Lake Union Pledges One Million Dollars to Andrews

In a bold move to attract qualified new teachers and pastors, the Lake Union Conference is pledging one million dollars for incoming Andrews University students to pursue careers in teaching and pastoral ministry.

Beginning in the fall 2024 semester, scholarships will cover four years of study in either of these two fields.

Driving this initiative is the decreasing number of students pursuing careers of critical importance to the church. “We are seeing a real need to recruit more teachers and pastors,” said Ken Denslow, president of the Lake Union Conference. “As educators move or retire, we notice it is increasingly difficult to fill these roles. There are young people who would be open to the call of being educators and pastors, but cost gets in the way.”

Ruth Horton, education director for the Lake Union, has witnessed the declining number of available educators. “Next school year, we are projecting dozens of openings for teachers in our Early Childhood through Grade 12 schools,” she said. “At this time, there simply aren’t enough students graduating from Andrews University to fill current openings and what we anticipate in the immediate future.”

While the number of pastoral openings in the Lake Union is not very large currently, as pastors retire the North American Division is projecting up to 2,000 openings across the Division in the next five years. The Division is engaged in tackling the looming crisis.

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