LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 170

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7. UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
…by Affirming and Promoting Educational
Opportunities for Our Lutheran Laity at CUS Schools
WHEREAS, Our CUS schools can be of great benefit to all
those LCMS students seeking undergraduate and graduate
education in an environment of academic excellence where
their faith can also be strengthened through daily chapel
and Word and Sacrament ministry; and
WHEREAS, Currently, only a small percentage of high
school students who are members of LCMS congregations
and who are seeking a college education enroll at CUS
schools, and an increase in this number would benefit both
the Church at large and our CUS schools; and
WHEREAS, Today’s predominant culture of higher
education presents a particular challenge to the Gospel and
the Church, and seeks to destroy the faith of the next
generation, due to the prevalence of current academic
theories such as post-modernism, relativism, progressive
education, constructivism, social/restorative justice, intersectionality, pedagogy of oppression, and other harmful
ideologies; and
WHEREAS, Such ideologies war against God’s unchanging
truth (even denying the fact of His creation of male and
female); attack Christianity and the Fourth Commandment; and often seek to divide students against one another
by encouraging them (contrary to Matt. 3:9; Gal. 3:28) to
“identify” as members of groups based on demographic
characteristics, not their baptismal identity as redeemed
children of God (Rev.7:9–17); and
WHEREAS, Our Lutheran educational tradition guides us,
instead, to enlighten our students with knowledge, beauty,
and truth, as embodied in the liberal arts and enhanced
with professional programs; to affirm the unique value of
each individual as one created in God’s own image; and to
pass down the timeless scholarship of civilization through
the ages; and
WHEREAS, Such an education is a gift of priceless worth
for ourselves, our families, and our fellow church members;
and
…by Affirming and Promoting Teaching Opportunities
at CUS Schools
WHEREAS, Our CUS schools also welcome and educate
students from around the country and around the world
who may never have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and
are therefore a mission field in which to reach the lost with
the saving message of the Gospel that they desperately
need for the forgiveness of their sins; and
WHEREAS, our CUS schools are able to answer the
fundamental human questions: “Who am I?”, “How did I
get here?”, and “How then shall I live?” because they have
the Word of God and the freedom to share it as part of their
mission and allow its free course in daily life; and
WHEREAS, The faculty and staff members of our CUS
schools are thus in a unique position to share the Gospel in
170 | PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2019 (67TH) LCMS CONVENTION

their daily vocations of teaching and serving, including
with international students, among increasingly diverse
multi-ethnic populations, and with the unchurched; and
WHEREAS, We would not send into the field missionaries
who did not know Holy Scripture and the Lutheran
Confessions; and
WHEREAS, Sharing the Gospel in an educational
environment that is itself a mission field requires a body of
faculty members who are Lutheran or, if not possible, at
least faculty members who confess the basic doctrines of
the Christian faith, and who can without reservation teach
their disciplines in accordance with Holy Scripture and the
Lutheran Confessions to the unchurched who sit in the
classrooms of our CUS schools, as well as those who are
already part of the Body of Christ; and
WHEREAS, Our CUS schools face significant challenges in
locating and retaining faculty with appropriate educational
attainment who are members of LCMS congregations; and
WHEREAS, For all of the foregoing reasons, it is good,
right, and salutary that we should stand with and support
our CUS colleges and universities as they serve the Church
and the world in the name of the Church and her Lord, Jesus
Christ; therefore be it
Resolved, That the Synod in convention affirm the
Lutheran identity efforts of the CUS colleges and
universities by giving thanks to the presidents and boards
of regents who have adopted the Lutheran Identity
Statement and who are diligently reporting on their
compliance with it, as well as for the servant leadership of
the CUS board and executive staff who facilitate this
process; and be it further
Resolved, That the Synod in convention affirm that the
CUS colleges and universities exist to educate both church
workers and lay people alike, by urging each congregation
to send pastors and several leaders to experience a day on
one of the CUS campuses to see the range of available
programs, and likewise urging each of the CUS schools
toward intentional outreach to congregations in its
respective area with a cordial invitation and informative,
stimulating agenda, i.e., chapel, tours, visits with faculty,
staff, and students, for the visitors’ benefit; and be it further
Resolved, That the Synod in convention affirm and
promote educational opportunities for our Lutheran laity
at CUS schools by
• encouraging Lutheran schools to make students
aware, from a young age, of the opportunity to
obtain higher education in a Lutheran setting
through our CUS institutions, and to create an
annual “CUS Week” program for congregations to
promote such awareness;
• directing the CUS to promote participation in its
database that CUS schools may use to transmit
information regarding the opportunities available
in the CUS, and encouraging congregations to
Resolutions