It provides distance education online and at its campus in Brookings.

The Institute of Lutheran Theology was started in 2009 by conservatives[4] in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) affiliated with the WordAlone Network in order to train Lutheran clergy and other church workers.

[5] The Institute of Lutheran Theology is not supported by a single synod or religious association,[6] but several.

[7][8] Instead, it hires and serves people from several different Lutheran church bodies in the United States, some of which recently formed after separating from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and lack seminaries of their own.

The library has 30,000 physical volumes[12] and more through ebrary as well as access to several other academic databases.