‘We need to wake up’: Jepenri Tambunan shares wisdom from rare WCC experience LSTC second-year MA student Jepenri Tambunan experienced the global church in an extraordinary way when he served as a delegate to the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Karlsruhe, Germany, Aug. 31-Sept. 8. The WCC Assembly gathers only once […]
Mark Swanson finds joy in encounter On Mark Swanson’s office door is a quotation from Rowan Williams, the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, which says, “The call of God is very strange.” Swanson would agree: strange and joyful. “For the first two years that I was reading theology, I didn’t know what it was for,” recalls Swanson, […]
Michael Fick: his LSTC memories aren’t tied to a building When Michael Fick (MDiv, 2004) first heard about the impending sale of LSTC’s property he felt “a kind of sadness.” But as he reflected on the reality of the situation, different thoughts and feelings emerged. “I began to think about what I loved most about […]
Sara Trumm on the future of CCME For Sara Trumm, providing spaces for intercultural engagement and understanding have long been a part of her life’s work. Trumm, director of A Center of Christian-Muslim Engagement of Peace and Justice (CCME), recalls her time studying in Nicaragua as an undergraduate, her graduate-level work at the United Theological […]
A bold missionary vision Back in the 1980s, LSTC became one of two Lutheran institutions that incorporated Islamic studies into the very heart of their curriculum. Led by visionaries such as Harold S. Vogelaar and Roland Miller, these seminaries took the lead in facilitating productive and empathic dialogue with people of the Islamic faith. The […]
Vance Blackfox: Shifting the narrative of mission and service From an early age, Vance Blackfox (2012, MATS) felt a call to help others feel included. Blackfox has fulfilled that call in many different roles across the church: as a youth leader and a director of youth programs, in positions at Women of the ELCA and […]
