For most of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren’s first 100 years, the Bible College of the Lutheran Brethren Schools drew post-high school students from across the United States. Here they learned the Scriptures, received a passion to live for Christ, and embraced our long-standing vision to send missionaries to people who have never heard the gospel. Just as importantly, many brought their learning and their passion back to their own churches or with them to new churches.

That tradition ended in the early 90s when the Bible College closed. Since then we have had no central place or method to pass on our core values to the next generation of leaders.

To address this challenge, Dr. Boe, the Dean of Lutheran Brethren Seminary, and I met with the leaders of our local community college. We wondered, since our seminary is now accredited, if students could transfer course credits to the college for classes taught by the Lutheran Brethren Seminary (LBS) at the college level.

Those conversations led to the forming of a vision for an on-line program which could be taken anywhere. We would still need the many other components which a Bible School or a Christian college education offers, such as mentoring in the Christian life, engaging in ministry, and developing relationships with other students. We could then envision groups of students helping congregations with outreach ministries and bringing revitalization to churches. This could happen while they were completing a year or two of college and also gaining a foundation in the Scriptures and in evangelism and missions.

The Board of LBS, meeting on September 24, considered all of this and included in our long-range strategic plan the following as one of five strategic directions:

“Resource CLB congregations in making disciples among our young adults in the context of our CLB Statement of Faith and our CLB Core Values.”

Is there need for such a ministry? Would students come? Do we have the resources to begin? Our first year goal is: “Explore, report, and make a recommendation on the viability of an associate level undergraduate division of LBS.”

The Lord of the Church is directing our church body to prepare a critical mass of our college-aged students to lead our church into the next generation. This is the first step in fulfilling that vision.

Dr. David Veum is President of Lutheran Brethren Seminary in Fergus Falls, MN.