Ten Bishops, One Seminary

I wasn’t raised in the church,” recalls Bishop Tracey Breashears Schultz, DMin ’14. “My faith came to me through my paternal grandmother. Whenever she would come and visit us, we would do things we didn’t always do as a family, like pray before meals and go to church on Sunday. I really loved getting to be with my grandmother in church because of the way she sang, and because of the way she was always ready to raise her hand when the pastor asked if anybody wanted to give a witness.”

It was that grandmother who first asked a young Bishop Schultz if she wanted to give her life to Jesus. Bishop Schultz said yes. At the time, she didn’t fully understand what it meant, but she knew it had something to do with the way her grandmother’s eyes shone when she prayed; with the way faith carried her through the hardships of life.

Years later, that early spark of faith would be rekindled by an unlikely source. 

Bishop Schultz’ first husband died unexpectedly when she was only 25. The grief was devastating, and the theology she had grown up with offered little comfort. “I remember a pastor telling me that maybe Jesus calls some of us to suffer,” she recalled. “But I couldn’t imagine a God who would want me to feel the way I was feeling.”

It was a Lutheran hospital chaplain who changed everything. He didn’t preach at her. He didn’t try to explain away the tragedy. He simply showed up—praying with her, sitting with her family in the silence of the hospital room.

That experience led her to a Lutheran congregation, then to LSTC, where she earned her Doctor of Ministry in Preaching. LSTC, she said, gave her the grounding in theology and the practical tools to lead with courage in times of uncertainty; skills she leans on now as a bishop in a rapidly changing church.

And she is not alone.

Today, ten LSTC alumni serve as bishops across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, shaping the life of the church in urban and rural synods, in multilingual congregations, in interfaith spaces, and on the global stage. It is a watershed moment in LSTC’s history—a visible sign of how the seminary’s values of justice, inclusivity, and public engagement have formed leaders for a world in profound transition. This convergence of leadership is not just a point of pride for the seminary: it’s LSTC’s mission—to form visionary leaders capable of navigating a changing church and world with courage, compassion, and hope—in action.

From Houston to Minneapolis; Denver to Washington, D.C., they carry LSTC’s values into congregations navigating cultural change, demographic shifts, and the call to be a public church in a complex world.

While their paths differ—some were shaped by global mission work, others by community organizing, others by multilingual urban ministry—all attribute the formation and clarification of their theological depth, pastoral imagination, and commitment to justice to their experiences at LSTC, as well as their confidence and ability to lead a changing church during tumultuous times.  

For the first time, I saw a church that preached the gospel of love and grace but also justice and human rights…I thought, ‘If this is what the church can be about, then I’m in.’

– Bishop Philip Hirsch, MDiv ’90

Formation for a Changing Church

For Bishop Paul Erickson, MDiv ’89, that meant four months in Cuernavaca, Mexico, living with a family whose lives were transformed by liberation theology. “I saw the power that Bible studies had to transform people’s lives,” he said. “A man learned to read through those Bible studies. He stopped drinking, fixed up his home, provided for his family—all because he came to believe that God wanted a better life for him… I said, ‘That’s the movement I want to be a part of.’”

Others spoke of urban ministry and public church engagement as the formative center of their LSTC experience. Bishop Philip Hirsch, MDiv ’90, studied in Zimbabwe and South Africa during
the height of apartheid. “For the first time,” he said, “I saw a church that preached the gospel of love and grace but also justice and human rights… I thought, ‘If this is what the church can be about, then I’m in.’”

For Bishop Stacie Fidlar, MDiv ’91, formation came not only in classrooms but in the relationships and opportunities LSTC offered to lead, preach, and serve while still a student. “It was a place where I could develop my faith in a new way that enabled me to lead in faith,” she said. “I learned to be in conversations across difference and to invite people to walk with me.”

Bishop Meghan Johnston Aelabouni, MDiv ’06, whose ministry later took her to Palestine and Israel with ELCA Global Mission, felt LSTC’s community of diversity and dialogue directly shaped her vocation. “I was enriched deeply by teachers, mentors, and classmates whose stories were different from mine,” she said. “They challenged my assumptions, helped me ask better questions, and made me a better pastor, a better neighbor, a better member of the body of Christ.”

