SEMINARY VISITATION EVENT FOR PROSPECTIVE PASTORS AND DEACONESSES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 15, 2011

ST. LOUIS—Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, is pleased to invite prospective students and their guests to attend Contemplate… to be held October 6-8, 2011 on the Seminary campus. Designed for those who are college age or older, the structured visitation event provides an effective means for learning more about life in the Concordia Seminary community and the preparation that leads to service as a pastor, missionary, chaplain, or deaconess in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

Check-in and campus tours take place on Thursday afternoon. Those who arrive earlier are invited to observe a class in session or visit the bookstore. A welcome reception and dinner provide a unique opportunity to meet Seminary faculty in an informal setting. After dinner, participants will hear a presentation on the formation for ministry, meet the Student Ambassadors, and attend an evening chapel service.

Paired with a current student, participants will attend chapel and observe classes on Friday. Sessions will focus on the spiritual and personal aspects of the decision-making process, as well as provide opportunities for presentations on the academic program, resident field education, vicarage and internship years, financial assistance, and housing.

An occasion for further dialogue with current students occurs during the student panel discussion Friday evening. Married and single student housing tours and individual appointments with admissions counselors and the life transitions office are made available to participants on Saturday morning. The visitation event concludes with a farewell lunch.

The second Contemplate… event of the academic year will take place on March 8-10, 2012. There is no charge to attend Contemplate…, and all meals and lodging are provided free of charge. Round-trip transportation to Concordia Seminary from the airport is provided.

For more information, contact the admissions office at 1-800-822-9545 or admissions@csl.edu.

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Holy Week Reflections

Every once in a while there are days or weeks were it is quite noticeable to us to that their is a change in our lives. We all go through changes in our day to day lives. However, what I am speaking of right now is that sequence of moments that literally changes us. This Holy Week has thus far been one of those weeks for me.

Palm Sunday marked the first time in a long time, I was able to sit back and watch the people closest in my life serve God in their own unique ways. It is not that they don’t do it at other times. It just so happens I am right serving him leading the way. Very rarely do I get to sit back and observe my family serve their Lord with the gifts they have been blessed. Linda for first time since we moved to Saint Louis, MO sang with Faith Worship Team for three services. Linda is a vocalist on campus for one of the chapel worship teams. However, this is a little different in my eyes. When we moved for this next step in our lives, Linda literally took a step back from singing in church. Some of it had to do with schedules, life adjustments, and quite possibly culture shock. Needless to say, my heart jumped for joy watching her using her God given gift of music again.

On top of Linda singing, for the 9:15 a.m. service Hannah, Jonathan, Hailey, and Jocelyn ALL participated and sang as part of Faith’s Kidnection which included children in the grades ranging from preschool to sixth grade. For those of you who have multiple children, this may hit home a bit more for you. You will understand the struggles of getting multiple children to stand still and smiling for pictures. Many times it can be harder for young children to stand up, even amongst their peers, in front of a congregation to sing. i am here to report that no one cried, whined, or had an down right meltdown. All stood up there dressed in their Sunday best. They opened their mouths and sang to God. As I stood in the back, I fought back the tears like any proud father, it occurred to me to take a picture of all the children. Little moments like this help to wipe away all the doubts of effective parenting. With Linda up front, it meant for once I was all by myself in the midst of the church with the children. Another one of those things that has not happen since before we moved here.

Holy Monday brought a wonderful chapel service, but it was the Tenebrae service in the chapel that left a lasting effect. Four seminarians and Dean Burresson read the Gospel lesson, Matthew 26:1-27:66. For some reason the way each part was broken up conveyed a new understanding of the text. It is a different realization of just reading the text or hearing someone else read it from the lectern. The betrayal, disappointment, denial, suffering, and death all meant so much more. I found myself re-reading this text a few more times after returning home. It is no secret, that I enjoy hearing my fellow seminarians preach. On Monday, 4th year seminarian delivered a very soul convicting and thought provoking sermon. I have been in a couple of classes with Sam throughout the year. He is one of those guys where you always know where you stand in his eyes. His sermon was much of the same approach. His sermon cut straight to the core of the matter.

