School for Lay Ministry

Luther Seminary’s School for Lay Ministry is open to all people interested in training to more fully serve in a variety of ministry roles in their congregations. Many ELCA synods provide lay schools of ministry that offer certification after training to lay people. The courses below were designed in partnership with the synods of the ELCA of Northeastern, Northwestern and Southwestern Minnesota; and Eastern and Western North Dakota to fulfill some of the requirements for these synods.

Topics:
From the Sanctuary to the Street
What is ministry, and who does it? A simple question on the surface, the unfortunate reality is that ministry is often restricted to what we do in and through the church. In our time together we will explore the wide varieties of ministries that all God’s people engage in—daily—and how the church might become as good at supporting our scattered ministries as we are at supporting our gathered ministries.

Ministry with Persons with Mental Illness
Providing congregational and community care with persons who have mental illness manifests itself in a myriad of ways. Effective ministry integrates a three-fold model of care, namely the theological, pastoral and medical models. This course will:

• Address the theological and pastoral insights regarding vulnerability and community in order to move towards an integrated ministry, while also medically surveying the wider scope of mental illnesses
• Focus on integrative ministry, looking more closely at less prominent mental illnesses from the medical model, and seeking ways to put into practice the pastoral implications of such insights.

Empire and the Old Testament
Nearly all the books of the Bible came into being when the land of Judah was under some form of imperial domination. The political, social and economic realities of imperialism affected all aspects of life in ancient Israel, including religious observance and the production of texts. In this course we will use “empire” as a guiding concept for reading and interpreting the Old Testament. We will review the ancient political powers that held sway over Israel and Judah, and explore how those imperial pressures are reflected in both the style and content of selected biblical texts.

Exploring Church, Community and Vitality in the Acts of the Apostles
No two churches or Christian communities are exactly the same, but all of them can be places where the word of God is both proclaimed and lived out. These communities are places where God can be encountered, where we can find acceptance and meaning and where we can serve others. In this time of transformation and reformation, the Acts of the Apostles offers us much to consider about what a church community can look like, and the ways in which the people of God express the word of God. By exploring what the book of Acts claims about God and the gospel, we can find fresh ways of glimpsing God’s presence in our own experiences and our congregations.