The Institute of Lutheran Theology -- A Brick House?

The Institute of Lutheran Theology (ILT) will celebrate its ten year birthday soon.  It was in December of 2007 that ILT acquired agency, that is, the property of being able to act and being able to be acted upon. The actual life of ILT began when it became a non-profit corporation.  Having gained this property, it soon acted to receive its 501 c3 status, acquiring this in March of 2008.

As an agent, ILT has been able to do many things: It early on offered courses to congregations, and began in the fall of 2009 to offer courses to those preparing to become pastors and church workers. By 2010 it had defined the core degrees it would offer: the Masters of Divinity, the Masters of Arts, and the Masters of Sacred Theology.  (It later added the Doctor in Ministry.)

Since its very inception ILT has raised funds for operations and charged tuition for its courses.   As an agent, ILT can and does own property and can and has taken on commitments and obligations.  As an agent, ILT is a financial actor with a financial history.  Like any person, some years of its life have been more challenging than others, some years better than others.  As an agent, ILT has exhibited behaviors, has had dispositions toward behaviors, and has acquired a reputation.  As an agent, ILT has been working to achieve institutional recognition from its institutional peers; it has toiled to become accredited.  Agency is the necessary condition of accreditation.

While all of this may seem obvious, so much confusion exists in the the present post-modern Lutheran context that many no longer grasp this clearly.  Institutions purporting to train pastors arise, declaring that they can accomplish such training while outsourcing to others either content delivery or degree conferral or both.  The reason for such outsourcing is obvious: To found and develop a new institution that will itself achieve accreditation is very difficult.  It takes a long time, is expensive, and often seems to be irrelevant to the actual task of educating students.  Why not simply open up a room within the Adobe Connect platform and have one pastor teach another?

There were once three little pigs.  One worked a brief time and built a house of straw, the second worked longer and produced a house of sticks, and the third worked a very long time, finally finishing his house of bricks.  When the wolf came, he could easily blow down the house of straw.  Moreover, with effort, he could flatten the house of sticks.  No matter how hard he tried, however, he was unable to blow down the house of bricks.  The house of bricks outlived the wolf whom, as you might remember, was boiled alive in the waters at the bottom of the brick house's chimney.

ILT has spent the last ten years preparing for accreditation.  It has created a finance and business office, an institutional advancement office, an office of academic affairs, an office of student affairs, and office of financial aid, an office of chaplain and educational ministry, an office of library and informational services, an office of assessment and measurement, an office of technology and technological support, and an office of public relations, publications, and donor development.  It has produced countless handbooks for students, faculty, staff, departmental offices, and its board of directors.  It has collected, collated and interpreted information from constituents, students, alumni, faculty, staff and its Board of Directors.  It has written detailed business and strategic plans, written and implemented assessment plans, built and implemented budgets, and received unqualified financial audits.  Each year that it exists the agent known as ILT has acted so as to grow stronger and wiser.   While accreditation is neither necessary nor sufficient for quality education in the classroom, it is essential if one is to create an institution that can survive the tempests of the coming years.

Since its birth, the Institute of Lutheran Theology has wanted to be a house of bricks.  Early on it realized that outsourcing its education to others or using the accreditation of others was like building a house of straw or sticks.  Difficulties arise, the wolf comes, and one's house is no longer.  Who knows if the institution to which one is outsourcing or the institution whose accreditation one is using will survive, or will have the desire to perpetuate the relationship initially established?   Early on it realized that it could not locate at another institution and with integrity call itself an autonomous and accredited school.  How could it control curriculum if the majority of the courses are delivered by the faculty of another institution who have their own agendas and institutional mission?

The Institute of Lutheran Theology has sought from the beginning to be independent, autonomous, and accredited.  It understood early on that this meant that it would have to take the long view, and slowly and surely develop an institution capable of existence into the next century and beyond.  Brick houses can last a very long time.  It has been the ardent desire of the Institute of Lutheran Theology to be around for a very long time.

Why is this?  Is it for the glory of ILT and its founders? 

No.  Early on it became obvious to us that the challenges to the perpetuation of the Lutheran confessional tradition were so great, that only an institution with financial stability, academic rigor, and institutional longevity could hope to address them.  However, what we do at ILT we do humbly; we stand under the Cross.   But make no mistake: In order to stand under the Cross at God's right-hand demands considerable left-hand institutional development.  ILT needs institutional girth in order to be a faithful, humble witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And it is for this that we exist.