[1] As Executive Director of the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities (NECU), I have a job description, but I have a vocation too. It is a calling that transcends the tasks of administration to touch the spiritual, intellectual, and moral life of our communities. To lead NECU is to be a steward of 28 institutions across the United States and Canada. Each is different in character and history. But all share a conviction that Lutheran higher education has something essential to offer the world. Our collective mission is to prepare graduates who are called and empowered to serve the neighbor so that all may flourish.[i]
[2] This is not an optional vocation. Higher education is on trial in our culture. Funding is cut, public trust is waning, and political and cultural wars are being fought on our campuses every day. In recent years, higher education has been stereotyped as elitist, disconnected, or even dangerous. Diversity and inclusion work has been caricatured as a tribal, ideological project, not a moral and intellectual imperative. The liberal arts tradition has been ridiculed as an impractical luxury. Lutheran higher education must not shrink from this moment. We must meet it with imagination and courage, showing how our distinct heritage positions us to meet this moment with clarity and compassion.
[3] The tragic death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, for all the myriad things people felt about his politics and persona, reveals why. His assassination is both a reminder of human fragility and a symptom of our broken public discourse. Ideological difference is increasingly turned into animus and debate into a battle in which people on different sides are dehumanized and demonized. Civil discourse deteriorates and communities fragment, while violence hovers at the peripheries of common life. This is the hour that NECU institutions are so desperately needed. On our campuses, we can incubate laboratories of civil discourse, new spaces where students learn not only how to think but how to disagree with dignity. Lutheran higher education is to be rooted in the conviction that every human being is created in God’s image and open to engaging the full diversity of human voices and experiences.
[4] This is why my work with NECU, at its core, is an act of stewardship. It is not only about bringing these varied institutions into a better relationship with one another. It is about recognizing the gifts of our institutions and weaving them together into a collective witness. I tell people all the time: NECU is not a consortium of schools. It is a communion. We share resources. We share networks. But more than that, we share a theological imagination. We share a conviction that higher education is for the formation of human beings for lives of purpose and responsibility. My vocation is to convene, connect, and catalyze. Our institutions are working together to strengthen their missional identity, advance vocational exploration, foster belonging for all students, and model civil discourse. We help create spaces for difficult but necessary conversations. These are not goals that are politically expedient or safe. They are theological imperatives rooted in the gospel of grace.
[5] What makes Lutheran higher education distinctive is its ability to live in the tension of realities that are too often torn apart in this society: faith and freedom, tradition and reform, rootedness and openness. At least five theological convictions drive this:
– Grace declares that every student, regardless of background, is of sacred worth.
– Vocation is a reminder that higher education is not just about getting a job but about discerning a life, asking not only “What will I do?” but also “Who will I be, and for whom?”
-Critical inquiry is rooted in the Lutheran insistence that faith seeks understanding; it is about teaching students to approach the world with a posture of curiosity and humility.
-The priesthood of all believers means that leadership is democratized and all voices count.
-Ongoing reformation reminds us that we are always called beyond what is to what could be.
[6] These convictions help to explain why Lutheran colleges have sometimes led the way on justice and inclusion. It is not because it is fashionable to do so; it is because it is faithful. Luther’s own insistence that education was for all people—not only the wealthy or ordained—was a radical idea in his day. And it continues to reverberate in our own day as a call to put at the center those who have been excluded from the life of higher education too often.
[7] Our NECU statement “So That All May Belong” makes clear that for us, diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice are not marginal commitments; they are part of who we are at our core.[ii] On our campuses, this looks like recruiting and retaining students and faculty from historically excluded communities. It looks like equity embedded in curriculum, governance, and culture. It looks like creating cultures of belonging where students are not only welcomed but celebrated. But we need to go deeper. I believe it is time for Lutheran colleges and universities to reimagine themselves structurally so that our commitments are not only declared in words but embodied in designation.
[8] We need to take seriously the possibility of several of our institutions becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs). This is not just about meeting federal enrollment quotas for HSI or MSI designation, although that is one important way we could contribute to making the United States educational system truly multicultural. It is about coming to terms with the fact that the demographics of this country are changing and our institutions need to reflect and serve those changes.
[9] Likewise, Lutheran colleges need to expand partnerships with Tribal Colleges, learning from Indigenous wisdom even as we work to heal the wounds of colonization and cultural erasure. We also need to grow affiliations with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), sharing resources, creating common pipelines, and building leadership across historic fault lines. These steps are not only strategic. They are theological. They represent our commitment to say as a people that God’s children are diverse, and our gospel calls us into relationships that break down historic barriers of race, culture, and history.
