Call Day … by the numbers!!!

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167 CALLS AND VICARAGES ISSUED, 4 DEACONESS ASSIGNMENTS AND 10 DEACONESS INTERNSHIPS CELEBRATED AT CONCORDIA SEMINARY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 11, 2011

ST. LOUIS—On May 4, calls to serve as pastors in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) were issued to 86 students at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, during a worship service in The Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus. These students join more than 12,000 who have been prepared to serve as pastors, missionaries and chaplains during the 172 years of Concordia Seminary’s existence.

In a separate service held earlier that day, 81 students received assignments to serve as vicars. Vicarage is a one-year internship that M.Div. and Alternate Route students preparing to serve in the pastoral ministry must complete.

Concordia Seminary also celebrated four deaconess students who were assigned calls and 10 deaconess students who were assigned internships.

The Missouri District received the most vicars from Concordia Seminary, with 17 vicars assigned, followed by the Florida-Georgia District with six. The Northwest District issued the most calls with 10, followed by the Pacific Southwest District with eight.

The Office of Vespers and Assignment of Vicarages took place at 3:00 p.m. in the Seminary’s Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus. Rev. Russell Sommerfeld, president of the Nebraska District of the LCMS, served as preacher.

The Service of Praise and Assignment of Calls, also held in The Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus, took place at 7:00 p.m. Rev. Matthew Harrison, president of the LCMS, served as preacher. Officiants for the services included Dr. Dale A. Meyer and Rev. Robert P. Hoehner, the Seminary’s director of placement. The calls were presented to the students by Dr. Larry A. Stoterau, chairman of the Council of Presidents of the LCMS and president of the Pacific Southwest District.

More than 6,000 people from all 50 states and 27 foreign countries – spread over six continents – participated in one or both of the services via the video feeds provided on callday.csl.edu. Several calling congregations were able to celebrate and participate in the services with Concordia Seminary by connecting a projector and speakers in their church so the services were able to be seen and heard. Many also browsed the call lists and explored the interactive maps, contributing to a day with more than seven times the typical web traffic for the evening.

A complete listing of the calls and vicarages issued is available on the Seminary’s special Call Day website at callday.csl.edu.

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The Meyer Minute for Call Day

My first call into the pastoral ministry was to a dual parish in New Memphis and Venedy, Illinois. Diane and I arrived in 1974 and took up residence in the Venedy parsonage, an old two story frame house next to the church and cemetery. Now, 30 years after moving away, the congregation is taking that old house down in order to build a parish hall. The parsonage comes down but the memories remain dear in our minds. Yes, even the memory of shoveling coal into the old furnace!

Today is “Call Day” at Concordia Seminary, the day 99 graduates will be given their first assignments in ministry. In the 19th century, Dr. C.F.W. Walther wrote, “When a place has been assigned to a candidate of theology where he is to discharge the office of a Lutheran minister, that place ought to be to him the dearest, most beautiful, and most precious spot on earth. He should be unwilling to exchange it for a kingdom. Whether it is in a metropolis or in a small town, on a bleak prairie or in a clearing in the forest, in a flourishing settlement or in a desert, to him it should be a miniature paradise.”

I pray for our students the joy we had in our first assignment.

-Well said Dr. Meyer

CSLNEWS Latest: SEMINARY STUDENTS ANTICIPATE CALL DAY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2011

ST. LOUIS—Concordia Seminary’s fourth-year and second-year students will receive their calls and vicarage assignments, respectively, into the ministry at this year’s Call Day services on Wednesday, May 4. The vicarage assignment service will take place at 3:00 p.m. CDT and the call service will take place at 7:00 p.m. CDT.

“I truly do believe that God is behind this process,” said Benjamin Vogel, pastoral candidate. “My wife and I are looking forward to going wherever the church decides to send us!”

Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) congregations seeking pastors sent more requests this year for the Seminary’s graduates than the number available, “indicating the appreciation the church has for Concordia Seminary graduates,” commented Dr. Robert Hoehner, director of placement and alumni relations at the Seminary. “Join us in thanking God for His goodness and pray for Concordia Seminary as it carries out its important mission of helping to form workers in God’s Kingdom.”

For the second year, Concordia Seminary has created a special Call Day website which has many features that family members, friends, and parishioners all over the world can enjoy. On the site, http://callday.csl.edu/, viewers can watch live streaming video of both the vicarage and call services, read and print the service folders to follow along, and view maps that will pinpoint where each student is called or assigned through the use of interactive mapping technologies. Each pinpoint will include the student’s photo and the church’s information. (The map will not be available until after the services.)

This year, all of the 93 eligible Concordia Seminary pastoral ministry students will receive calls. One student will complete her studies for the deaconess ministry and receive her placement. Eight graduates from the Center for Hispanic Studies (three pastoral candidates and five deaconess candidates) one DELTO student, and six Cross-Cultural Ministry Center students (out of Concordia University Irvine) will receive placements. Additionally, 76 second-year Seminary students will learn of their vicarage assignments.

“I really value the Seminary experience and the brilliance of the instruction that I received here,” commented pastoral candidate Ronald Millard Jr. “I was inspired to view this process as a strengthening of my relationship with God and to view our learning as an adventure that leads to peace that truly is found only in Jesus Christ.”

“Our men and women in our various programs have demonstrated their academic abilities, their commitment to Jesus Christ, and their love for people,” said Dr. Dale A. Meyer, president of Concordia Seminary. “They will serve very well, just as previous graduates have.”

For more information, contact creative services at communications@csl.edu or 314-505-7379.

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