Archives for June 2025

On Tuesday, June 3 we’re excited to welcome seasonal summer staff from seven ELCA Bible camps to Luther Seminary for a day of training and community building. Workshops and worship will be in the chapel and lunch in the dining rooms and on the patio. We hope you will join us for lunch at 12:15 p.m. CT and worship at 3:25 p.m.

This week we welcome Kurty Darling, who will serve for one-year as Visiting Instructor for Children, Youth, and Family (CYF) Ministry. With Andrew Root on sabbatical, Kurty will teach three courses, connect with CYF students and serve as grant manager for the Nurturing Children through Worship and Prayer initiative grant we received recently from the Lilly Endowment. She will also be lead instructor for a new nondegree residency program being launched this fall.

Kurty currently is a Ph.D. student at Luther and in September will defend her dissertation on examining the evangelical imagination around visions of flourishing life. She has a B.A. in Communication Studies and Sociology from Bethel University and an M.A. in Narrative Theology from United Theological Seminary. She also is a Life Worth Living graduate fellow through the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. She has taught for the past five years at Bethel University on the topics of Christianity and Western Culture, Great Books of the Western Humanities, Spiritual and Faith Formation, and Theological Research.

Kurty is a lifetime resident of Minnesota, having grown up on the “edge of the world” in the heart of farm country, and now proudly resides in Minneapolis. She is a mother to four children and has been married for 15 years to her husband Kirk. Their family spends evenings biking, coaching youth sports teams, swimming in the lakes, and playing kickball in the street. Kurty also serves as an elder at her church. Please join me in welcoming Kurty to Luther Seminary.
—Terri Elton
Dean of Academic Affairs

In this devotion, Bonnie Lanyi ’15, assures us that God is always doing a new thing and providing what is needed for each day. Read today’s God Pause.

Congratulations to our colleagues celebrating work anniversaries in June!

• Tony Herrera, 11 years – Business Office
• Timothy Larson, 6 years – Seminary Relations
• Benjamin McDonald Coltvet, 14 years – Faith+ Lead
• Kristofer Phan Coffman, 3 years – Faculty, New Testament
• Sam Schwartz, 6 years – Seminary Relations
• Robin Steinke, 11 years – President
• Doneshia Terry, 2 years – Faith+Lead

You are invited to help us honor the life and work of renowned theologian Joseph Sittler. We hope you can be part of an informal gathering on Saturday, June 28 at Minnehaha Regional Park at 1:00 p.m. central. The event was originally scheduled last fall and postponed for better weather and more participation. The gathering will take place a mile downstream from Minnehaha Falls, at a new park bench installed in Sittler’s honor, near where Minnehaha Creek meets the Mississippi River. This scenic location was chosen to reflect Sittler’s belief that “nature is a theater of Grace.” Stewart Herman, visiting fellow at the Christensen Center on Vocation at Augsburg College and retired faculty of religion at Concordia College–Moorhead, is organizing the event and shares: “God’s Word is active in nature, which to the eyes of faith can be seen when the Minnehaha rushes to the Mississippi. We gather to honor Joseph Sittler’s path-breaking incorporation of ecology into Lutheran theology by sharing, individually, our favorite ideas from his work. Bring your favorite quote!” For more information, reach out to Dr. Herman at herman@cord.edu​.