We welcome Randy Nelson onto ELM’s Board of Directors!  In addition to his role as a volunteer member of our Board, Randy will also chair the Candidacy Accompaniment Program.

ELM is committed to finding leadership volunteers who exhibit passion for and commitment to ELM and spiritual gifts for their specific roles with ELM.  In addition, we seek to recruit diverse leaders and work to constantly expand the diversity of our pool of volunteers and leaders.

Randy brings experience through his long-time role as Director for Contextual Education at Luther Seminary. He has demonstrated passion for ELM through his role as Convener of the Midwest Extraordinary Candidacy Panel.  Through this work, he was closely involved with supporting, mentoring and evaluating LGBTQ candidates for ministry.  He brings the perspective of an Ally to the LBTQ community. Randy is also involved in his home congregation in Minneapolis, MN and is the convener for two professional advisory groups for Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) centers.

Raised in rural South Dakota, Nelson found encouragement and a sense of call while filling in as preacher at several congregations the summer before his senior year of high school. He received his Master of Divinity degree from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) in 1968 and remained in the Windy City to assist part-time at a north-side congregation, while working toward further degrees at the University of Chicago Divinity School and serving LSTC as a teacher, acting dean of students and assistant to the director of field education. In 1975, he received a call to Luther Seminary, where he served until his retirement.

We welcome Randy and give thanks for his investment of time and passion into this important work for ELM!