Seminary Upgrading Plan

Plan for Upgrading Seminary to BD-Level:

Prologue

India is a country going through profound social and political change.   Although only about 30 percent of the Indian population   is estimated to be a part of the middle class, this still means that that the middle class in India numbers more than 300 million people, a number approximately equal to the size of the middle class in the US .   As economic levels rise, so also educational levels.   To provide ministry for a population that is becoming increasingly urbanized and well educated and growing in wealth is one of the major challenges of the India Evangelical Lutheran Church .

Urgency

Even though Christians number less than three per cent of the India population, it is clear that the Hindu nationalist parties feel that the Hindu religion and Hindu culture are under strong pressure from the Christian community.   Since those parties feel that the Hindu worldview cannot win in the free marketplace of ideas, any number of rules and regulations have been adopted to make it difficult for Christians to share their faith and for Indians to leave their traditional faith communities.   In this dangerous area of the world where inter communal violence may make it impossible for outsiders to make any contribution to the life of the people, it is important that the church have under its own control all that it needs to produce and maintain a capable, well-educated ministry.

Virtually all of the ecumenical seminaries in India have complied with the standards that allow them to grant Bachelor of Divinity degrees.   This means that if any student in the India Evangelical Lutheran Church wants to reach that level of accomplishment, he wil not be able to do so in a Confessional Lutheran context, but will need to obtain his credentials from a liberal theological institution.   The IELC wants to get this level of accomplishment under its own control, especially since its future leadership will likely be drawn from the class of people with this level of theological education.

Proposal – LCMS Involvement

In order to reach accrediting standards, the seminary will need five instructors to the faculty.

It will need to add about 20,000 library books to its collection and computerize the collection.

Additional library space as well as faculty office space will be needed.

Additional housing will be needed for single students and married student housing as well.

Additional faculty husing will be needed.

Six faculty members will additional studies to take them to the Master of Sacred Theology level.

Four faculty members will need to reach the Doctor of Theology level.

Additional housing for faculty members will be needed.

A project of this size is obviously more than a single year undertaking.   At the present time, this is expected to be a 5-10 year undertaking.   Much more attention will be given to the detailed planning necessary to accomplish a project of this size and complexity.  

Year one

Formation of the seminary upgrading plan and design of the

upgrade project including detailed plans and costs of buildings.                   $40,000

Training of one faculty member at PhD level                                                                   40,000

Total                                                                                                                                     $80,000