Bishop Herb Chilstrom\u2019s journey from poor, small-town boy to first presiding bishop of the ELCA began with a spiritual awakening at age 14. By the time Bishop Chilstrom \u201954 reached college age his goal to become an ordained minister was clear, but the source of funds to pay for college was less certain. \u201cThere weren\u2019t many scholarships at the time I attended Augsburg,\u201d he remembers. Knowing that his parents wouldn\u2019t be able to give him more than a five dollar bill every once in a while, he chose to attend the Lutheran college located in the heart of the job-rich Twin Cities: Augsburg. There, he knew, he\u2019d be able to find a job \u2013 or two or three jobs (at the same time), as it turned out. That experience and a desire to help today\u2019s students led the bishop and his wife, the Reverend E. Corinne Chilstrom, to establish the Corinne and Herbert Chilstrom Scholarship for students interested in social work or the ordained ministry. If you give a student some kind of financial support, he says, \u201cIt means you\u2019re doing well, and we want to help you.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Bishop Chilstrom arrived at Augsburg he began to realize that both his spiritual journey and his view of the world had been too narrow-minded. \u201cI had too many pat answers,\u201d he remembers. Augsburg professors like Joel Torstenson, sociology, challenged him to open windows to the world. \u201cI wasn\u2019t wealthy, but I realized I had the privilege of simply being white, and that opened doors that weren\u2019t open for others. Joel impressed on us that we have a profound responsibility to those who did not have the advantages we had.\u201d At Augsburg, says Bishop Chilstrom, he learned about Christianity\u2019s call to fight injustice and how to live a courageous life. He began to develop the radical social conscience for which he later became known.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be an effective pastor you really have to study the Bible and theology and church history, but you also have to have a much broader perspective,\u201d says Bishop Chilstrom. \u201cSociology really broadened my world, and I fell in love with history, thanks to Professor Carl Chrislock.\u201d He recalls Anne Pedersen, \u201cthe best English teacher in the world,\u201d who opened his mind to literature and instilled respect for the English language. He was amazed by President Bernhard Christensen\u2019s intellect. \u201cIt was awesome to hear him reach into the depths of his mind and spirit and pull poetry and prose and Biblical understanding together.\u201d He remembers sitting in chapel and thinking, \u201cHe\u2019s the kind of person I would like to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Augsburg also provided opportunities to stretch his leadership wings. He became president of the campus youth group his sophomore year, and as student body president his junior year, he led the student campaign to raise funds for Memorial Library. He went on to earn degrees from Augustana Theologial Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary and his doctorate from New York University. He became a parish minister, professor and church leader, serving as the first bishop of the fledgling ELCA from 1987 to 1995.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter I had an enlightening experience as a teenager, one of the first things I discovered is that people who believe put their faith on the line by giving,\u201d says Chilstrom. While still in high school he began tithing 10 percent. \u201cI gave at least 10 percent all through my life,\u201d he explains. \u201cNow Corinne and I are able to give much more than that, and it\u2019s a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bishop Herb Chilstrom\u2019s journey from poor, small-town boy to first presiding bishop of the ELCA began with a spiritual awakening at age 14. By the time Bishop Chilstrom \u201954 reached college age his goal to become an ordained minister was clear, but the source of funds to pay for college was less certain. \u201cThere weren\u2019t …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":331,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,7,6,3],"tags":[122,20,50,58,9,118,8,31,42,19],"class_list":["post-47434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-augsburg-fund","category-donor-recognition","category-gift-announcements","category-giving","category-giving-to-augsburg","tag-advancement","tag-alumni","tag-endowed-scholarship","tag-gift-announcement","tag-gift-announcements","tag-giving","tag-giving-blog","tag-philanthropy","tag-planned-giving","tag-scholarship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47434"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48945,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47434\/revisions\/48945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}