In different ways, places, and forms, LSTC taught each of these bishops how to hold in balance their faith and the complexities of real life—grief and grace, justice and mercy, tradition and innovation—while leading communities through change.

LSTC prepared me for this moment in American politics…we are not engaged in efforts for racial justice and for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility for optics. We’re doing it because that is who Jesus was and is; because this is how God intends the world to be.

– Bishop Meghan Johnston Aelabouni, MDiv ’06

Resilient Leadership During Times of Crisis

Leadership in the church has never been easy, but today’s challenges—declining membership in many congregations, political polarization, cultural change—require a depth of faith and resilience that goes beyond quick fixes.

For Bishop Schultz, resilience was forged in the crucible of personal grief long before she was elected to the episcopate. Losing her husband at 25 reshaped her faith—and later, her leadership. “I was drawn in by the worship and the liturgy and the preaching out grace…boy, did I ever need that at the time. It was a beautiful experience.”

Bishop Donald Kreiss, MDiv ’92, DMin ’07, now in his third term leading the Southeast Michigan Synod, recalled that when he was first elected in 2011, the synod had experienced years of turnover in the bishop’s office—multiple resignations, even a sudden death in office. “We’d gone through a bishop election every other year for eight years,” he said. Part of Bishop Kreiss’ call was to help members of his synod breathe again, to remember that leadership can be steady and faithful, not just reactive. 

Resilience, several bishops noted, also comes from global perspective. Bishop Hirsch said his year in apartheid-era South Africa changed forever how he saw the church’s role in times of crisis. “I saw a church that was preaching the gospel of love and grace and acceptance and justice; the need to fight for human rights.” he said. It convinced him that the gospel was more than words—it was also action in the world.

Others spoke of crises closer to home: hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, racial justice uprisings in Minneapolis, the disorientation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bishop Jen Nagel, Certificate of Studies ’99, elected in the Minneapolis Area Synod in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, said the church had to confront its own complicity while offering hope, working to heal and nurture congregations while mobilizing them to tackle the hard, long work of systemic change.

Whether facing personal loss, public tragedy, or institutional upheaval, the bishops’ time at LSTC taught them to lead not from fear, but from faith—to tell the truth about the world’s pain while proclaiming God’s promises in the midst of it.

A Commitment to Justice

The bishops spoke of the gospel as inseparable from justice—and of the many ways LSTC taught them to see faith and public life as deeply intertwined.

For Bishop Pedro Suárez, MDiv ’92, this conviction grew out of his own story. Born in Venezuela, the son and grandson of pastors, he came to LSTC after first studying theology in South America. He sought a church where grace was real, where women could be ordained—where faith meant engaging with the world, not hiding from it. At LSTC, he found that—and saw a church where justice and mercy walk hand in hand. 

His vision for an open, ecumenical approach would carry him through years of bilingual, multicultural ministry across Illinois, Wisconsin, and Texas before he was elected bishop of the Florida-Bahamas Synod. Today, he leads a synod shaped by immigration, racial diversity, and interfaith partnerships—realities he says LSTC prepared him to embrace rather than fear.

Bishop Aelabouni, who served for five years in Palestine and Israel before her election to the Rocky Mountain Synod, said her time at LSTC taught her to lead with her values. “LSTC prepared me for this moment in American politics…we are not engaged in efforts for racial justice and for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility for optics. We’re doing it because that is who Jesus was and is; because this is how God intends the world to be.”

In their positions, the ten bishops are committed to creating and leading communities that look more like the kingdom of God—multilingual, multiracial, and oriented toward the needs of the world.

We in the gospel are called to live out reconciliation and healing. That requires intentionality on everyone’s part, continually remembering how to love our neighbor, continually remembering that our neighbor is not going to think the same way we do, and they are still a beloved child of God.

– Bishop Stacie Fidlar, MDiv ’91

Community and Pastoral Care

In the midst of their commitment to innovation, justice, and resilience, the bishops kept returning to something both older and deeper: the pastoral heart of ministry. Leadership, they insisted, is not simply about managing change or solving problems. It is about accompaniment—walking with people through grief and joy, fear and hope, uncertainty and transformation.

