Concordia Seminary serves church and world by providing
theological education and leadership centered in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ for the formation of pastors, missionaries, deaconesses, scholars, and leaders in the name of the Synod. The mission of Concordia Seminary flows from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God has sent His own Son into the world to redeem sinners by His death and resurrection. The Good News of repentance, forgiveness, and eternal life in His name is being preached to the ends of the earth. Concordia Seminary is a part of this beautiful, salvation-bringing work of our Triune God. As grateful heirs of the Reformation, we teach, preach, and confess in accord with the scriptural, Christ-centered witness of the Lutheran Confessions. The primary mission of Concordia Seminary, now in its 187th year, is to prepare men for the Holy Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the LCMS. The Seminary also prepares women for service to the church through its Deaconess Studies programs, offers advanced degree programs to qualified students of theology, and serves as a center for theological research, scholarship, and continuing education of the clergy and laity. Since its founding in 1839, Concordia Seminary has provided more than 13,000 workers for the church. Concordia Seminary is aligned with and assists the Synod in achieving key objectives, including to: “conserve and promote the unity of the true faith” (Constitutional Article III, Objective 1); “strengthen congregations and their members in giving bold witness” (Objective 2); “recruit and train pastors, teachers, and other professional church workers and provide opportunity for their continuing growth” (Objective 3); “aid congregations by providing a variety of resources” (Objective 6); and “strive for uniformity in church practice, but also … an appreciation of a variety of responsible practices and customs” (Objective 7). The greatest strength of Concordia Seminary is our outstanding faculty—learned, dedicated, experienced, pastoral, faithful men. To our already strong roster, we have been blessed with a number of top-notch new professors over the last triennium: Dr. Sam Eatherton, the Rev. Dr. James Fic kens cher, the Rev. Joel Fritsche, the Rev. Dr. John Genter, the Rev. Dr. Adam Hensley, the Rev. Dr. Jason Lane, the Rev. Dr. Stephen Pietsch, and the Rev. Dr. Ryan Tinetti. We have also been recently blessed with an outstanding new Director of Deaconess Studies, Dcs. Dr. Jennie Asher. In the spring and fall of 2023, respectively, Concordia Seminary received regular accreditation visits from the Higher Learning Commission and the Association of Theological Schools. Both accrediting organizations gave Concordia positive reviews and full 10-year re accreditation. Church worker recruitment remains a key priority, and enrollment at Concordia Seminary has increased over the last triennium. As of the Fall 2025 census, Concordia Seminary serves 641 students across all academic programs, our highest enrollment in 17 years. We give thanks to God and to His Church for three consecutive years of growth in our residential pastoral formation programs, a clear sign of renewed momentum and confidence in preparing future pastors. This growth reflects the faithful partnership of pastors, congregations, districts, and leaders across the Synod, along with the tireless work of our enrollment team, who continue to recruit, encourage, and walk alongside those preparing for service. The Synod’s Set Apart to Serve initiative is bearing fruit, and strong current enrollment in the pre-seminary programs of our Concordia Universities is very encouraging. Concordia Seminary continues to partner with Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, in re-cruiting future pastors and deaconesses through our “We Are Your Seminaries” efforts.
Priority #3: Strong Recruitment and Enrollment
Thanks to the generous people of the LCMS, Concordia Seminary’s financial condition is stable and strong. In step with our sister seminary in Fort Wayne, we offer 100 percent tuition coverage to students in the residential Master of Divinity program and significant student support and discounts to students in all programs. Concordia Seminary’s endowment now provides about 40 percent of its annual operating budget, and additional endowment development will be important to sustain our mission for coming generations. Our senior leadership is committed to financial discipline and limits the growth of the annual operating budget to the rate of inflation.
A copy of the plan is available at: csl.edu/about.
The Concordia Seminary Board of Regents recently approved a comprehensive Campus Master Plan 2026, subsequently reviewed and approved by the Synod Board of Directors in February 2026. This plan prioritizes improved housing for married and single students, additional on-campus faculty housing, and the ongoing stewardship of our historic stone buildings, including complete interior renovation of three large wings of the campus core. We view strong community life at our Seminary as a tremendous resource and vital component for the formation of future pastors and deaconesses and for the long-term shared life and mission of our church. In late 2025, the Board of Regents renewed the appointment of Dr. Thomas Egger as Seminary president for a second five-year term (2026–31). In February 2026, three new regents joined the Seminary board: the Rev. Dr. Peter Elliott and Mr. Troy Prehar as board-appointed regents, and the Rev. Ryan Wendt, appointed as the Council of Presidents representative to the board. In 2022, the Board of Regents adopted the Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Strategic Plan 2022–26. The plan was developed with input from a broad cross section of our Seminary’s constituencies within the LCMS. It lists nine guiding objectives that under gird the plan: 1.
