures of the whole institution. He said goodbye the Christian way - he asked forgiveness for his leadership. And like a scapegoat, he is now off to a wilderness.  But also like a scapegoat, he didn't leave with just his sins, but so it seems the sins of the entire institution have been placed upon him. The seminary announcements didn't do anything to alleviate that impression. Like this message from the office of the president every email and word I received on this announcement paired his resignation with the financial ruin of the seminary and the bright future the seminary has with its interim CFO. We get two sentences of how visionary the president was and great he was before the announcements go to work at tarnishing that memory.

Now I was never a full on cheerleader for President Bliese. And I am not aware of all the issues that have led to the seminary downfall. But whatever role he played in its struggles, the sins of this institution ought not completely be placed upon him. But not even so they fall on the "right people" but because the Lamb who was slain took on those sins, and our future there then finds hope in resurrection. We don't have hopeful new days because we cast out the sinner who we shall put the whole blame on, we have hopeful new days in the new life given to us in the forgiveness of sins. And I hope someone forgave the president when he owned up to whatever his part was and asked for forgiveness, heck it is a school for training people to that endeavor. And I ask all my readers to keep him, his family, and the seminary in your prayers.

But since the seminary has so raised the issue of financial crisis in conjuncture with this event, I thought I might say a few words on that. It is a scary thought to consider that seminaries (not just Luther, not just ELCA) are struggling financially, and at the same time students are receiving an increasing financial burden leading to debt that pastor salaries struggle to pay. Pastors feel the burden, churches trying to maintain pastoral stability but cannot because they cannot afford to pay a pastor enough to meet that burden are feeling the impact, and as we see here also the seminaries are under a great burden. Everyone knows that to some degree something must be done. Here are some of my thoughts for the ELCA:

