Preparatory Schools
Pictured above are four LPS students; ELFK president, Michael Herbst (third from left); and Phetsanghane (fourth from left).
Luther Preparatory School (LPS), Watertown, Wis., and Michigan Lutheran Seminary (MLS), Saginaw, Mich., prepare high school students for future service as pastors, teachers, and staff ministers. Both schools offer “Taste of Ministry” opportunities for students, which include shadowing called workers to learn more about their work. Students also are given firsthand gospel experiences on campus and during mission trips. Here are two examples of how the preparatory schools are offering students hands-on ministry experiences.
Michigan Lutheran Seminary
“When the Board for Home Missions announced the initiative to open 100 new missions in 10 years, at Michigan Lutheran Seminary we contemplated how we could play an even larger role in providing workers for those ripe harvest fields,” says Mark Luetzow, MLS president. “We quickly recognized that those future missionaries were already on our campus. That’s why we partnered with Home Missions to place this year’s senior boys who desired a pastor Taste of Ministry into mission settings.”
A total of 10 MLS seniors traveled to mission settings across the United States for a long weekend in October. Pictured are three of those young men and the home missionaries that they shadowed at the South Central District’s annual missionaries conference. From left: Andrew Nemmers, Hope in the Heights, Houston; Jason Hanania; Daron Lindemann, CrossLife, Pflugerville; Ryan Dabe; Hans Thomford, Amazing Grace, Amarillo; and Will Eubank.
Jason commented, “This was an awesome experience. I was already thinking of being a pastor, but this experience settled it for me.”
For more information about MLS, visit mlsem.org.
Luther Preparatory School
Luther Preparatory School senior Ethan Schmidt giving chapel in fall 2022. Senior males are given this opportunity to work with a dean to prepare a message from God’s Word for the student body.
In June 2022, Souksamay Phetsanghane, a professor at LPS, took four students to visit WELS’ sister church body, the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church—Germany (ELFK). Students worked with a congregation there to present a joint English/German worship service. They also attended and sang at the synod’s convention.
“Traveling to Germany with Pastor Souk and getting to know Pastor Drechsler and the members of his congregation showed me the importance of keeping in touch with our fellow synods,” says Sandra Toyoda-Bell, now studying at Martin Luther College to be a teacher. “This trip gave me the experience to practice my German in real-life settings and a teacher who encouraged us to engage in conversations with the people there and witness how God is working through the church in Germany.”
For more information about LPS, visit lps.wels.net.
