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Continuing Education at MLC
Courses in jeopardy
Deadlines for some courses are coming up quickly. Without increased enrollment, the courses below will have to be cancelled. If you are interested, PLEASE ENROLL. A number of courses in the past would not have been cancelled if the “wait ‘n’ see-ers” would have enrolled.
REL 8509 A Closer Look at the Creeds, OL, Sellnow Needed: 3; Currently: 0
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GJ - Show me a WELS pastor who understands the Book of Concord and I will show you an outcast who will never get a "good" call. I hope his present congregation appreciates that fact and his worth to them.
There are some. Not everyone was confirmed with Kuske's catechism.
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The link for current enrollment number can be seen here at any time.
https://www.mlc-wels.edu/home/administration/offices/specialservices/sum11/summer11enr/
AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL YOU MLC STUDENTS (and I know you're out there, even though you have been warned to stay away from Ichabod!)
Kids, get your butts into that class on the Lutheran Confessions! How can you even attempt to call yourself a confessional Lutheran if you haven't studied the confessions? You will be asked to uphold these when you are installed in your call. Better know to what you are swearing.
Been there,
Scott E. Jungen
DMLC Class of 1980
Better yet...know the difference between 'quia' and 'quantenus'...
"Better yet...know the difference between 'quia' and 'quantenus'.."
And even better yet... the difference between 'quia' and 'quaTEnus....'
(Sorry, couldn't resist.)
The course you're talking about a "Special Services" course, i.e. "summer school." This isn't for regular MLC students (who are all required to take courses in the Confessions.) This course is for people seeking synod-certification. The course is required for that too, but since the synod-cert program is flexible, people take it when it's convenient for them. Some MLC students with weird schedules (due to transferring in) MAY take it over the summer if they wish. But if they don't, they'll have to take it during the regular school year.
Quia and Quantenus are on homework and exams in Lutheran Doctrine. Also Lutheran Confessions. I might be forward, but I learned much in the later class. I could see it moved to a 4 hr class or even have a second course. I am laity taking classes. Would like to teach in WELS someday.
Scott,
Do you think you were removed from your teaching position because of doctrinal issues, or was it simple economics?
Also, what percentage of 2011's graduates do you think will receive a call?
Also-also, what about those candidates who did NOT receive a call in 2010...do they get preference for this year's openings if they are still interested in receiving a call?
Grump,
Grumpy,
I know from my own experience of at least one person who didn't receive a call in 2003, and then didn't get preference when the 2004 graduate calls came out.
When I graduated MLC in 2002 as a staff minister, I basically believe that they did not know what to do with me, but as they were trying to promote staff ministry (not a whole lot mind you), they gave me a one-year call.
After that one-year call was up, the 2003 call list came out and I wasn't on it. Then 2004, nothing. 2005, nothing. All the way through to almost 2011's call day now and I still haven't heard anything. Supposedly after a certain amount of time where they haven't given you a call, you are then simply plucked off the list of available candidates for no other reason other than you're embarrassing them.
Now I know that staff ministry graduates have been given calls in the intervening years. And to actual staff ministry jobs and not just teaching gigs because they went as a double track. So what gives?
In those intervening years I was completely cynical about the entire experience and now I am more of a realist with cynical tendencies. My view of staff ministry was to be a called helper for the church and school (if they had one) in any capacity that I could aid and assist the pastor and teachers. During my internship for instance, I never prepared or gave sermons but I did do shut in visits, helped with the youth groups and VBS, led the 55 and over Bible study, helped teach Catechism classes, led adult Bible class, was a communion assistant and an usher, did first time visitor follow-up contact, etc.
Nothing too radical and new agey about it. I went to MLC for five years, did the one-year internship and I graduated. Then a one-year call. Then nothing. The only place that could give me a job decided not to do so. Others graduated after me, some got calls, others not, but I can wager that those who didn't are still sitting around waiting for the call. That is if they haven't moved on with their lives like I had to in order to earn a living for me and my family.
Part 2 to continue...
Part 2
By the way, the one-year call thing I firmly believe is a convenient way to make the list of called graduates look more impressive than it actually is. Because who remembers that MLC 2007 graduate with the one-year call that then got nothing in 2008? No one but the student and their family. Oh, and the Conference of Presidents too because the list looks good, they don't have to bring them up when the next year's list comes out, and it looks like they actually did their job.
And then the cycle starts all over again. And to all you MLC students out there: think about your schooling carefully. Get a degree that you can use out there in the world. Because all I got with my staff min degree was the ribbon around it on graduation day. And don't think that it cannot happen to you. And don't think that you'll have any spiritual and/or emotional support from MLC after you've left there without a call. You'd think you'd get better treatment from a Christian college, but sadly that is rather naive thinking. The only regular contact you get is envelopes in the mail asking for financial support. Which they somehow want even though you didn't get a job in on call day.
I stumbled around in the dark for a couple of years because of this. MLC wanted nothing to do with me. I stopped attending church for a while, which was ironic because I waited everyday for a visit or contact with my church elders so I could chide them for waiting this long to get in touch with me, but that church didn't even bother. They might even still have me on the membership rolls. I even wrote an article for the Forward in Christ that was published, after they edited it a bit by eliminating the word "call" and inserting "assignment". Remember kids, if you get a call it is divine, but if you don't then it is an assignment with no divinity attached to it.
Finally, how do we know that God only has need of us for one-year at a place? That seems rather specific in an odd way that doesn't really have a Scriptural base. I mean if we pull at that string more, you could probably say the same for staff ministry, but I'll go with the deacon description for that. But the COP knows that this person is needed for only 365 days starting right after graduation. That this ISN'T regarded as ludicrous is even more ludicrous.
Grumpy,
It's a bit of a long story which I will try to make short.
My last year teaching was a tough one. I was working hard to keep four naughty boys under control.
Our school had a new principal. He was experienced, but was new to our school. Some parents who had had me before and would have me the next year came to him and said they had "lost confidence" in me. This was in January. He tells me this in MAY! of course he wouldn't tell me who they were so I could make the situation better. (You know, 8th Commandment and all).
I'd also said some thing to him that may have lead him to believe that I was no longer happy in the ministry. His beliefs made it to the pastor and the Board of Education.
Part 1
Part 2
During this time nobody talked to me at all. As the school year ended, the pastor asked me the question dreaded by all WELS called workers, "Are you still interested in the ministry?" (Something akin to the Mafia's 'Kiss of Death'). It would be my decision. But, if I wanted to stay, I would have to talk to the Elders. So, I said to myself, "I have served this congregation faithfully for 17 years, and the church for 24 years. I'll be damned (sorry GJ) if I'm gonna' beg."
Now for the economics. The congregation had tried "mortar evangelism" to the tune of $2 million. They were left $250,000 in debt when the economy tanked. The Board of Education felt they had to cut a staff member.
My family is just my wife and I. Other staff members had kids in college and at the local Lutheran high school. I felt I might be better able to absorb a job loss than some of the others. So, we came up with a buy-out. I allowed my call to be terminated in exchange for money. That way I also did not have a second resignation on my record.
I don't believe that the graduates from 2010 get any special consideration. Now of course, if you're related to someone...
Scott E. Jungen
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