Concordia Seminary To Begin 174th Academic Year

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 23, 2012

ST. LOUIS—On Friday, Aug. 31, at 11:00 a.m., Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, will begin its 174^th academic year with a special worship service in the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus on the Seminary campus. Dr. Dale A. Meyer, president of Concordia Seminary, will serve as preacher.

Two new employees to the Seminary will be installed: Mr. Philip Ebeling as executive director of communications, and Rev. Wayne Knolhoff as director of placement and alumni relations.

Three professors will be installed into additional positions: Dr. Charles Arand as director of the Center for the Care of Creation; Dr. Jeffrey Kloha as director of the Center for the Study of Early Christian Texts; and Dr. Victor Raj as occupant of the Buehner-Duesenberg Chair in Missions. Staff member Rev. Jeffrey Thormodson will be installed as director of the MissionShift Institute.

Two employees in the Seminary Support department will be installed at later dates: Rev. Edward Bertram as deployed gift officer and Mr. Roger Dow as senior gift officer.

During the preceding week, new students will complete an orientation process and register for course work. The orientation process also provides opportunities for new students and their families to become better acquainted, which includes a “Field Day” consisting of sports activities, games for children, and a community-wide barbecue. Classes start on Tuesday, Sept. 4.

Concordia Seminary is located at 801 Seminary Place in St. Louis, Mo. For more information, call 314-505-7379 or emailcommunications@csl.edu.

CONCERT PLANNED AT CONCORDIA SEMINARY IN MEMORY OF ROBERT BERGT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 17, 2011

ST. LOUIS—A special concert is being planned in memory of Rev. Robert Bergt, the late conductor and music director of Bach at the Sem concerts and artist-in-residence at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. The concert will take place on Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 3:00 p.m. in the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus on the Seminary campus.

St. Louis musician and theologian, Robert Bergt, whose work and reputation are known around the world, died Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at the age of 81. He founded the American Kantorei in 1968, the first group of its kind in the United States. The Kantorei is a highly skilled choral and instrumental group that has performed in a variety of settings in St. Louis and beyond. Since 1993, the American Kantorei, under the direction of Robert Bergt, has performed regular concerts in the Bach at the Sem series in the chapel at Concordia Seminary in Clayton. The popular series of concerts featured the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and other sacred music composers and was open to the public at no charge. Also, many of these concerts were broadcast on KFUO-FM.

Dr. Dale A. Meyer, president of Concordia Seminary, will provide both an invocation and a message during the concert. The concert will feature pieces by J. S. Bach, many of which have been performed in past concerts, including Et Resurrexit and Cum Sancto Spiritu from the Mass in B Minor. The congregation will join the American Kantorei in singing “Let Us Ever Walk With Jesus.”

A small reception is being planned directly after the concert on the chapel plaza. For those who cannot attend the concert, it will be broadcast on KFUO (850 AM) and Classic99.com on October 2 at 1:00 p.m. CDT.  For more information, please call 314-505-7362.

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The Opening Service

All of the first year seminarians arrived to gather in the basement of the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus as we were marching in together. As we filed up the stairs the feeling and sound must be what athletes feel when they are getting ready to emerge from the tunnel. The vibrations from the organ and deep voices singing sends chills down your spine. 87 future pastors marching in one by one is a sight to behold. In hindsight maybe having us go in two by two would resemble the Christ sending the disciples out two by two. (Mark 6:7-12)

The Order of Service was “The Office of Vespers”.

Here is a run down of the service…

The Processional Hymn: Oh, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing   LSB 528

The Vericles

The Psalmody: Psalms 133 and 134

1st Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-20, 27-31

Choir Motet: O Lord, I Love the Habitation of Your House

2nd Reading: Mark 7:31-37

Common Responsory

The Office Hymn: Word of God, Come Down on Earth  LSB 545

The Sermon:  Title: Life Together  Text: Galatians 2:20 – Rev. Dale Meyer

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It was quite obvious from the beginning the sermon was directly mostly at the 1st yr seminarians. Rev. Meyer made eye contact with the entire congregation and then focused in on the 1st year seminarians. He talked about the was before us in the coming years. He spoke of struggles and triumphs.  He spoke of Christ dying on the cross for us and that we too were crucified with him. Which leads me to something interesting.  I only bring this up because it has happen twice in 5 days. Rev. Meyer asks the 1st year seminarians a question.  We all think it is a rhetorical question so no one answers. He is then slightly disappointed and again asks the question so that we are supposed to reply. I don’t think any of us were expecting his sermons to be interactive even after orientation.  Hopefully, he doesn’t think we are dead and not enthusiastic.  I would hope he would see it as a sign of respect and a willingness to learn from him.

