A Letter From the President of ILT

Dear Friends of the Institute of Lutheran Theology:

Another congregation has given your congregation a gift; the gift is your pastor. People rarely think about that, but it’s true. Parents, Sunday School and VBS teachers, confirmation instructors, youth workers, and perhaps others as well were likely part of the formative process leading to your pastor’s call to the ministry. But the “home church” almost never gets its son or daughter back to serve there. That other church helped you have your pastor. Maybe your church has helped raise a pastor for yet another church. God raises up pastors, and expects us to share.

Pastors must be trained. That is the next and necessary step. The Institute of Lutheran Theology has been training future pastors for five years now. We are an established provider of theological education, using the latest technology to bring high-quality instruction to those who are answering God’s call. We intend to train our students for excellence in ministry, and our instruction is appropriately rigorous. Tomorrow’s pastors depend on what we do, and so will the congregations they will serve…maybe also yours.

ILT’s mission is to grow in service as an evangelical, confessional, and proven seminary.

I have taught for ILT, and I can tell you that it is truly a remarkable experience to see on the computer screen a group of students, distributed across several states, attentive to the instruction being offered, and able to interact with the teacher and with each other. ILT is a leader here. Our faculty is superb. What we offer in the virtual format is unsurpassed.

May God bless you richly, and may your pastor continue to be a blessing to many. By the grace of God, may a new generation of faithful pastors come forward to be equipped for the ministry of Word and Sacrament. ILT exists to help make that happen.

 

Yours in Christ,

Dr. Frederick W. Baltz
President, Institute of Lutheran Theology