Keep God’s written Word at the center of ministerial formation.
2. Continue to add quality faculty. It is the faculty who execute our mission and determine our impact.
3. Creatively strengthen our short-term and long-term efforts in student recruitment.
4. Instill in our students a fervent both-and commitment to Lutheran teaching and outreach to the lost.
5. Make the case to the broader church for the distinct value of residential theological formation in community, even as we seek to be realistic and responsive to the church’s varied situations and needs.
6. Cultivate shared forms of piety and form a praying ministerium through the centrality of daily chapel in our Seminary life.
7. Cultivate a community of learning, hospitality, and mutual service.
8. Maintain strong collaborative and respectful relationships within the LCMS at all levels.
9. Resource international Lutheranism with clear biblical and confessional Lutheran teaching.
The plan contains 42 specific initiatives supporting the following key priorities: Priority #1: Faithful and Full-Person Formation Priority #2: Commitment to Community and Collaboration
Priority #4: Lutheran Resources and Worldwide Impact The Seminary board, administration, and faculty are currently developing the next five-year plan, and, toward that end, conducted a survey of the Seminary’s broad constituencies in January 2026. The new strategic plan will be finalized and published in late 2026. The 2023 Synod convention passed twelve resolutions giving assignments, affirmations, and counsel to the seminaries. Concordia Seminary has acted upon or is in the process of acting upon all of these. Space precludes commentary on each, but examples include the following: The convention adopted 2023 Res. 1-01A, “To Stimulate Training for Witness,” by unanimous voice vote. Over the last three years, in addition to the required course “Pastor and Congregation in Mission,” Concordia Seminary has offered its students weekend workshops facilitated by Synod staff on evangelism and community outreach. We have piloted a neighborhood canvasing and evangelism program and plan to implement it as a regular part of our students’ training. We have resumed the practice of traveling with small groups of students to experience sites of LCMS church planting. We have also held fruitful discussions with our sister seminary, Synod staff, and nearby district mission executives regarding ways in which the seminaries, Synod, and districts can partner to equip our future pastors to be “chief evangelists” in their congregations. President Bruss at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, initiated this project, and we are grateful to be participating. This is one of several dimensions of fraternal and fruitful collaboration between the two Synod seminaries. 2023 Res. 6-02A and 6-03A direct the seminaries to encourage men to residential pastoral ministry routes as the preferred option and to position and promote the residential M.Div. as the strongly preferred route for pastoral formation, maintaining the current practice of full tuition support for that route and using the Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) program only for its specific, intended purposes. Concordia Seminary advocates within the LCMS for the prior it iz ation of residential seminary study, and our recruitment and admissions team gives this message consistently to all applicants, most especially to younger applicants desiring to prepare for a lifetime of ministry within the LCMS. Our faculty take very seriously the task of preparing, examining, and certifying men for the Holy Ministry. We plead with the church to maintain its longstanding shared commitment to thorough theological and personal formation, recognizing that encouraging men to pursue full-time study in person and in community on the campuses of our seminaries gives us the best opportunity to accomplish such formation for the good of the church. At the same time, and in harmony with Res. 6-03A, we value and thank God for the men preparing in our alternate route programs, and we operate those programs with seriousness, integrity, and increasing excellence. Our SMP, Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology, Center for Hispanic Studies, and Cross-Cultural Ministry Center programs fulfill real needs in the overall mission and ministry of our church. On the campus of Concordia Seminary, we gather each morning in our chapel to hear the voice of our Shepherd, to receive His gifts, and, in turn, to call upon Him in prayer and joyfully sing His praises. The chapel is the center of our life and work because Christ is the center of our life and work: His mercy, His forgiveness, His Word, His hope. From this crucial center, our life and work flow out to our classrooms, to our campus life together, to the broader church, and to the ends of the earth. On behalf of the students, faculty, and staff of Concordia Seminary, thank you to the people of the LCMS for the privilege of serving with you. Thank you for entrusting future church workers to us for instruction and formation. Thank you for your enthusiastic financial support. Thank you for your prayers, for your witness, and for your work in Jesus’ name.