Our Synod Schools
The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) is a fellowship of Lutheran Churches throughout the country that have united around God's Word to do together those things that are not easily done by individual congregations. Through our called worker training schools we train pastors, teachers, and staff ministers and then send them out to spread the good news of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of the world.
WELS has established a ministerial education system that currently consists of 4 schools: 2 preparatory high schools, a college and a seminary. The two primary blessings of this system are:
It gives us a good number of candidates for the public ministry.
It trains the candidates well to teach and proclaim God's law and gospel.
This unique school system has been a blessing for God's church in WELS and throughout the world. Read a little about each school below.
Luther Preparatory School (LPS) is located in Watertown, WI. It was originally established in 1865 as Northwestern College in order to prepare young men to be pastors for WELS. It evolved into Northwestern College and Northwestern Preparatory School, a college and high school on the same campus intended to prepare young men and women for the public ministry of the gospel. In 1995, Northwestern College was merged with Dr. Martin Luther College in New Ulm, MN, to become Martin Luther College of New Ulm (See more about MLC below). The same year, Martin Luther Preparatory School of Prairie du Chien, WI, merged with Northwestern Prep to form LPS. LPS provides high school students an excellent education and consistent, gospel-centered encouragement toward the public ministry.
Michigan Lutheran Seminary (MLS) is the other WELS preparatory school located in Saginaw, MI. Established in 1885 as a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Michigan, it has served under the same name since 1910 as a WELS prep school. MLS also provides an excellent education and consistent, gospel-centered encouragement toward the ministry. Each year about half of our prep school graduates enroll at Martin Luther College to continue studying to be pastors or teachers. Both schools have students from around the country and around the world.
Martin Luther College (MLC) began in 1885 as Dr. Martin Luther College and has been in New Ulm, MN for its entire history. In 1995 this former teacher-training college became the WELS college of ministry for training both teachers and pastors. In the course of their studies to receive a Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts degree, students at MLC receive excellent, thorough training in God's word, learning to rightly divide the word of truth. Those young men studying to be pastors are also trained in Greek and Hebrew in order to study the Bible in its original languages, as well as Latin and German so they can thoroughly study the Lutheran Confessions.
Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (WLS) was established in 1863 in Watertown, WI, and moved its campus to Milwaukee, WI (1878), then Wauwatosa, WI (1893), and finally Thiensville, WI (1929). WLS prepares young men to serve as pastors and missionaries in WELS, continuing to build on the excellent foundation they received at MLC, studying God's Word in the original languages, studying Bible and church history, and learning to properly apply the Word in people's lives. Through their proclamation of God's Word our Lord calls to people living in darkness in order to bring them to faith in the Lord Jesus as their Savior. He also uses their preaching and teaching to strengthen those who are already His.
“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”