Ministry, Life, and “KnightLife”
What are your gifts? What do you love to do? What makes a truly meaningful life?
These are just some of the many questions our five admissions counselors discuss with high school students every day. This year they once again visited all 30 WELS high schools to talk and pray with students interested in ministry. And about 750 students—like WLA graduate and newly enrolled Knight Trent Klas (pictured at the door) and Michigan Lutheran Seminary seniors (pictured in the Betty Kohn Fieldhouse)—came for a Focus on Ministry.
What’s Focus on Ministry? It’s a chance for the Student Ambassadors (pictured with the “Welcome” sign) and admissions counselors to give high schoolers a great taste of “KnightLife.”
We’ll let Admissions Counselor Hannah Scharf MLC ’02 explain: “A Focus visit means The Betty with Buddies; Classes, Chap, and Caf; Panel and Polka. Translation: You can enjoy Student Ambassador-led fun at the Betty Kohn Fieldhouse, attend classes, go to Chapel of the Christ to worship your Savior with hundreds of like-minded students, eat dinner and enjoy Late Nite in the cafeteria,listen to a student panel discuss all things MLC, and learn to polka. It’s how we show you what it might be like to be an MLC student. (Note: Polka is optional!)”
Hannah (pictured at the bottom) is the one with the lanyard in the middle of these Student Ambassadors.
Granting College Credit at High Schools
One new recruitment strategy: dual high school/college credit.
Next school year, students at Luther Preparatory School and Michigan Lutheran Seminary can get a head start on their MLC education. The instructors of two courses, Modern West at LPS and Elementary Statistics at MLS, are aligning their syllabi and assessments with MLC’s so students can receive both high school and college credit.
“This is a first step for us,” says VP for Academics Dr. Jeff Wiechman DMLC ’92. “Other Lutheran high school faculties have also expressed interest in this program, and we’re looking forward to working with them as well. We appreciate this willingness to partner with us and to encourage their students to consider studying for the ministry at MLC.”
Ministry Recruitment Counselors
The call process is in motion now. With donor-supplied funds, five people are being called for a brand-new position: ministry recruitment counselor.
President Gurgel explains that we can see these five people as “influencers for the influencers.” Embedded in key geographic locations around our synod, they’ll help parents and church leaders be more intentional about recruiting people—both young and not so young—who have gifts for ministry.
The counselors at MLC—as well as Luther Prep, MLS, and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary—will continue to focus on the potential ministry candidates themselves.
We’re excited about how these new ministry recruitment counselors might make a difference, especially to the thousands of WELS students in public high schools who may know very little about Martin Luther College or who may not have considered gospel ministry as a possibility for their lives.
