International Partners
By Pastor Eric Jonas Swensson
The Institute of Lutheran Theology (ILT) provides excellent coursework in Confessional Lutheran theology for laity as well as the training of the next generation of pastors and teachers for service in the Lutheran church. Our professors, such as Robert Benne, Dennis Bielfeldt, Paul Hinlicky, Hans Hillerbrand, and Mark Hillmer, are second to none. ILT is constantly updating its technology, and excellence in teaching and delivery is to be expected.
ILT has a new challenge; we have been asked to facilitate the education of pastors and teachers in developing nations. In order to do this we will need to develop a model of an international partner school as well as raise the funds for start-up costs . I will be contacting supporters about this, but if after reading this you have any questions about how you and your congregation can support this initiative, you are invited to contact me ASAP.
Allow me to share some of the exciting ideas we have had so far; the “What For?,” “Why Now?,” and “What We Need from You” of this project.
Answer the following:
- “What changes have you experienced in the Lutheran church in your lifetime?”
- “What is your hope for the Lutheran movement?”
- “What will you leave behind for the next generation of Lutherans?”
What For?
We have seen great changes in the Lutheran church, much of it not good. My responses to the questions above are a mixed bag of lament and hope. Our forebears in Europe lose a half-million members a year. North American denominations are sliding off the plateau they’ve long occupied. More importantly, as in Europe, there is not only a loss in quantity, but a substantial qualitative change. Culture is influencing church rather than the other way around.
Of course, ILT was born out of a similar situation, and therein lies some hope for the future. Reform and growth are as unlikely to come from European state churches as from North American Lutheran denominations, but ILT is providing a necessary antidote with its emphasis that God is real and through Jesus Christ brings sinners to repentance and new life.
We have known from our beginning that ILT’s strong medicine is meant to do its necessary work not only in North America. Timing is everything, though, and now it appears to be the time for it to become a more global reality.
Why Now?
Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ Service Coordinator, Mark Vander Tuig, received a request from a pastor initiating a new LCMC district in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In response to Vander Tuig’s gracious, “How may I help you?” he said the number one question is concerning theological education for their churches: “What program do you have for training pastors?” This request has been handed on to ILT, and we invite you to partner with us so we can train future leaders there.
What We Need From You
The need of the local church for properly trained pastors in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cambodia, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Eritrea, or Madagascar, for that matter, is the same as for your church and mine. How will we continue to hear the Good News unless someone is called, trained, and sent?
We are under hard times, financially and otherwise. Our congregations often seem beset with multiple problems, but we have many advantages compared to our Lutheran brothers and sisters in the developing world. Moreover, these are the churches that are set to experience great growth in the century to come. ILT feels called to help them in a big way, for the greater Lutheran movement. We hope you, too are excited to be called into this new international initiative.
You will find this article in the new newsletter here.
