Stepping Into the Call

On a windswept Sunday morning in rural Wisconsin, a small Lutheran congregation gathers in its century-old sanctuary. Their pastor retired last year, and the search for a successor has stretched on for months. Yet worship continues, led faithfully by someone who, a year ago, never imagined standing behind the pulpit.

This is the promise of Synod Authorized Ministry (SAM). Rooted in the needs of local congregations and made possible by new educational pathways at the LSTC, SAM opens the door for lay leaders to step into Word and Sacrament Ministry in places where geography, finances, or other realities make a full-time pastoral calling nearly impossible.

“Synod Authorized Ministry is authorized by the ELCA churchwide constitution for any synod and bishop to implement, and it requires three things,” President and Professor emeritus James Nieman explains. “First, there has to be a situation of need—usually a ministry site where regular pastoral leadership is unavailable or unaffordable. Second, the bishop must specifically authorize someone to serve in that place and time. And third, there are conditions: training, supervision, a clearly defined setting and annual review.”

The result is ministry that is both local and accountable, with SAM candidates trained and supported for the unique realities they’ll encounter. And LSTC’s new SAM program, launched through Project Starling in partnership with several synods, offers a distinctive approach to this preparation.

Meeting Leaders Where They Are

When synods began asking for stronger educational resources for SAM candidates, LSTC stepped in to help.

“Synods own the SAM process,” Nieman says. “They decide who serves, where, and for how long. Our role is to provide quality theological education—resources shaped by strong pedagogy, scholarship, and engagement with real-world ministry needs.”

The program draws on materials already developed for the TEEM program at LSTC through Project Starling’s asynchronous learning platform. Instead of relying on the familiar model of pulling students away from home and work to gather in classrooms, LSTC designed SAM to be fully online and asynchronous. That choice, Nieman notes, was deliberate.

“We meet learners where they are, with what they know, in the time and resources they have available,” he shared. “Many of them have full-time jobs, families, congregational responsibilities. We had to ask ourselves, ‘How do we make this learning fit alongside already crowded lives?’”

For congregations, this flexibility matters, too. Leaders can grow in knowledge while already serving their communities, bringing new skills into the pulpit, the classroom, and the fellowship hall week by week. 

Sister Noreen Stevens, a deacon in the ELCA who was rostered in 1987, a year after she graduated with her MA from LSTC, facilitates the SAM program in the Northern Great Lakes Synod. She says that for their synod, the program’s value lies not only in preparing potential SAM leaders, but also in equipping laypeople for ministry in all its forms. 

“We’ve been clear from the beginning,” she explains, “that while this training may lead some into SAM roles, others will take what they learn back to their congregations, neighborhoods, and workplaces. Either way, we are equipping the saints for the work of ministry—and that’s the heart of our mission.”

Leaders can grow in knowledge while already serving their communities, bringing new skills into the pulpit, the classroom, and the fellowship hall week by week. 

Margaret Hoversten, who facilitates SAM cohorts in the La Crosse Area Synod, sees this transformation firsthand. “I hope participants grow in confidence in their abilities and unique gifts to walk with others in faith,” she says. “And I hope they gain clarity about the role they’re called to take—whether as a SAM or as a deeply engaged lay leader.”

That mission begins with relationships. Stevens describes starting each cohort with an overnight retreat, where participants share their stories and hopes before gathering monthly online. These sessions check in on coursework, but they also create space for discernment and mutual support. 

“It’s about meeting the person where they’re at,” she says. “That’s where growth happens—when people are invited to bring their whole selves into the process.”

Both Nieman and Stevens point out that facilitators play a central role in shaping that environment. LSTC provides high-quality materials and pedagogical support, but it is the facilitators who adapt those resources to local realities, bringing in guest leaders, connecting the learning to congregational contexts, and ensuring students feel accompanied. 

 “We want participants to experience ministry as something shared,” Stevens said. “From the beginning, they see that leadership in the church happens through partnership—between synod and seminary, between facilitators and students, between congregations and the wider church.”

A Future of Possibility

While the current program focuses on preparing SAM leaders, Nieman envisions a future where these resources support lifelong learning for the whole church. Some synods may see SAM as a first step, with candidates moving from SAM into further theological study. Others will use the program as a permanent solution for congregations where calling a full-time pastor simply isn’t realistic. Either way, the platform creates what Nieman calls “a long educational runway,” with potential for new modules on leadership, stewardship, conflict resolution, and more.

Stevens sees that potential in the lives of the participants themselves. As they deepen their theological understanding and discernment, she says, they begin to carry a renewed energy back into their communities. 

“When people grow in faith and confidence,” she reflects, “they bring that hope and love into congregations that need it. It builds up the body of Christ in a world that desperately needs healing.”

Donor support will be crucial to keep production quality high and content accessible. Nieman hopes to see not only strong congregational leaders emerge from the program, but also moments when theological ideas connect with lived experience in ways that transform ministry on the ground.

We meet learners where they are, with what they know, in the time and resources they have available. Many of them have full-time jobs, families, congregational responsibilities. We had to ask ourselves: how do we make this learning fit alongside already crowded lives?

– President and Professor emeritus James Nieman 

Back in that small Wisconsin church, the congregation finishes singing the final hymn. Their new leader, once unsure about stepping into this call, offers the blessing with growing confidence. It’s a simple moment—but for the people gathered there, it’s the start of something lasting. 

LSTC thanks the Tietjen Family Foundation for underwriting the piloting of the SAM Development Training Program and supporting the formation of 40 SAMs.