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Lutheran Roots,
Shared Mission,
Collective Impact

Since its formation, the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities has woven together the stories of member institutions into one collaborative movement. Together we steward Lutheran Higher Education, embody hospitality, and equip leaders to engage the world with grace and courage.

Our Mission

The Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities articulates a vision for Lutheran higher education in North America that finds expression in the rich and diverse missions of its member institutions. To support the distinctive strengths of these institutions and their common calling in higher education, NECU sustains relationships among its member institutions and with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. NECU provides leadership development and other collaborative opportunities for its member institutions.

NECU Staff

Executive Committee

Board of Directors

History

“Our common calling is to be excellent schools that educate students for lives of meaning and purpose in the world.”

From Shared Identity and Shared Work: A Proposal to Restructure the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities

The Lutheran Reformation included a reform of society and education as well as the church. Lutheran reformers insisted that schools be established and that education for all, not just aristocratic elites, was an implication of the gospel. This impulse continues to guide Lutheran colleges and universities in the ELCA.

All colleges and universities founded by the churches that merged to form the ELCA were received into this church. Although originally established by immigrant Lutherans to serve their own communities, ELCA colleges and universities now serve Lutherans and non-Lutherans alike, in the spirit of the Lutheran Reformation. They honor their immigrant origins with their emphasis on serving first-generation college students.

The 28 colleges and universities of the ELCA were founded between 1832 (Gettysburg College) and 1959 (California Lutheran University). They are organized into an association called the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities (NECU). The only college related to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada ― Luther College in Regina, Saskatchewan ― is also a member of NECU.

Organization

Through 2010, oversight of churchwide ministries in higher education was managed by the staff of various divisions or program units inside the ELCA’s churchwide organization. Between 2011 and 2015, however, the churchwide organization explored restructuring its work in higher education by bringing presidents of ELCA colleges and universities directly into churchwide leadership. To achieve this restructuring, the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities was organized.

NECU is an unincorporated collaboration, with the churchwide organization and ELCA colleges and universities as its members. The program director for colleges and universities in the churchwide organization’s Christian Community and Leadership Home Area fulfills the responsibilities of that office by serving as executive director of NECU. The executive director and the presidents of NECU institutions constitute the board of directors of the association. Most responsibility is lodged with an executive committee composed of seven presidents and the executive director.

The purpose of NECU is to direct churchwide ministries in higher education. Its guiding purposes are set forth in the 2015 document “Shared Identity and Shared Work: A Proposal to Restructure the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities.”