 The increasing viability of the seminary led to a campaign to build a permanent new building and to apply for associate membership in the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada.Classes had been held since the seminary's founding in a house rented from Concordia College, which had served as a professor's home, and then as a women's residence.After the conclusion of the academic year in 1990, the seminary moved into temporary quarters at Grace Lutheran Church for the 1990-1991 academic year and received news that it had been granted associate membership in ATS in June 1990.