About
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Faculty
AFLTS Profile and Curriculum DesignThe founding of Association Free Lutheran Theological Seminary, hereafter referred to as Free Lutheran Seminary, a graduate school of theology, grew out of the need for biblically-trained pastors and Christian workers in the tradition of orthodox Lutheran Pietism. After prayerful consideration, the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations voted to proceed with the establishing of a theological seminary . The seminary opened its doors to the first entering class in September, 1964. In 1965, the AFLC elected its first full-time seminary dean, Dr. Iver B. Olson. In 1971, Rev. Amos O. Dyrud became dean of the seminary and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1981. That year, Dr. Francis W. Monseth was elected as dean and continues until the present. The seminary is located on a 25-acre campus on the east shores of Medicine Lake in Plymouth, a northwestern suburb of Minneapolis. The main seminary building houses a spacious chapel, classrooms, administrative and faculty offices, a student lounge and computer center, as well as a lunchroom. The large and growing library is located in Heritage Hall and is shared with the Association Free Lutheran Bible School. Housing is available for twelve seminary families in three apartment buildings on the campus. Drawing from an international constituency, Free Lutheran Seminary's former students are serving today as pastors, missionaries, teachers, and i other Christian ministries primarily in the United States but also in Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, India, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Norway. The seminary's main purpose is to serve the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations as it prayerfully seeks to meet the need for pastors and missionaries to serve in its congregations and fields. Its program of instruction, therefore, is oriented toward pastoral training in a conservative Lutheran setting. However, the seminary welcomes applicants who may not necessarily be seeking to serve in the AFLC but who desire the kind of education and training AFLTS provides. Free Lutheran Seminary is an institution of the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations and as such conforms to its principles and aims. The Seminary is supported by congregations of the AFLC as well as other interested friends. The AFLC looks to the seminary to train pastors needed in its expanding parishes and missions. As an institution of the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, the Seminary believes and teaches that:
A child-like trust in and commitment to the inspired Scriptures is fundamental in the entire life of the seminary. The seminary believes that "all Scripture," is given by inspiration of God" Not only in matters pertaining to salvation but also in everything, whether history, geography or science, the Bible is absolutely and eternally true. This inspiration has reference not merely to the thoughts or ideas of Scripture but to the very words. The original autographs of both Testaments were given by God to the last "jot" and "tittle." The seminary believes in verbal inspiration of Scripture. Thus, it confesses the inerrancy of the Bible. Since it is God the Holy Spirit who inspired all Scripture, there are no errors or contradictions. The seminary does not apologize for its presupposition of faith that the Bible in its entirety is the inerrant Word of God. Rather, it rejoices in the trustworthiness of the Bible in all its parts and desires to take its stand solidly on it as the foundation and source of its program of theological instruction. Because of the seminary's high view of the Bible as the very Word of God, it is recognized as the final authority in all matters of faith and life. The Law is to be received and applied in all its sternness and force, and the Gospel is to be received in all its sweetness and comfort. Only through this Spirit-empowered application of Law and Gospel can one know and experience the true meaning of repentance of sin and faith in Christ. Free Lutheran Seminary, as an institution of the AFLC, is in full agreement with the creeds and confessions of historic Christianity. The Apostolic, Nicene and Athanasian Creeds are confessed as faithful expositions of the truths of Scripture. Furthermore, the seminary is in hearty and enthusiastic agreement with the Unaltered Augsburg Confession (1530) and the Small Catechism (1529) of the Lutheran Reformation. There is full subscription to these documents because they are faithful and correct statements of Bible truths. The Seminary rejoices in its Lutheran heritage but is deeply concerned because of the inroads of liberalism and apostasy in parts of the Lutheran Church at the present. It desires to stand with those who would call the Lutheran Church back to the Bible and back to the Confessions in order to faithfully and fully minister to the needs of this generation. Faithful to the fundamental convictions of the AFLC, the Seminary believes that the local congregation is "the right form of the Kingdom of God on earth," acknowledging no authority above itself except the Word and Spirit of God. This means that the only model or entity that the Word of God gives through which the will of God is carried out in this world is the local congregation. Nothing else is presented in the pages of the New Testament. Indeed, any other organization or institution finds its Biblical right to exist only as a servant or arm of the local congregation. Following the Fundamental Principles of the AFLC, the Seminary seeks to lead its students into a full understanding of their meaning and application in congregational life. Free Lutheran Seminary in fellowship with the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, desires to lift up the standard of God's unfailing and inerrant Word, the Scriptures, and of biblical evangelistic Christianity. Joyfully bowing to the authority of Scripture, the Seminary takes seriously the "great commission" of our Lord and desires to be involved in making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). There is an earnest evangelistic purpose at the heart of the Seminary curriculum and program. The mention of biblical evangelistic Christianity is deliberate and has reference to the needful application of the Means of Grace . . . Word and Sacraments . . . as that through which God saves and keeps, by the working of the Holy Spirit. The aim of the Seminary is to give sound Christian teaching and training in uncompromising loyalty to the divine Word in order to prepare witnesses and workers, irrespective of race and color, for effective Christian ministry. The aims of Free Lutheran Seminary are not complete with mere intellectual understanding of the doctrines and practices of God's Word, the Lutheran Confessions, and AFLC distinctives. It is of utmost concern that the personal life of every graduate be conformed to the image of Christ. The need for godly spiritual leaders is reflected in the Seminary's statement of policy. "The Association is in need of pastors who reflect the faith and practice of the congregations. These pastors are to be servants of congregations--conservative, pietistic and evangelical . . . A pastor is to be, above all, a man of God. He is to maintain a good devotional life. Only people living close to the Lord can reveal Him." Free Lutheran Seminary stands for full-hearted surrender and consecration to Christ. It is in complete agreement with a statement made by the faculty of a Lutheran seminary of the 19th century: "We are not satisfied with a mere intellectual and scholarly orthodoxy. We believe that every doctrine pertaining to salvation must become an experience . . . Our Seminary does not want to send out a single minister who is not in personal and experiential relationship with Christ Jesus. We need and want an orthodox Pietism . . . a ministry aflame with the love of Christ and of souls" (From The Life of Dr. W. Passavant). |