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An Enduring Mission
If you’re like me, the beginning of a new year provides opportunities to reflect on the past and think, plan, and pray about what will happen in the future. There’s a simple beauty in marking the passage of time, especially when it comes to remembering significant milestones in our own lives and even for institutions that we cherish.
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Our mission statement has a fascinating history. In referencing historic Board of Regents and strategic planning documents, the first mention I found of Concordia adopting a mission statement comes in late 1985.
This year, one significant milestone we mark at Concordia is the 30th anniversary of our mission statement. As an alumnus, I recall that the mission was printed in every syllabus I received at the start of the semester and that coursework and our life together flowed from it. The mission wasn’t just words on a page, but embodied by students, faculty, and staff.
That was the same year the university launched the Concordia School of Adult Learning (CSAL), which opened the doors for working adults looking to earn their degrees, but through an accelerated format. At the same time, the demographics of the traditional population at CSP had also been changing: fewer students from Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) congregations attended the college, and the university as a whole became more diverse.
In light of the emerging landscape, work began to evaluate Concordia’s mission statement in late 1990. Vice President of Academic Affairs Loma Meyer convened a committee of faculty to review the mission statement. “We needed clarity on what LCMS and non-LCMS students [and parents] should expect and what we could pledge,” recalls President Emeritus Robert Holst, who began his tenure at Concordia in 1991.
In late 1991, a committee led by Prof. Robert Kolb began drafting the revised mission statement based on feedback from the community.
Committee members were Profs. David Carlstrom, Kathryn Schenk, Donald Sellke, Wilbur Thomas, and Alan Winegarden, who each represented an academic division of the college. On November 12, 1992, the faculty formally adopted Concordia’s mis-sion statement, where it has served our community for the last thirty years.
“The final product reflected our firm place within the Lutheran tradition...with its reflection of Luther’s strong doctrine of creation and his oft-ignored bold stance for social justice ([Luther] was a sharp critic of “the system’s” abuse of the little people),” observes Kolb. “Furthermore, the College as an institution—Lutheran and non-Lutheran faculty members and staff—understood itself as anchored in the faith in Jesus Christ and his saving work, and that meant that we were committed to serve God’s world far beyond the boundaries of the church itself.”
Kolb continues: “We recognized that what we were doing, in the study of language or history, in the chem lab or the rehearsal room, in all phases of instruction and our life together, fulfilled a mission in accord with Lutheran theology and the church’s larger purpose in God’s world.”
Even as Concordia College grew to become Concordia University, the landscape of higher education changed, and countless events shaped the world, CSP's mission has held steady.
President Brian Friedrich notes his respect for the mission: “I continue to be thrilled by the many and various ways CSP has grown because of its mission in ways our founders could not have imagined. The mission is bold, broad, inclusive, inspirational, yet applicable, engaging and outreaching.”
This issue of the CSP Magazine pays tribute to our enduring mission.
Billy Schultz, BA ‘08, MA ‘11 Editor, Concordia St. Paul Magazine
