Higher education in the LCMS: Part 2

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By Roy S. Askins

This article is the second installment in a series on higher education in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). This installment considers mission fidelity and Lutheran identity. Read the first installment.

“Luther took monasteries and turned them into schools; I will not be the president that presides over this school being turned back into a monastery,” said Dr. Michael Thomas, president of Concordia University Irvine (CUI), Irvine, Calif., at a meeting of the LCMS Council of Presidents. For Thomas, this means not turning inward, but leaning into the Great Commission: “We have students paying us to hear the Gospel. … It’s one of the most sustainable missions that the church has.”

Some 1,500 miles away at Concordia University, Nebraska (CUNE), Seward, Neb., CUNE President Dr. Bernard Bull takes another approach. He’s building a “critical mass” school wherein his administration, faculty and staff are fully on board with the mission of the institution. “They have a shared confession, a shared clarity about the mission,” he said. “That’s the non-negotiable in my mind.” This critical mass extends to the student body as well; over 60% of the CUNE student body is LCMS.

In truth, these are two different approaches to mission fidelity for institutions of the Concordia University System (CUS). Too often, they are placed in opposition to one another, as though the critical mass school has no interest in reaching out to the lost or the Great Commission school has no interest in doctrinal fidelity. Both institutions are seeking mission fidelity but are approaching it from different angles. Both approaches are necessary and helpful in the current climate. In fact, the unique approach of each Concordia is vital to maintaining Lutheran higher education in the U.S.

Last month, the first article in this series addressed trends broadly affecting higher education in the U.S. The schools of the CUS are responding to the trends. As previously noted, each of the CUS presidents was interviewed for this series. In this second installment, we’re going to address what, for each president, is clearly and unequivocally the most important priority: mission fidelity.

To aid these schools in evaluating and demarcating what mission fidelity looks like, the 2023 LCMS convention, with Resolution 7-04B, directed the CUS to develop Lutheran Identity and Mission Outcome Standards (LIMOS). The CUS board adopted a set of standards on Feb. 1, 2024. Each institution is currently working faithfully to implement these standards.

Lutheran identity and mission

With so many institutions of higher learning cultivating an open hostility toward Christianity and many Christian institutions drifting — or perhaps full-sail fleeing — from their theological moorings, the mission fidelity of CUS schools sets them apart in the higher education marketplace.

Mission fidelity begins with acknowledging and removing the root problem. Dr. Russell Dawn, president of Concordia University Chicago (CUC), River Forest, Ill., believes the problems with higher education go “back specifically to rejecting Christianity, but also rejecting ideas of natural law and the virtues. … We are seeing the bitter fruit of centuries of rejecting transcendent truth, specifically biblical truth.”

Dawn is working to reinstill a robust Lutheran ethos at CUC. Part of this means launching a summer apologetics boot camp for Christian CUC students. Why? Because “they wake up each morning in the mission field,” Dawn noted, and he wants them to “feel more confident in speaking about the faith.” The program will help them share the Lutheran confession of the faith with those with whom they interact on a daily basis.

As for the LIMOS: “I view the standards as they are now as simply what we ought to be doing,” Dawn said. “We were already moving toward them anyway.”

Bull agrees. “We are not striving to become distinctly Lutheran because of the LIMOS; this is who we are,” he said. “This is what we’ve been historically, long before I arrived [as president of CUNE], and this is what, by God’s grace, we will continue to be. … [Our Lutheran identity] is not a marketing campaign. It’s an accurate storytelling of who we are, who we aspire to be, who we’re committed to being and [who we’re] becoming over time.”

At CUNE, fidelity takes the form of a critical mass school. For Bull, this means his faculty, staff and board understand the shared vision and confession of the Lutheran faith. His hiring at CUNE bears this out; 88% of the faculty members belong to an LCMS church. It means, at times, that hiring for faculty and staff can take years. For a fast mover like Bull, this is frustrating but absolutely critical to guide the Lutheran identity of the school.

Critical mass also pertains to the student body. Nearly 60% of CUNE students belong to LCMS congregations; another 25–30% belong to other Christian denominations, for a nearly 90% Christian student body. For all students, whether Lutheran, Christian or otherwise, Bull earnestly points them to Christ. He takes up the charge from the Rev. George Weller, the first president of CUNE, who, at the dedication of Becker Hall in 1907, said: “We start from Sinai in order to reach Golgotha, and having arrived there at the foot of the cross on which Christ bled and died, we point to him, telling the child, ‘Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.’”

Dr. Erik Ankerberg, president of Concordia University Wisconsin and Ann Arbor (CUWAA), acknowledges that the LIMOS have caused some anxieties among members of LCMS congregations, especially with the matters swirling around the Ann Arbor campus. “[The LIMOS are] being interpreted as some sort of purity standard. … I disagree with that,” he said. “It may not be perfect; it’s what we have now. I think that it will evolve over time.”

At CUWAA, the administration welcomes the conversation with the larger Synod. From the outside looking in, an institutional commitment to Lutheran identity can appear like a fog without specific, concrete ways of being lived out. “It’s useful for us to say, ‘We’re opening our doors. We want visitors from the church. We want to be in conversation with our district and with the Synod.’ … And we’re not afraid of that,” Ankerberg said.

Unique opportunities spell out the implementation of mission fidelity at Concordia University Irvine (CUI), Irvine, Calif. Thomas also sees the LIMOS as a description of what the school is already doing. For example, a critical metric for the LIMOS is the ratio of faculty and staff who are LCMS members; CUI currently employs around 60% Lutheran faculty.

