The end of our academic year is fast approaching along with all of the joy and excitement it generates. The vicar assignment service will be held at 7 p.m. on May 22. Our call day service will be May 24 at 10:00 a.m. The Seminary Chorus will present a graduation concert at 7 p.m. on May 24. Our graduation service will be May 25 at 10 a.m. All of these events will be streamed live at www.wels.net/streams.

This year, 23 seminary students will receive assignments as vicars. Forty-three pastoral candidates will present themselves for assignment. Some of these will be assigned to a second year of a temporary call; others will have their temporary call made permanent.

These events will also be announced on our Website and Facebook page. Click here and befriend the seminary on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wisconsin-Lutheran-Seminary/147818817430.

The Seminary Chorus has produced a new CD that contains the anthems and hymns of its Spring 2012 concert program. The choir’s Easter tour included appearances in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, and Indiana. The 2012 CD, together with other recordings produced by the chorus, is available for $12. You will find details at http://www.wls.wels.net/resources/recordings.

Wisconsin Lutheran College’s (WLC) Center for Christian Leadership, in partnership with Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and the WELS Commission on Congregational Counseling, will be hosting the 2012 Leadership Conference, June 8-9, 2012. The focus of the conference is the cooperative and complementary relationship of pastoral and congregational leadership as it applies to WELS congregations and schools.

The partnership is a natural extension of work that the seminary has been doing for some time. Rev. Paul Kelm, director of the center, explains, “The seminary has initiated training for both undergraduate and graduate (and now continuing education) students in pastoral leadership. This work has stimulated thought elsewhere in the church about the development of lay leadership.” Seminary President Paul Wendland agrees, “The collaboration between pastoral and congregational leadership is exactly what this conference is intended to foster. It is difficult to think of something more important for the well-being of a congregation.”

The work of WLC’s leadership center and the intent of the conference builds squarely on the mission statement of the college, “to provide quality teaching, scholarship, and service that are rooted in Holy Scripture…preparing students for lives of Christian leadership.” It is hoped that collaboration on this conference will only be the beginning of a heightened awareness of and attention to leadership issues.

Organized under the theme “Leading Together to Advance Christ’s Kingdom,” sessions and workshops include such topics as “Leadership Roles and Relationships in the Church,” “Leadership Skills for a 21st Century Church,” and “Processing Principles—How Leaders Address Areas of Ministry.”

Seminary Prof. E. Allen Sorum will deliver the keynote essay on Friday, June 8th. For more information or to register, visit www.wlc.edu/leadership, call (414) 443-8723, or e-mail paul.kelm@wlc.edu.

Prof. John Brug and Prof. Forrest Bivens are completing 40 years of service in the public ministry. On Sunday, April 22, the seminary community, together with their friends and families, will gather in the auditorium to give thanks to God for his blessings to and through these two servants of the gospel. The service begins at 3:00 p.m. and will be conducted by Pastor Paul Brug of Shoreland Lutheran High School and Pastor David Bivens of Christ the Lord Lutheran Church, Houston, TX. A reception will follow the service in the cafeteria.

Both men are 1971 graduates of the seminary. After serving congregations in Pennsylvania and at Dr. Martin Luther College, New Ulm, MN, Dr. Brug was called to the seminary in 1983. Prof. Bivens served congregations in San Jose, CA, and Saginaw, MI, before being called to the seminary in 1993. Both have taught primarily in the areas of dogmatics and Old Testament studies.

The seminary made its spring distribution of financial aid with grants totaling $154,142. The average award was $1,792 per student. Of the 86 students on campus at this time 82 men (95%) are currently receiving student aid.

In the first six months of the 2011-2012 fiscal year ending December 31, 2011, gifts in the amount of $245,715 were immediately available for distribution, while $45,643 was given in permanently restricted gifts.

It should be noted that the financial aid distributed by the WLS Scholarship Fund represents only a portion of what students receive. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to foundations such as Siebert and Salem as well as to other scholarship funds and to many congregations within our synod for supplementing what we do.

We thank God for the gifts of love his people continue to give in support of our students. If you would like to give a gift to the Student Scholarship Fund or to the Seminary Fund (supporting the day-to-day operations of the seminary) please contact us at (262) 242-8100.