Educational debt continues to be a pervasive issue among leaders in the ELCA. At its Spring 2022 meeting, the Executive Committee of the ELCA Church Council approved the formation of a task force to study the issue of educational debt and its impact on leaders.
Through studying and determining ways to address educational debt, the task force intends to bring help and hope to as many ELCA rostered ministers as possible, so they can best live out God’s calling for their lives.
To make our research on the topic more comprehensive, we want to hear stories from ELCA rostered ministers and candidates about the burden of educational debt, and the impact this debt has had on them, their families, their call process, and their ministry.
If you would be willing to share your story as part of a small group conversation of 3-4 people (rostered ministers, candidates, and task force members), or for more information, please contact Grace Pomroy, Director of the Stewardship Leaders Program, who serves on the task force at gpomroy001@luthersem.edu or Adam DeHoek, who convenes the Educational Debt Task Force at adam.dehoek@elca.org.
The conversation will last around an hour, covering these questions. You can see the questions here: https://resourcefulservants.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Educational-Debt-Task-Force-Conversation-questions-with-rostered-ministers-and-candidates.pdf We will record the conversations and share them only with members of the task force.
Sharing your story will help the task force members see the issue from a more personal perspective. It will also help us determine the questions we should explore more broadly.
We know that telling this story can be challenging, and we deeply appreciate your willingness to consider doing so.