Western Mission Cluster

The Rev. Liza Simpson was on our campus this week. Liza is the Associate Director of Admissions at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, PLTS's partner in the Western Mission Cluster. Liza was here to visit PLTS for the first time, to get to know the Bay Area, and to see the Graduate Theological Union (www.gtu.edu) in action during the Opening Convocation. We also made visits to the Campus Ministry sites of UC Berkeley, Stanford University, and UC Santa Cruz as well as to Mt. Cross Bible Camp and the Lutheran Volunteer Corps Berkeley Community. These five students (Dan, Sarah, Chelsee, Emily, and Megan), all recent college graduates, will spend the next year working in non-profit organizations as volunteers. These organizations include the YWCA, legal aide, elderly low-income housing, and juvenile chemical dependency. It was a delight getting to know them and hearing about their placements with LVC, their backgrounds, and their future ambitions--which may or may not include seminary. I was impressed by these young people's willingness to take a year out of their lives to make a difference in the life of someone else; they are a testament to us all of what it means to be a servant of Christ.

All of us in admissions (from all eight ELCA seminaries) tell perspective students we meet with that the best way to decide which seminary will fit you best is to visit. Luther and PLTS share the same goal: to raise up theologically trained leaders for the church. Yet we do so in different ways. As “sister seminaries” we are a good pairing. Because of those differences we can greater meet the needs of those wishing to study in the West.