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Mission Statement

LTS equips, nurtures and challenges women and men for Christ-centered ministries that call people to lively commitment, bold witness and sacrificial service.

A Brief History of LTS

LTS has been equipping the leadership of the church in Canada and abroad for nearly a century. In 1913 the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Manitoba and Other Provinces founded the Lutheran College and Seminary (LCS), which finally settled in Saskatoon in 1915. In 1939 the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America established the Luther Theological Seminary, first on the campus of the Lutheran College and Seminary and then, in 1946, on a separate campus in Saskatoon. For almost twenty years, Lutherans in Western Canada maintained two theological schools with varying degrees of cooperation between them.

A merger occured in 1968, turning the two organization into the present LTS Saskatoon, with a faculty of six and a student body of thirty. In 1968 the school moved to its present location on the University of Saskatchewan campus and into close proximity of ESC (The College of Emmanuel and St. Chad) and SAC (St. Andrew's College). Even at this early stage, a sense of collaboration was evident in that students registered in one school were free to take classes in the other two schools. In the same year, an arrangement was reached with the Central Pentecostal College. In 1969 LTS, ESC and SAC established a Graduate School of Theology which would later be known as the Graduate Theological Union of Saskatoon. In addition, the late 80s LTS established a non-ordination Master of Theological Studies (MTS) Program and a graduate-level Master of Pastoral Counseling (MPC).

A major change occurred when the Board hired Dr. Faith Rohrbough as its president in 1996. Under her leadership, the relationship with the STU was strengthened and greater cooperation and integration of the academic program ensued. The Boards of the three seminaries of the STU met for the first time in 1998 to get to know each other and begin the process of mapping out new ways of working together. President Rohrbough also set up a Development Office with full-time staff, which was crucial for the ongoing advancement of the Seminary.

When the ELCIC approved the diaconal ministry roster, the Seminary began to develop a program to address the academic needs of these students. The seminary, in conjunction with the ELCIC’s Committees for Theological Education and Leadership (CTELs) and the national Program Committee for Leadership in Ministry (PCLM), are currently coordinating the recruitment and discernment process for candidates for pastoral leadership.

Presidents of Predecessor Seminaries and of LTS

Luther College and Seminary 1911-65

Juergen Goos, 1911-18

Henry W. Harms, 1918-31

Werner Magnus, 1931-1936

Nils Willison, 1937-1949

Earl J. Treusch, 1950-1955

Otto A. Olson, 1955-1958

Walter H.P. Freitag, 1962-65

Luther Theological Seminary, 1939-1965

John R. Lavik, 1939-1953

Olaf K. Storaasli, 1953-1959

George Evenson, 1959-1965

Lutheran Faculty of Theology

Thomas P. Solem, 1965-1966

Lutheran Theological Seminary Saskatoon

William Hordern, 1965-1985

Roger Nostbakken, 1985-1996

Faith E. Rohrbough, 1996-2004

Erwin Buck, 2004-2005

Kevin A. Ogilvie, 2006- present