“We in the gospel are called to live out reconciliation and healing,” said Bishop Fidlar, noting the challenges in community cohesion that her Northern Illinois Synod faces daily. “That requires intentionality on everyone’s part, continually remembering how to love our neighbor, continually remembering that our neighbor is not going to think the same way we do, and they are still a beloved child of God.”

That pastoral dimension surfaced repeatedly in the bishops’ stories, even as they noted that LSTC’s institutional commitment to pastoral care shines through. As Bishop Schultz said, “I think one of the things LSTC values is meeting people where they are, building relationships, and getting the opportunity to have these deep conversations—then accompanying people as they come to an understanding that the world is broken and God has something to say about that. I can be a witness for that.”

Bishop Melissa Larsen Stoller, MDiv ’05, who first trained as a community organizer, said LSTC helped her see that leadership means both preserving tradition and embracing change. “If we can walk with people as they learn and grow and change their minds and see the world in new ways, then we will be a community of Christ that’s always seeking hope, faith, love, justice, understanding,” she said.

Others echoed that theme of accompaniment as leadership.

Bishop Erickson said his years of bilingual ministry in Milwaukee taught him that communities flourish when leaders listen before they speak. “One of the things I love about being bishop is the challenge to try to shift the culture of a whole ecology of systems. So, it’s not just a congregational culture that pastors and lay leaders work to shape, but a culture of cultures.”

That humility, he added, came directly from his time at LSTC, where professors insisted that theology must emerge from real people’s experiences—not just academic debate.

When Bishop Kreiss was elected, he noted, his synod had been through so much turnover, so much loss. What people needed first wasn’t a five-year strategic plan. They needed a leader who would listen, who would be with them, who would remind them that the church can be a community of trust. He reached back to his days at LSTC where he learned, in his words, “a lot about really careful, reflective listening,” in order to establish trust, to move forward despite uncertainty, to hear the pain in people’s stories and hold their hope for a better future. 

Several bishops noted that this emphasis on presence and care did not make leadership easier. If anything, it often meant absorbing more of the community’s grief, anxiety, or conflict.

“This is the heart of pastoral ministry,” said Bishop Stoller. “We love people. And when we love each other, when our congregations and parishioners know that we love them and they love us, then we can talk through the difficult things. Then we can move into ways of understanding conflict and places where we can move into justice.” This was the unifying hope that all of the bishops held for congregations in their synods.

The bishops said that what sustained them in this work was the same thing that had shaped them at LSTC: a community where theology, justice, and pastoral care were never separate things, but part of the same calling.

As Bishop Suárez noted, “LSTC helped me to balance tradition and innovation…it has been said that we’re living in a crisis where we don’t have new leaders, but almost everywhere I go I see young people wanting to come into ministry. And that fills me with hope.”

Leading with Courage and Hope

When asked what it means that ten LSTC alumni now serve as bishops across the ELCA, the responses were less about personal achievement and more about a shared vocation for a changing church.

“I’m now preparing to enter into a new role,” said Bishop Yehiel Curry, TEEM ’09, MDiv ’11, “And the first thing I want to do is ask, ‘How do I bring others along with me on this journey of learning?’ We as a Church want to be more young, more diverse, more connected, thriving.” This, he proclaims, as the new Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, is the moment for such change.

This moment, in the words of so many of the bishops we spoke with, is defined by both challenge and opportunity. Across the country, congregations are navigating declining membership, cultural polarization, and generational shifts in how people connect to faith. Yet again and again, the bishops insisted that the church’s future is not one of despair but of transformation—rooted in the same gospel that first called them to ministry.

“The church right now, as much or more than ever, needs to understand its voice as public church,” said Bishop Nagel. “And our instinct, because this time is just so terrifying, is to turn inward and hunker down. But this is the time that we’re called to be expansive; to look outward toward the need and the concern. I think that’s how Jesus would have us do it.”

This is the heart of pastoral ministry. We love people. And when we love each other, when our congregations and parishioners know that we love them and they love us, then we can talk through the difficult things. Then we can move into ways of understanding conflict and places where we can move into justice.

– Bishop Melissa Larsen Stoller, MDiv ’05