A Fellowship of Sowers
Story: Danielle Luebbe
Photos: Jen Furr CO '97 GR '03
Concordia’s Sower Fellowships are designed to provide participants with solutions to pressing problems in the church and world.
Concordia University, Nebraska’s mission hasn't changed since the first class was held in 1894 with Rev. George Weller and the 13 students who lived and learned in Founders Hall, though the mission statement has gone through several wording revisions. Currently, it reads, “Concordia University, Nebraska is an excellent academic and Christ-centered community equipping men and women for lives of learning, service and leadership in the church and world.”
But Concordia’s mission goes beyond just preparing students for their future vocations while they’re on campus.
“A Lutheran university like Concordia has a role as an active and engaged citizen in the church,” says Dr. Bernard Bull, president of Concordia. “We are called to be a porous university, listening and learning and engaged with what's happening in the world, so we can best equip students to faithfully serve. But we also are called to be a blessing to those outside our community.”
From this charge came the idea for Concordia’s Sower Fellowships, a customized learning experience developed for business leaders, educators, counselors, teachers or anyone seeking to become a transformational leader in equipping their school, learning community or organization. The fellowships provide participants with solutions to pressing problems in the church and world and mentorship from thought-leaders who are building and influencing Christian education and serving Christian organizations and churches across the nation.
“Institutionally, we are answering the needs we hear from leaders in schools and the church body,” says Jeremy Geidel, director of graduate admissions and operations. “We want to help them address the problems, concerns and challenges in their classrooms, organizations and communities, to help them stay true to who they are as a Lutheran school or business, while navigating the changes that every Christian and Lutheran leader is dealing with as we face a culture shift away from the Bible.”
The design of the fellowships is simple: a select cohort of students takes graduate-level classes online. Each topic consists of four eight-week courses that offer a deep dive into the material and feature guest experts who are there to mentor each cohort of Fellows and offer their specialized expertise in the topic. Those who complete the fellowship receive a certificate, and they can apply those credits towards a master’s degree, if they choose.
Fellowship experts are chosen because of their expertise in their fields, but also for their unique Christian perspectives and approaches to problems Christian and Lutheran leaders experience.
“Our program deans coordinate with our own faculty experts internally and determine who are the top five or ten people in the world who are well-equipped to challenge people to think deeply about this issue and can offer special insight and guidance,” says Bull. "Then we start a conversation with those experts and see if they want to be a part of our fellowship courses.”
So far, the first cohort of Sower Fellows is underway, begun in October 2022. The courses in the initial fellowship focus on trauma and resilience training, a subject that is increasingly important in today’s world, and of special interest to many Lutheran educators.
“We started with trauma and resilience, in part, because we already have similar courses built in our M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction Trauma and Resilience program,” says Geidel. “But trauma and resilience is also one of the fastest growing interests for many educators. It was an area we felt we could offer right away to get Lutheran schools a set of tools so they can start equipping their teachers with trauma-informed teaching skills.”
According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, more than 38% of children in the United States have suffered a traumatic event, whether it be the death of a parent or loved one, living with someone suffering from substance addiction or even the lingering effects of trauma caused by the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trauma and resilience programs help educators respond effectively to trauma in their students and equip them with resilience techniques necessary to learn and thrive in and out of the classroom.
Future fellowships to address challenges in both Christian education and business are already being developed, with the next group scheduled to launch as early as summer 2023.
A Lutheran university like Concordia has a role as an active and engaged citizen in the church.
“Every time we are at a conference or event—the Lutheran Educators Association conference, for example—we're there to recruit students and engage with our alumni, but we’re also listening and finding ways to intentionally survey people on possible future fellowships and courses,” says Bull. “We’re trying to understand what people need, what their pain points are and figure out how to help solve them.”
Some topics that seem to be of most interest to Lutheran educators and business leaders, and which are in development as future fellowships, include fundraising, enrollment and marketing in Christian organizations, futures and innovation in Christian education and nonprofit management. Each of these fellowships will be offered yearly, and those who enroll as fellows are welcome to join future sessions with fellowship experts in any course of interest.
“Once a Sower Fellow, always a Sower Fellow,” says Geidel.
“With the fellowships, we are trying to reach leaders who are not afraid of mission-minded hard work,” says Bull. “This is not just a group of people who will go to webinars and listen to professors speak. We want people to be engaged and bring their own experiences and ideas to the table. They will then be equipped to take their skills and knowledge back to their school or organization and use the ideas they learned in the fellowship to make their classroom or board room better.”
Concordia’s intention is to continue to launch new fellowships each year as the needs of Christian organizations and schools change and grow.
“We want to help serve and resource and equip educators and leaders in our schools and churches and businesses,” says Bull. “We’re looking for unmet needs and unmet opportunities.”
Learn more about Concordia’s Sower Fellowships.