All Nations Endowment Supports CMC Missionary Training
In 2015, the All Nations Endowment was established to provide ongoing scholarship assistance for qualified CMC students. Shortly thereafter, by God’s grace, an anonymous donor gave a very generous $1 million gift to the endowment. Now, many of our CMC students are receiving scholarships funded by the All Nations Endowment. These students are working in local contexts where there is a need for mission work. They are uniquely positioned to cross into new cultures and reach the lost with the Gospel.
In order to expand the number of need-based scholarships, the CMC is embarking on a campaign with the goal of growing the endowment to a total of $2.5 million.
“We thank God for faithful donors who support such a visionary program,” says Rev. Dr. Steve Mueller, Dean of Christ College. “We’d like to raise enough to scholarship twenty students a year in this way. If anyone wants to be part of that opportunity, we would love to have them visit and meet our students, and see the wonderful thing God has done here and how they might be part of it.”
In partnership with Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, the CMC offers “a first-rate theological education in the context of church planting and cross-cultural work,” says Mueller. “This is a
full-fledged seminary education, in which every class looks at ways to apply their education faithfully in a new cultural context … The challenge has been that education is expensive and often out of reach for precisely the candidates who need it most. These are students who are planting churches, crossing cultures and are fully qualified, but finances are an obstacle.”
One of the strengths of the CMC program is that learning is embedded in the students’ existing ministry and mission contexts. They come to the program already serving in a congregation and are required to launch a new ministry across a cultural barrier.
CMC students and alumni are currently serving in inner cities, poor communities and on reservations. One student is planting a church among native Hawaiians, another recent graduate is revitalizing a church among the Navajo in New Mexico, and another working with the homeless in Phoenix.
University financial aid covers one third of each CMC student’s tuition. But for many, the hurdle is still too high. The $1 million foundational donation as well as numerous other donations given since allow the All Nations Endowment to cover another third of tuition for students with demonstrated need. This leaves students to pay just one third of the total cost. Congregations and districts often help cover these remaining costs.
“For many students, this moves it from impossible to do-able,” says Rev. Dr. Glenn Fluegge, director of the CMC program. “It’s such a great relief to not have to say no to good candidates simply because we don’t have funding. It’s like breathing a big sigh of relief.”
“If we really want to grow as a church body, we need to be educating pastors from all walks of life at a higher level so they can serve in leadership positions in the LCMS,” Fluegge says.
He is grateful for the vision and generosity of the anonymous couple who donated the foundational $1 million. “They have a deep passion for the mission of Christ’s church coupled with great humility. It’s been a joy to work with them,” says Fluegge. “They’re excited about the CMC being involved in mission work and training up pastors who will carry on that mission in the future.”
Please prayerfully consider giving today to the All Nations Endowment.