| dc.description.abstract | For 130 years, the pre-seminary training for prospective WELS pastoral candidates took
place at Northwestern College in Watertown, WI. In 1995, the pre-seminary program moved to
New Ulm, MN, as Northwestern College amalgamated with Dr. Martin Luther College—the
WELS training college for the teaching ministry—and became Martin Luther College. The
decision to amalgamate these two ministerial education colleges was highly debated, and the
disputes centered on the impact which such a merger might have upon the pre-seminary program
and its students, the synod’s future pastors. This paper seeks to begin an open and amicable
discussion of the amalgamation by exploring the historical discussions of the potential positive
and negative impacts of the amalgamation on the pastor track and assessing whether, to what
extent, and why they have or have not transpired over the past twenty-five years. | en_US |