[10] At the same time, we need to reckon with changing realities around theological education. Too many of our seminaries (especially those embedded into our NECU institutions) are suffering from declining enrollments even as the church’s needs are becoming more complex. An increasing number of our congregations are being served by bi-vocational ministers who faithfully serve alongside professions that pay the bills. Bi-vocational leadership is not a failure of a system; it is a sign of transformation. It is a call to the church to reimagine how we form leaders.
[11] We must create flexible pathways to theological study that include hybrid and online models that allow for education among those already in local communities. We need to design curricula that prepare leaders for multiple vocations, equipping them not only for congregational ministry but also civic and professional leadership. We need to support bi-vocational leaders not as second-class leaders but as critical witnesses to the church’s adaptability and resilience. This is not about lowering standards or theological rigor. It is about expanding relevance. If the church of the future is to thrive, our leaders must be both theologically grounded and vocationally agile. Lutheran higher education, with our dual commitments to academic excellence and vocational discernment, is uniquely poised to do this work.
[12] The NECU document Rooted and Open: The Common Calling of the Network expresses this beautifully. It describes our institutions as neither sectarian enclaves nor secular outposts but as a “third path.”[iii] We are rooted in the Lutheran intellectual and theological tradition but open to receiving insights from other sources as well. This dual identity enables us to ask the big questions about life: What is the meaning of human life? What is our purpose? What are our responsibilities? This identity allows us to form character, not just credentials. It allows us to model hospitality and civil discourse in a world that so desperately needs both. It allows us to form graduates who can live faithfully in a pluralistic society with wisdom and humility.
[13] This is why Lutheran higher education is so essential, even critical, at a moment like this. The Trump era’s attack on higher education, especially diversity initiatives, liberal arts inquiry, and intellectual freedom, requires a response that is Lutheran without apology. Against anti-intellectualism, we offer the value of truth-seeking and critical inquiry. Against attacks on diversity, we proclaim inclusion as a theological, not merely political, mandate. Against the demonization of pluralism, we celebrate the possibility of dialogue across traditions as essential for both democracy and discipleship. Against the reduction of education to job training, we proclaim vocation as discernment of how one’s life can be for the neighbor. In these ways, we are not merely defending our institutions. We are defending education as a public good and a spiritual practice.
[14] Our society needs, more than anything else, moral imagination. The ability to empathize with the experience of others, to envision alternatives, to act for the common good. This imagination can help us to resist polarization and see possibilities where others only see barriers. Lutheran higher education institutions are among the best places for forming moral imagination. We are schools that form students who can hold tension without despair, engage difference without fear, and pursue justice without arrogance. We are schools that can form leaders who can speak justice with compassion and engage conflict without violence.
[15] For Lutheran higher education, civil discourse is not only a skill to be learned. It is a vocation to be lived. Listening deeply, speaking truth with grace, honoring the dignity of every person: these are not merely academic habits but spiritual practices. In a time when political rhetoric too often rewards cruelty and contempt, our campuses offer an alternative. We can teach students that even the most challenging conversations can become holy spaces if we approach them with humility and respect.
[16] We must not be inward-looking. We must be a witness in the public square. Bold witness. Whether conferences, partnerships, or advocacy on Capitol Hill, we must be clear: Lutheran higher education is indispensable to the flourishing of democracy. Initiatives like VOCARE Fellows leadership program, which are reimagining vocational discernment for the next generation of higher education leaders, or the convenings we have created among presidents, chaplains, DEI officers, and faculty, these are not just strategies. They are testimony, public interventions, and a witness that faith-based higher education can model the courage, compassion, and imagination our society so desperately needs.
[17] The beauty of Lutheran higher education is precisely this posture: rooted in the gospel of grace while also being radically open to the world. The tragic deaths of so many young people in our world continues to be a reminder of how fragile public life has become for us. The attacks on higher education are also a reminder of the importance of our work. The reimagination of our own institutions into HSIs, MSIs, Tribal College partners, and HBCU collaborators are a reminder that we cannot remain the same. The growth of a bi-vocational workforce is a reminder that education must continue to be reformed for relevance.
[18] Again, we must be reformed. We must expand. We must prepare leaders who can thrive in a pluralistic society, navigate complex vocational landscapes, and live civil discourse as a spiritual practice. The world does not need more prestige. It needs more purpose. It does not need more competition. It needs more compassion. It does not need more caricatures. It needs more character.
[19] The Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities is a gift to the world, a beacon in dark times, and a living testimony of what it means to be rooted and open, and relevant and essential.
[i] M. J. Salmon, et al. Rooted and Open: The Common Calling of the Network
of ELCA Colleges and Universities. Augsburg Fortress, 2017. Rooted and Open – ELCA Resources
[ii] “So That All May Belong: Lutheran Roots for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice.” Intersections. Vol 2025 Number 61. Augustana Digital Commons. So That All May Belong: Lutheran Roots for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice
Lamont Anthony Wells serves as Executive Director, Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities (NECU).