LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 81

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OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
structural items.
ii. Professional church workers. The college has been hard at work
responding to requests from our local district (AD-LCMS) and
districts of the East Coast Association of Congregations (ECAC),
which includes the New England District, the New Jersey District,
the Eastern District, the Atlantic District, the Southeastern District,
and the Florida-Georgia District.
1. Diaconate. In 2015, the college launched a diaconate
program, utilizing a program developed by the ADLCMS, and offered to congregations across the ECAC;
2. D.Min. The college has been in talks with Concordia
Seminary to offer a customized D.Min. degree, with
emphases on urban ministry, to our ECAC church-work
population;
3. Scholarships for Church Work Development. The college has put significant resources behind its effort to
attract and develop church workers. In FY 2014, the
college offered over $4,000 more in scholarship monies
than the next-nearest CUS institution to church-work
students ($21,078 per student vs. $16,922 per student
(Concordia University Chicago). The college’s Enrollment Department continues to make outreach to church
workers an institutional priority;
4. Lutheran Schools. The college continues its support for
the Lutheran Schools Association of Greater New York
(LSS-NY) and hosted its annual meeting this past year.
The college’s Education Division also works closely
with the Chapel School (of Village Lutheran Church,
Bronxville, NY) in preparing elementary and middleschool teachers. The college also works closely with
Martin Luther High School (MLHS), Maspeth, Queens,
to offer “dual credit” coursework at low cost to MLHS
students.
iii. Districts. The President of the AD-LCMS, Rev. Derek G. Lecakes,
serves as a member of the college’s Board of Regents. Moreover,
the district’s offices are housed on Concordia’s campus. The college
offers financial support for the district’s annual Witness in the Public
Square luncheon/fund-raiser, hosts the district’s Festival of Workshops, and cooperates on multiple additional ministry ventures.
iv. Mission areas. The college is actively engaged in multiple ministry ventures. The college’s Homeless Ministry to New York City,
which has been a vital component of our campus ministry, continued
strong in 2014–2015. In 2015, we also sent many students to the
annual Beautiful Feet Mission Conference at Concordia University,
Nebraska. Rev. Dr. Joshua Hollmann, Campus Chaplain, organized
mission trips to Nicaragua and Haiti.
v. Overseas partner churches. Rev. Dr. Joshua Hollmann continues his
work in serving and developing partnerships with overseas partner
churches. For the past two summers, Dr. Hollmann has traveled to
the Philippines, where he has worked with the Lutheran Theological
Seminary and Training Center, Baguio City, Philippines. In 2015,
he also worked with the Lutheran seminary in Haiti. The college
also continues its relationship with Japan Lutheran College, which
regularly sends students to study at CCNY.

Conclusion
While the college continues to struggle to attract and retain
Lutheran faculty, staff, and students, we are proud of the lengths
to which we have gone to do so—and of the successes we have
had. Relative to the number of Lutherans in our region, Concordia
College–New York regularly outperforms most of our fellow
Concordia University System partners in attracting a Lutheran student population. We continue to make this a top institutional priority.
We are also very proud of the efforts we have made to partner
with our fellow members of the Concordia University System. In
2014, we launched a partnership with Concordia University Portland
(CUP) and Concordia University, Nebraska (CUNE) to develop and
deliver online and graduate programs. That partnership has yielded

81

significant benefits to the college. Moreover, the institutions have
committed in the year to come to collaborate in strengthening and
enhancing our common commitment to Lutheran identity.
In 2015, our Theology Department crafted a new Lutheran identity
statement: “An Affirmation of our Lutheran Identity and Heritage.”
The entire statement (which can be found here: www.concordia
-ny.edu/about/documents/OurIdentity.pdf) affirms that, “as Saint
Augustine voices, our hearts are restless until they find significance
and wholeness in God. At Concordia College–New York, Christcentered education and vocation are realized in our students who
come from around the world and right next door.”
The statement concludes:
In the daily intersections of classroom and chapel, playing field and
lab, fieldwork and clinicals, the commons and the dorms, we seek to
guide our students in the discovery of who Jesus is and why he matters as they learn to navigate our diverse world. Our Lutheran identity
at Concordia College–New York is articulated in our Christ-centered
commitment to faith and reason, service and scholarship, vocation and
diversity.

With fervent prayer and hope, we at Concordia College–New York
look to a future of commitment to Christ-centered teaching and learning, in service to God through service to others.
In Christ,
Viji George, President

Concordia University Chicago
As a distinctive, comprehensive university of The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod, centered in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and
based in the liberal arts, Concordia University Chicago (CUC) equips
men and women to serve and lead with integrity, creativity, competence, and compassion in a diverse, interconnected, and increasingly
urbanized church and world.
• The university celebrated the installation of the Rev. Dr. Daniel L.
Gard, 11th president of CUC, at the August 2014 Opening Services.
• In October 2014, the CUC community concluded a year-long series
of events and initiatives commemorating the university’s 150th
anniversary and its 100th year located in River Forest, Illinois. The
events included the release of the book Faithfully Onward, Ever
Upward. The president’s official inauguration event and gala culminated with Homecoming and Founder’s Day weekend.
• For the seventh consecutive year, combined undergraduate and
gradu­ate enrollment has exceeded 5,000 students.
• Lutheran teacher education, deaconess, director of Christian
education, and pre-seminary form the foundation for the university’s long-standing church professional programs. The deaconess
program—the only undergraduate program offered among the
Concordia colleges—celebrates its 35th anniversary.
• Expansion of the university’s director of Christian education and
deaconess programs allows students to earn a minor in nine fields,
including nonprofit management, social work, and global studies,
allowing students to better serve the church and their communities.
• At its May 2015 meeting, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC)
approved continued accreditation of CUC through 2023—the maximum reaffirmation of accreditation awarded to post-secondary
institutions. The university’s establishment of a strong foundation for maintaining its continuous improvement efforts with the
implementation of quality-focused Academic Quality Improvement
Program action projects was lauded by the HLC.
• The Chronicle of Higher Education’s 2015 Almanac named
Concordia Chicago the 12th-fastest-growing campus among nonprofit master’s-degree-granting institutions in the United States
during the 10-year period from 2003 to 2013.
2016 Convention Workbook