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AFLTS Profile and Curriculum Design
Download AFLTS Monday Morning Brochure for 2006-2007 The founding of Association Free Lutheran Theological Seminary, hereafter
referred to as Free Lutheran Seminary, a graduate school of theology, grew out of the need for biblically-trained pastors and Christian workers in the tradition of orthodox Lutheran Pietism. After studying the possibility of
beginning such a school, the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations voted to proceed with the establishing of a theological seminary committed to historic Lutheran theology. The seminary opened its doors to the first entering
class in September, 1964. In 1965, the AFLC elected its first full-time seminary dean, Dr. Iver B. Olson. In 1971, Rev. Amos O. Dyrud became dean of the seminary and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1981. That same
year, Dr. Francis W. Monseth was elected as dean and continues until the present.
The Seminary is located on a 25-acre campus on the east shores of Medicine Lake in Plymouth, a northwestern suburb of Minneapolis. The
property was formerly owned by the Hauge Lutheran Innermission Federation. New and spacious facilities had been provided by the group with a large chapel and adjoining classrooms and office space. The main library and reference
room are located on the lower level of the main building. Future plans include enlarged library quarters in a new classroom/administration building.
Free Lutheran Seminary has graduated almost one hundred fifty men in its
thirty years of existence. While the vast majority of its graduates serve in pastoral ministry, its former students are represented in many fields of full-time Christian service.
Free Lutheran Seminary is an institution of
the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations and as such conforms to its principles and aims. The Seminary is supported by congregations of the AFLC as well as other interested friends. The AFLC looks to the Seminary to train
pastors needed in its expanding parishes and missions.
As an institution of the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, the Seminary believes and teaches that:
The Bible is the divinely inspired, revealed, inerrant and authoritative Word of God and as such is trustworthy in all its parts and is the supreme and only rule of faith and practice; The Three Ecumenical Creeds
, the Unaltered Augsburg Confession and Luther's Small Catechism
are faithful expositions of the truths of Scripture; The local congregation is the right form of the Kingdom of God on earth. It acknowledges no authority above
itself except the Word of God, the Bible and the Spirit of God.
A child-like trust in and commitment to the inspired Scriptures is fundamental in the entire life of the Seminary. The Seminary confesses that "all Scripture," Old and New Testaments, in all that it treats,
is true. Not only in matters pertaining to salvation but in all things, whether history, geography or science, the Bible is true. This inspiration has reference not merely to the thoughts or ideas of Scripture but to the very
words. The original autographs of both Testaments were given by God to the "jot" and "tittle." The Seminary believes in verbal inspiration. Thus, it confesses the inerrancy of the Bible. Since it is God the Holy
Spirit who inspired it, there can be no errors or contradictions. The Seminary does not apologize for its presupposition of faith that the Bible in its entirety is the inerrant Word of God. Rather, it rejoices in the
trustworthiness of the Bible in all its parts and desires to take its stand solidly on it.
Because of the Seminary's high view of the Bible as the very Word of God, it is recognized as the final authority in all matters of
faith and life. The Law is to be received and applied in all its sternness and force, and the Gospel is to be received in all its sweetness and comfort. Only through this Spirit-empowered application of Law and Gospel can one know
the true meaning of repentance of sin and faith in Christ.
Free Lutheran Seminary, as an institution of the AFLC, is in full agreement with the creeds and confessions of historic Christianity. The Apostolic, Nicene and
Athanasian Creeds are confessed as faithful expositions of the truths of Scripture. Furthermore, the Seminary is in hearty and enthusiastic agreement with the Unaltered Augsburg Confession (1530) and the Small Catechism (1529)
of the Lutheran Reformation. There is full subscrption to these documents because they are faithful and correct statements of Bible truths. The Seminary rejoices in its Lutheran heritage but is deeply concerned because of the inroads of liberalism and apostasy in many parts of the Lutheran Church at the present. It desires to stand with those who would call the Lutheran Church back to the Bible and back to the Confessions in order to faithfully and fully minister to the needs of this generation.
Faithful to the fundamental convictions of the AFLC, the Seminary believes that the local congregation is "the right form of the Kingdom of God on earth," acknowledging no authority above itself except the Word
and Spirit of God. This means that the only model or entity that the Word of God gives through which the will of God is carried out in this world is the local congregation. Nothing else is presented in the pages of the New
Testament. Indeed, any other organization or institution finds its Biblical right to exist only as a servant or arm of the local congregation. Following the Fundamental Principles
of the AFLC, the Seminary seeks to lead its students into a full understanding of their meaning and application in congregational life.
Free Lutheran Seminary in fellowship with the Association of Free Lutheran
Congregations, desires to lift up the standard of God's unfailing and inerrant Word, the Scriptures, and of biblical evangelistic Christianity. Joyfully bowing to the authority of Scripture, the Seminary takes seriously the
"great commission" of our Lord and desires to be involved in making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). There is an earnest evangelistic purpose at the heart of the Seminary curriculum and program. The
mention of biblical evangelistic Christianity is deliberate and has reference to the needful application of the Means of Grace . . . Word and Sacraments . . . as that through which God saves and keeps, by the working of the Holy
Spirit. The aim of the Seminary is to give sound Christian teaching and training in uncompromising loyalty to the divine Word in order to prepare witnesses and workers, irrespective of race and color, for effective Christian
ministry.
The aims of Free Lutheran Seminary are not complete with mere intellectual understanding of the doctrines and practices of God's Word, the Lutheran Confessions, and AFLC distinctives. It is of utmost concern that
the personal life of every graduate be conformed to the image of Christ. The need for godly spiritual leaders is reflected in the Seminary's statement of policy. "The Association is in need of pastors who reflect the faith and
practice of the congregations. These pastors are to be servants of congregations--conservative, pietistic and evangelical . . . A pastor is to be, above all, a man of God. He is to maintain a good devotional life. Only people
living close to the Lord can reveal Him." Free Lutheran Seminary stands for full-hearted surrender and consecration to Christ. It is in complete agreement with a statement made by the faculty of a Lutheran seminary of the 19th
century:
"We are not satisfied with a mere intellectual and scholarly orthodoxy. We believe that every doctrine pertaining to salvation must become an experience . . . Our Seminary does not want to send out a single minister who
is not in personal and experiential relationship with Christ Jesus. We need and want an orthodox Pietism . . . a ministry aflame with the love of Christ and of souls" (From The Life of Dr. W. Passavant).
AFLTS Curriculum Design
To achieve its theological objectives, spiritual emphases, and academic goals, Free Lutheran Seminary has adapted its curriculum to promote these ends. In its instructional program the Seminary maintains a core
curriculum which will give its graduates a useful grasp of the Bible, theology, church history, Christian ethics, and the skills necessary for preaching, pastoral and missionary service, evangelism, worship, and Christian education.
In addition to its core curriculum, the Seminary offers a number of elective courses. At the same time, attention is given to correlating classroom work with field education so that the student is enabled to learn through
opportunities for practical ministry.
It is the purpose of Free Lutheran Seminary to promote educational excellence at the same time it keeps
consistently in view of cultivation of the highest quality of personal devotional life. Classroom instruction is infused with the warmth of spiritual piety.
Free Lutheran Seminary is in the tradition of orthodox Lutheran pietism. Its endeavor is to emphasize the trained mind, the disciplined life, and the ceaseless outreach to others in caring, evangelistic, and nurturing ministry.
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