Holy Wednesday (today) yield a chapel service patterned after the chief service for Good Friday. Dr. Bode preached, but I think the earlier readings, kneeling, and prayers took my mine elsewhere. Mine has lingered on the Good Friday sermon I have been preparing for a few weeks now. Something cleared up my mind locking in the missing part of the sermon for me. Not to worry, my mind was not on something else for long. I managed to link back into his message. I will just say there has been more reflection than in years past throughout Lent. Maybe it is the upcoming Call Day, baby births, weddings, or graduations that has caused the reflection. I know all the instruction I have received thus far, the praying, and the studying have and will continue to have a lasting effect… Yes, I know that is what “formation” is all about… Knowing it and realizing it is happening to you when it is happening to you are two different things.

I know all to well that God continues to take care of my family and I in every way. I have watched personally how he works in the lives of friends and family, both here at seminary and back home. I read scriptures, only to be left in awe in chesed/hesed (steadfast love) God has for us. What is next? The rest of Holy Week. Pray for me as I deliver my first Good Friday message. I am pretty excited to see how God will use me on Friday. I wonder how I will be formed next? Who am I fooling? I am pretty excited to see what He has prepared for me next!

How can I end this post without a countdown to Call Day and Vicarage Service: 13 Days, 18 Hours, 29 minutes, 30 seconds

Week 7 in Greek

Wow, things are really picking up speed. There is three weeks left in the quarter and the stress is starting to mount.  I feel somewhat comfortable with the material. Well, I feel comfortable with parsing just about everything. At this point it is getting the vocabulary to stick and translating. I’ve finally turned the corner on homework taking 2-3 hours to complete. Now, I can get it done in around 1.5 hours or less. It still takes me a few days to grasp the material.  Other than that another week of Greek slapping me in the face on a exam. Yet, I’m doing well on the quizzes.  Still sticking to studying as much as possible to make it work in my head. The studying has got to pay off with retention at some point. My hope is it will be during the qualifier and Greek Readings.

 

Material covered this week.

Chapter 24: Miscellanea 3

Chapter 25: Focus upon Result/”Perfect” Tense Verb Forms

Chapter 26: Pluperfect Verb Forms, Principal Parts, and Indirect Discourse.

Chapter 27: Liquid Verbs, and the Third Principal Part of Baivw and yivwskw

Chapter 28: The Subjunctive Mood of the Verb, Part 1

We’ve been hearing our classmates who have taken Greek before bring up pluperfect. I have come to dislike the term Pluperfect now. So, it is weird to have finally covered the material. Notice that was Chapter 27, there is 42 chapters in our textbook.

Field Work Church Assigned

All the first year seminarians finally learned their Resident Field Education assignments.  When we submitted our application for seminary we also filled out a survey/questionnaire asking us about our experience, church history, family dynamic, and desires to exposed to while at a church in St. Louis.  I agonized over this sheet for hours.  Realistically, I want to learn as much as I can from a variety of situations so I can be prepared for most situations. I only say most situations as there really isn’t a way to be prepared for everything we will be exposed to in a parish once we become pastors.

When Rev. Utecht looked at my sheet he must have thought this kid doesn’t know what he wants. Well, that would be a wrong assessment. I actually want every experience humanly possible and a bag a chips. Linda and I talked about putting down the name of church where we’ve attend throughout our visits with the Edens and CSL’s campus. However, I explained to Linda that putting down a church name specifically would feel too much like taking things out of God’s hands.  As such we left it up to God to work through Utecht to provide me the properly experience in a field work church.

Well, oddly enough I was assigned to Faith Lutheran, Oakville. If you’ve been following this blog you know it was the firs church service I reviewed upon our moving to St. Louis.  Faith Lutheran is also the church home to our good friends Joel and Erica Eden along with their children.  I informed Linda after messing with her for a while about it. She didn’t believe me at first, but then she realized I was serious.  Jumping and shrieks followed from Linda and the kids. I’m extremely happy as we have felt at home at Faith Lutheran with its still. The only drawback was there wouldn’t be any experience with traditional services.  I not worried about that really anymore.  As I’m sure I will get the necessary experience from at least four churches when we travel to see family and friends.

Faith Lutheran watch out here we come…

Faith Lutheran

6101 Telegraph Rd.

Oakville, MO 63129

(314) 846-8612

http://www.faithstl.org

Sunday Worship Services

7:45a

9:15a

10:45a