Furthermore, Thomas recently promoted the Rev. Dr. Steven Mueller, who already serves as CUI’s chief mission officer, to supervise Human Resources. The reason? To ensure the institution’s theological trajectory remains steady, as the hiring of mission-devoted faculty and staff is the key to mission fidelity. But then, Thomas said, “We go farther, requiring all faculty to complete the Vision, Mission, Vocation (VMV) program, an introduction to Lutheran doctrine specific to the higher education context. The program is so well beloved that staff have requested the opportunity to attend also.”

The confessional Lutheran identity at CUI has been noticed by the community. The city of Irvine, Calif., despite sitting in the heart of a left-leaning political state, remains a politically conservative community, and parents in the community desire an alternative to left-leaning schools. “Any business is going to struggle if it has no clear identity and no clear place in the marketplace,” Thomas said. “Everyone knows we’re a conservative Christian school, and some people don’t want that. Others say: ‘We absolutely want that.’”

The Rev. Dr. Brian Friedrich, president of Concordia University, St. Paul (CSP), St. Paul, Minn., sees Lutheran identity running clearly through all of the CUS institutions. For him, defining Lutheran identity by the LIMOS gives a twofold opportunity: First, it clearly defines what Lutheran identity is, and second, it provides the means to showcase the institution’s Lutheran identity to the Synod. The informal CUS visitation affirmed CSP’s strong Lutheran identity, but Friedrich sees the benefit of the LIMOS even more broadly: “I hope it is affirming for the church to say, of all of the Concordias, [that they have a] ‘strong Lutheran identity.’ I am encouraged by and excited about the faithfulness of our Concordias.”

In short, for parents concerned about their future college student’s faith, there’s no better option than one of the CUS schools. Rooted in faithful Lutheran identity, they inculcate the faith not because the LIMOS require it, but because that’s simply who they are. There’s no “great awokening” at these institutions that are grounded in the Word of God and the Lutheran Confessions.

Supporting church work and Lutheran students

“We will educate every church work student the church has sent to us,” Thomas said. Some have accused the Concordia universities of mission drift. Critics rightly point to the original intention of these institutions as the formation of church workers for service in the church. Critics then point to the proliferation of non-church work programs as evidence of mission drift. They fear that the Concordias have sacrificed church work programs for more lucrative secular degrees.

But do the actions of the Concordias support this criticism?

“We can determine the cost. We can determine the curriculum. We can determine the faculty,” said Friedrich. “But we can’t create students to come to the Concordias. … If the church isn’t sending students to our Concordias to prepare for full-time church ministries, we cannot prepare them.”

Thomas points out how often church work vocations are negatively portrayed in the church. Potential students see poorly paid pastors and church musicians and teachers; they see some church workers struggling to find joy in their work, and the students ask “Why would I do that? … Where is the joy in ministry?”

The truth is that the Concordias are not turning away potential church workers; rather, the church simply isn’t sending them. Thus, their expansion into non-church work programs does not result from mission drift but — in part (more on this later) — the need to expand the portfolio of available programs to keep the institution financially viable.

The commitment of the Concordias to educating church work goes beyond mere lip service. Each provides a robust financial aid package for church work students. For example, CSP provides free tuition for pre-seminary and pre-deaconess students and a maximum $6,000 tuition-and-fees guarantee for other church work students. CUC recently announced that, beginning in fall 2025, new full-time church work students will pay a maximum of $5,000 for tuition and fees. This includes classical Lutheran educators, teachers, pre-seminary students and more.

For the 2024–2025 school year, CUNE supported church work students through the Church Work Guarantee. While the specific amounts vary from year to year, the average incoming church work student last year received a financial aid package (a combination of institutional grants, federal and state grants, and private scholarships) worth $36,349. With undergraduate tuition at $39,800, this resulted in an average remaining tuition balance for church work students of $3,451*. This guarantee is funded through endowments and annual gifts, and often these funds are restricted specifically to church work students.

At CUI, too few students apply for church work: “About 40% of our endowment is completely dedicated to church work students,” Thomas noted. In fact, every church work student qualifies for the very same scholarship that is received by children of faculty and staff, which for this year was a minimum scholarship of $34,000 annually.

CUWAA provides a Luther Scholar Guarantee. For qualified students, any new freshman undergraduate student who declares a pre-seminary track is eligible to receive up to a full-tuition scholarship in institutional aid. Similar programs exist for teachers and other church work programs as well.

But the financial aid does not stop with church work programs. Bull noted that when the CUS institutions began offering additional programs, it was not the result of a concerted effort to deprioritize serving church workers. Rather, “it’s because families of our LCMS congregations wanted a Christ-centered education for their kids, … and they would send them to [CUNE] to be a teacher even though they had no intention of being a teacher.” Students would graduate with a degree in education and then attend another university to become a doctor or accountant or engineer. In the end, students would earn two degrees. Eventually, the Concordias realized it would be better to build out holistic programs that trained students to be good citizens as well as faithful Lutherans.

To that end, many of the Concordias also provide scholarships for students of Lutheran families. For example, CUWAA offers The Luther Promise scholarship to students who are members of LCMS congregations. The Lutheran Guarantee at CUNE provides a minimum $25,000 per year in institutional scholarships for members of Lutheran congregations; dependents of a Concordia alum; dependents of a full-time, professional, rostered church worker; or graduates of a Lutheran high school. Each Concordia has some level of scholarship money set aside for LCMS students.

Whether you’re a Lutheran parent, a Lutheran student interested in church work or someone interested in one of the panoply of educational offerings at one of the LCMS’ Concordia universities, there’s some sort of financial aid available. “Apply,” said Thomas. “You will be pleasantly surprised [how much aid you receive], especially if you’re coming to Concordia to pursue a church work vocation.”

*A correction was made to these numbers after the print version of this story was published; thus, this number is slightly different from that in the print version.

Posted May 5, 2025