Let’s be honest. This is a BIG year at Luther that will go down in the history books. This is our last year on our current campus in St. Anthony Park. We are all experiencing a wide range of emotions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- You may be very sad<\/strong> that we have to say goodbye to this campus. Many of us have memories of significant, formational moments that happened in this place. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You may be angry<\/strong> that the decision had to be made. Our anger is part of our frustration<\/strong> that higher education, and culture at large, is changing so rapidly. It can be overwhelming.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You may be confused<\/strong> about why the decision had to be made.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You may be worried<\/strong> about what will happen to this campus.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You may be grateful<\/strong> that the Board of Directors made the tough decision and are leading us into a new era.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You may be excited<\/strong> to be part of something fresh and new. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You may be hopeful<\/strong> that God is leading us and working through all of these things. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
AND…you may toggle through ALL of those emotions on a daily basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have been working with members of the faculty to shape our spiritual life together this year. We decided to focus our attention on Old Testament texts this fall that have to do with discerning God’s call, leaving places, stepping into the unknown, and wrestling with the painful emotions of loss and change. We will shift our focus to the New Testament in the new year and begin to anticipate the resurrection life and beginning new things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My prayer for us this year is that we can gather together on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 11:00am in spiritual community to seek God in prayer and worship and cultivate a space where we can process all these emotions and receive the consolation of the Good News of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Meditation on the Text<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
I was dwelling in Genesis 12:1-4 this morning and was reminded of an aspect of the story that I usually overlook. Look back to Genesis 11:27-32. Terah, Abram’s father, was a descendent of Shem, a son of Noah. Terah had already begun the journey from Ur to Canaan. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran died. Terah took Abram, Sarai, and Lot and started moving to Canaan (It seems he left Nahor behind). When they arrived in Haran, they settled there. Terah did not continue the journey. We don’t know why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God’s call to Abram did not come from left field. It was a call to carry on the work that Terah had started. This was a good reminder to me that all of us are simply part of a much larger story. People before us started the journey. God calls us to keep moving in faith. I wonder what you make of this family tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Terah's](\"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/09\/Terah-and-Abram-1024x902.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome Back! This week marks the beginning of the 2026-27 academic year. Syllabus Day is Tuesday. Students will be traveling from all parts of the world to attend classes on campus on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I am excited to get thing started! Our Dean of Faculty, Dr. Rolf Jacobson, is going to get the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":481,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions\/481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- You may be angry<\/strong> that the decision had to be made. Our anger is part of our frustration<\/strong> that higher education, and culture at large, is changing so rapidly. It can be overwhelming.<\/li>\n\n\n\n