1. Close seminaries: the ELCA has too many seminaries, this is a consequence of a series of mergers and the inability for those mergers to happen if a seminary is lost. Well the mergers are now far past, it is time to consolidate. We should be cutting from 8 down to at least 4, if not fewer. Obviously no one wants it to be their seminary that closes, it is ok if a different one closes, but we need less seminaries so as to focus synod resources. But someone needs to take the task of honestly assessing the seminaries. An extreme alternative would be to essentially close all the seminaries and focus all synod resources on supporting seminarians as they attend other seminaries and divinity schools, maybe have a program at one such school where students would have to spend a semester getting necessary "Lutheran theological classes" (akin to how now students have to have a "Luther year" at one of our seminaries if they attend a non-ELCA school).
2. Offer non-MDiv track to ordination: online classes and distributive learning programs are already changing the shape of programs somewhat, but we need to go further. One of the key ways to cut costs is to no longer make the track to ordination require a masters degree. I'm not saying get rid of schooling entirely, but to break out of the Masters model that has permeated for so long but is no longer necessary or feasible. The logic is that it removes two major things which impact financial flexibility of the seminary and the seminarian: to the seminary it is no longer being held down by the standards and curriculum requirements that accompany accreditation as a graduate theological school. These requirements for example dictate a minimum number of professors and staff, no longer needing to be accredited would give the school and the church more options on how it will choose to educate and train leaders. The benefit for the student financially is that if it is no longer a masters program, not only does the financial flexibility hopefully lower tuition, but more importantly it removes a bachelor degree from the required educational track. The truth is the Masters of Divinity is really a fake masters degree anyways. One does not do masters level work to get a masters of divinity. The academic standard of my undergrad far outweighed that of my graduate education. The bottom line is I took on a lot of debt to get an undergrad, and while I like many of my peers would agree that it was valuable or a good thing, it is not necessary towards my pastoral training. ELCA seminaries have no expectation of what you learned prior to coming to seminary. At best maybe the ability to write a paper or a maturity factor, neither of which ultimately require a degree to achieve. Or if you received an undergraduate in something like theology, you will find there were classes that ultimately could be skipped to save money at seminary. But seminaries cannot give you credit for classes you have taken in your undergraduate because you cannot get graduate credit for something you got undergraduate credit for. But were this no longer a graduate program, but say a certificate program the seminary could be free to allow students who did get an undergraduate to perhaps count some of that towards their track to ordination. Students could therefore either get a head start towards ordination through undergraduate, or avoid undergraduate debt entirely. If the ELCA had two seminaries, one could remain accredited to allow a masters track at a higher cost for those who choose that route (especially for those who intend or contemplate doctoral studies) while the other could be a non-graduate certificate education program with the flexibility to its curriculum in a way that lets them lower costs and allow students to have either no burden of undergraduate requirements/costs or to apply it towards the certificate as the church sees fit.
3. Cut the amount of required courses for ordination: This is actually I think the toughest. Especially since each generation actually adds to requirements how do we start cutting things out? Right now most MDivs in the ELCA take a minimum of three years plus a full year internship - a four year program. Cutting even a single year would save students thousands. Consolidating the curriculum would perhaps also limit the amount of classes that need to be taught each semester hopefully saving the seminaries money too (I'm not as confident on that though). But there are some classes that just are not necessary towards pastoral ministry. Helpful, yes. Interesting, sometimes. But necessary? Also a clearer expectation as to what is taught in what class and at what point then a student should be taking certain classes though more restricting will save a lot of time and therefore allow more consolidation. Too many concepts were taught and retaught from class to class in seminary. The history class covered the Arian controversy and then so did the class on Christology. Concepts like two kingdoms theology or law and gospel were "introduced" in so many different classes each professor taught it to us unaware of whether or not we knew what it meant. This can also happen if less time is given in certain classes to "small groups". Too much group time is wasted, either because people run out of things to talk about, or it becomes an endless cycle of clashing personalities, story swapping, or questions which no one answers. While there is some value in these, especially for people of certain learning styles, far too much time in some classes was allotted to this. If the claim is certain classes cannot be merged, they are wrong. Plenty of classes could cover more topics if group time was shorter or happened on fewer occasions.
4. Go completely online: I would hate this personally. Online classes were my least favorite. I took some one semester and pretty much committed to not do that again whenever I had the choice. But there would be a series of benefits to a completely online education. For one, it could be done anywhere which keeps students from having to sell homes or move or live on campus if they can still live with mom and dad. It would allow for perhaps also a more integrative programs, of seminarians perhaps even being able to get positions in churches that cannot afford full-time pastors while doing studies - which gives them income while studying and does a service to small financially strained congregations. Once upon a time it was commonplace for seminarians to have church positions and they would go off to these country churches on Friday, preach Sunday, do whatever other duties must be done before leaving Monday and having classes Tues-Thurs. Now with online we would not have to have the schedule restrictions that once were had but the same system could happen of students studying and serving. This would also be to the advantage of seminaries. One of the great costs is maintenance of older buildings. No longer having dorms or classrooms or cafeterias would minimize the amount of staff needed to run the institution and the costs of upkeep, utilities, etc. would be far lower than it is now.
5. Synod-wide priority towards pastors: what is tough about this proposal is it is a bit of stealing from Peter to give to Paul. That is, for all the great initiatives in synod spending, some could be cut in order to focus costs on the local missionaries. No one wants to advocate cutting the malaria campaign or ELCA world hunger, but something should be said of the greater church's responsibility to its institutions and pastors/leaders. As the ELCA expects this kind of education on pastors it needs to find ways to meet the financial burden that accompanies it. The seminaries cannot without more aid handle that burden. Congregations individually struggle to help their pastors meet that burden. I don't intend to advocate from where synods get the money to better support their seminarians, but many synods offer no financial support to seminarians either going into seminary from their synod or coming out of seminary to serve their synod (some are and should be applauded for this). More can be done, not just in individual seminarians but in supporting the institutions themselves which the ELCA relies on. More partnerships can be made, even facilities or other resources shared. 

These are just a few ideas. Many others I know are being floated around, by those far more privy to what all is going on, but as you can see even here what must or ought be done requires a great amount of shared vision and radical restructuring. It likely means more jobs lost, more buildings closed, more painful or controversial moments before things get better. None of these are particularly popular ideas either, because what would seem ideal seems to not work. 

My prayers go towards those impacted by the changes and struggles that continue to happen. Every model or idea is met with the reality that people's lives are about to shift and change and uproot. Whatever the future holds, it likely holds more days of resignations and blame, of new ideas or hopeful ventures. But in it all lets whether the storm, hold up those affected, and live in prayer and the hopeful advent that the dawn from on high shall break upon us and this entire mess we've made.

Lord Jesus, the office of preaching you gave that your name might be proclaimed and used among your people to set us free. We ask now then that you continue to keep that office strong in your church through stability and reform, renewal and newness of the institutions by which our leaders are raised up and prepared. And in all these things, forget not one little lamb touched by the changes. Though many have been counted as sheep for slaughter in this time, may you keep them firm in faith, sustained in life, and guided to new vocations. To them, to us all, Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.