LMA Enters
Bi-lateral Relationship
With Luther Seminary
The Liberian Minister Association in its latest move to fulfill some of its plans for 2010-2011 has met with the President of Luther Seminary in an effort to establish a bi-lateral relationship between the two religious entities.
In a meeting held on Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 2:00pm in the office of the President of Luther Seminary, Dr. Francis Tabla, an alumina of Luther Seminary expressed thanks to the President for granting members of LMA the opportunity to meet with him to discuss ways in which the two entities could partner together in biblical and theological formation, spiritual and personal formation, and transformation and cultural leadership of pastors within the Liberian community in Minnesota and the student body at Luther Seminary.
Dr. Josef A. Howard, Executive Director of LMA who headed the LMA’s delegation explained to Dr. Richard Bliese, President of Luther Seminary, the goals, objectives, and scope of LMA. He told the Prexy of Luther Seminary that LMA has a current membership of over 35 active pastors within the Liberian community in Minnesota who are serving as pastors of small to mid size congregations some of which are striving to be multicultural congregations. The LMA boss pointed out that LMA has a lot to gain and to offer from a bi-lateral relationship with the seminary. He referred to a letter he wrote to the President of Luther Seminary (click here to read letter) in which he appealed for the establishment of a partnership in three areas: a) Theological and cognitive development of Liberian pastors in the Twin Cities; b) continued education for Liberian pastors who already have some form of theological training; c) opportunity for Seminary trained Liberian pastors to help in training and sharing their cross-culture experiences with students at Luther Seminary.
Responding to the LMA team, Dr. Bliese expressed his joy and excitement for the meeting and said that he wholeheartedly welcomed the establishment of a partner between the two religious organizations. The Luther boss said that he does not want the partnership to be limited to only the three areas mentioned above, but would rather want it to be open-ended because of the limitless possibilities that exist.
President Bliese appointed Chenar Howard, Head of the Global Mission Institute (GMI) to serve as the liaison between for LMA and Luther Seminary as the two entities define and develop their relationship in the coming months. GMI is an Advisory Council of Luther Seminary whose role is to advice the Seminary on global missions, spiritual formation, contextual evangelism, and leadership development across cultures. The membership of GMI comprises of faculty members, professors, pastors from ELCA, former missionaries from Lutheran World Services, the Director of the International Student Services, and a U.S. and International Student representative. President Bliese also asked the LMA Executive Director, Dr. Howard, to appoint a member of LMA to serve on the Advisory Council of the Global Mission Institute of Luther Seminary. Someone who he said, “Knows about contextual missions, cross cultural leadership development, spiritual formation, leadership development but most especially, someone who can speak at the level of our faculty.
Dr. Howard, expressed his thanks and appreciation to Dr. Bliese and promised that LMA will do everything it can to fulfill its part of the relationship.
Present at the meeting were, Dr Richard Bliese, President; Roland Martinson, Academic Dean, Mary Brown, Associate Director, Center of Biblical Preaching, Marie Hayes, Coordinator of International Student Services, and Cenar Howard, of the Global Mission Institute, all of Luther Seminary. Representing LMA were Dr. Josef A. Howard, Executive Director; Dr. Francis Tabla, Assistant Executive Director, and Rev. Steven Cole, member of the Board of Directors.
