Field Education

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To understand the academic and educational experience of this seminary, we might give you a glimpse of the ideal, the goal we strive for in preparing leaders for the church and society.
Here is our vision for what a leader looks like; we call it:

The Gettysburg Theologian: A Public Mission Leader for the 21st Century

Over the period of its first 175 years, this Seminary has formed and fostered extraordinary leaders who have served the Gospel in church and society. A recent publication of the Seminary, Witness at the Crossroads, details nineteen such servants. The names of Schmucker, Krauth, Payne, Passavant, Herman, Paulssen, Matsushita, Sadler, Wentz, Mendenhall and more reveal an extensive tradition of leadership that bears witness at an ever changing crossroads of church and world. The Seminary, in possessing this historic tradition, will continue to gather and foster leaders with passion and love for the Gospel, God’s people, and the Church of Jesus Christ.

While a seminary education is thorough and extensive, academic and pastoral, formative and yet empowering, one simply cannot take a class in every area of service, interest, and specialty in the course of a single degree program. Therefore one of the main goals for this Seminary is to teach its students how to think and how to adapt their skills and knowledge in ever changing contexts for ministry.

At the same time, Gettysburg’s educational program bears a careful design. The Seminary prepares Biblically centered and theologically grounded disciples and leaders for the church’s mission; ideally, their preparation will enable them to remain faithful to God’s Word and agile in interpreting its contemporary implications. These leaders are confident Christians who are able to discern the cultural and social contexts. They are skillful communicators, listening and speaking to a hungering world. Conversant with their confessional Lutheran tradition, this Seminary’s graduates will be able to address both classical and yet unforeseen questions in creative and faithful ways and potentially new forms of ministry. The Gettysburg formed student will offer an appreciation for the interdependence of the various expressions of the church, beginning with the local congregation, and yet including the synodical, churchwide, and global forms of the church’s reach.

The Seminary will continue to nurture the charisms of its students, developing in them gifts of leadership that can transform a drifting or faltering congregation, discern a pathway through polarizing worship questions, and preach compellingly. Additionally, we foresee the need to develop a capacity for ministry with newer populations, requiring evangelical, public and passionate commitment for mission and ministry that remains open to the opportunities of the world around them.

The Gettysburg Seminary’s graduates, particularly those planning to serve on one of the church’s rosters, will be equipped to be mission leaders who can personally evangelize in their communities as well as equip and motivate congregational members in outreach. A seminary education will impart leadership skills that enable rostered leaders to foster growth in situations of decline, to help congregations and other ministries understand their context, discern their mission and seize opportunities at their particular crossroads to bear bold witness. Special skills needed for specific settings—e.g. town and country, urban, multi-cultural—will be developed through participation in the seminary’s institutes and through degree concentrations.
Finally, Lutheran Theological Seminary theologians will be lifelong learners, returning to their alma mater and other notable theological educational resources, taking advantage of all available opportunities to continue their education as a part of their calling and as a matter of personal development and stewardship.