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Purpose of Concordia College

The purpose of Concordia College is to influence the affairs of the world by sending into society thoughtful and informed men and women dedicated to the Christian life.

Concordia College is a four-year, residential, liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It invites women and men of different backgrounds and aspirations to join a formative society of rigorous inquiry and disciplined practice. The college strives to nurture liberally learned, responsible graduates by educating the whole person for meaningful vocation and constructive participation in God’s world. As a place of faith and learning, Concordia cultivates dialogue with the world and service to life.

Following Martin Luther, Concordia affirms both sacred and secular purposes for its liberal learning community. The college serves the life of the church by studying, transmitting and contributing to Christian conviction and practice. Students engage and examine this tradition for personal growth and for strengthening the Christian community. Across the curriculum, students are free and encouraged to connect their studies with ultimate concerns and questions. The college serves the community of faith by upholding expressions of the Christian life and by helping students to find authentic religious lives in conversation with a multiplicity of world views and faiths. At Concordia, the life of faith and the pursuit of learning occur in dynamic interaction.

The college also serves life in the world. As an accredited academic institution, it serves the community of life by studying, transmitting and contributing to the breadth of human knowledge and activity. Through scholarship and teaching, the college develops in students enduring powers for many ways of being human. These callings are the various social roles and places of responsibility that all people live out every day in different spheres and contexts. They require working knowledge and competence. A liberal arts education seeks understanding and ability for thoughtful and informed participation in the whole array of personal, communal and natural relationships. Liberal learning at Concordia involves both broad and in-depth study. It seeks skills and capacities to think, communicate, and create across domains of knowledge and to master a discipline of inquiry and practice. Liberal learning is learning for life: for self-fulfillment, for participation in the affairs of the world, and for lifelong learning.

For students to become liberally learned, responsible persons, they need to embrace the privileges and obligations of higher education. They need to observe academic freedom and intellectual integrity. They need to be passionate about the life of the mind and about making a difference in various communities. They need to be open to our complex, integrated and multicultural world. Concordia affirms the Christian practice of hospitality and welcomes students of all backgrounds and faiths to be full and active participants in college life and its public intellectual discourse. Preparing students to inhabit a world of plurality and to live well in common with others are important goals for the college today.

Martin Luther thought of the liberally learned person as someone of “wondrous ability subsequently fit for everything.” In the Lutheran view, students glorify God and love the world by understanding education as a form of vocation and by pursuing their studies with wisdom and commitment. For its part, the vocation of the college is to call and prepare students to influence the affairs of the world in thoughtful, informed and responsible ways — in service to the life that God engenders, redeems and sustains.