The title of his sermon comes from the book Life Together by BonHoeffer. It also doubles as the theme for this upcoming year. Here is an excerpt from the back of the book…

“…It reads like one of Paul’s letters, giving practical advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained in families and groups. The role of personal prayer, worship in common, everyday work, and Christianservice is treated in simple, alm0st biblical words. Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for thereal life of Christian fellowship.”                                                                                                                                                 

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community. New York: HarperOne, 1978

Rev. Meyer expressed hope in us to tackle the challenges that await us in our ministries.

The Canticle: Benedictus  Sing Praise tot he God of Israel  LSB 936

The Rite of Installation: Rev. Dr. Kent J. Burreson , Dean of Chapel

The Prayers: To God the Holy Spirit Let Us Pray  LSB 768

The Opening of the Academic Year

The Blessing

The Recessional Hymn: Church of God, Elect and Glorious   LSB 646

The Postlude

Fantastic service. A little warm with the suits on, but I can’t say enough about the strong voices and that organ. If you ever get a chance to get down to campus for one of the big services. Make ever effort to do so. Experience it for yourself.

 

Orientation Day 1

I won’t break down everything that was conveyed or talked about during the course of the first day.  However, I will touch on a few things that stood out.

1. Dale Meyer is hilarious. Billie Mays comment (won’t repeat it) caught us all off guard, but loosened up the room quickly. His presentation on things to do in St. Louis was interesting at times. At least for myself since I’d visited some of the places in previous trips to St. Louis. Really funny plug for the single guys was the image of his “married” daughter. Completely, good thing is every guy in the room immediately zoomed in on her wedding ring and all thought, “Uh…”.  One brave soul actually spoke up and pointed out she was married. Long story short, President Meyer isn’t very computer literate so he used the best photo he had available to him.

His talked really focused on while our studies are important. We need to make sure to take time out to fellowship with one another to blow off steam and communicate with the outside world.  We aren’t monks and best place to learn how to communicate with people is now while we are working on our formation.  When asked about one surrounding area off Demun, the response consisted of Goth, tattoos, and something (I’m not doing it justice, but you get the point.) else. Yet, another funny instance was the suggestion where to get great tattoos. Obviously, no one expected to hear that on the first day much less any day.

His bible study was unexpected and provided a practical view on the road ahead for us. It was on Luke 24:13-35. Perfectly suited for the task at hand.

2. Small group introductions – one on one and then the group became two on two. Really weird I reached out to fellow Concordia MI alumni and found out we both had a lot in common. Both graduated this past May. Both are sons of Pastors in Ohio. Both grew up in Ohio. Both married (although I’ve got some 11yrs on him in that department). A decent number of newlyweds in our class. This indeed should be interesting.  Lunch included hijinx from college and stories about what not to do when planning a wedding with your wife and soon to be mother-in-law. Good times.

3. Formation – what type of pastor do you want to be or see yourself as?  That is the question that led off the afternoon session. If I had to sum up the groupings it would be the following (ordered in largest to smallest) 1. parish pastors, 2. chaplains (armed forces are going to get some stand up guys) 3. church planters, 4) Doctorate route guys, and 5) undecided. I don’t think we were expected to be that prepared with our future direction, but it made our session leaders job very easy. 

4. Spiritual Warfare – I won’t go into too much on this as I don’t think I could do it justice in one short paragraph. Basically, we were told of some of the top reasons pastors become unrostered and suffer in their parish (porn and sexual immorality). Along those same lines we were warned the devil is on the prowl and he will try to stop us from accomplishing our goals/missions at seminary. Some of the things we talked about potential methods of spiritual warfare by the devil are as follows: family, friendships, spouses, each other, finances, etc…

The devil will use every way possible to cause discord and deter us from doing God’s work. Just because we feel slightly safe on campus surrounded by brothers going the same path in life doesn’t mean the Devil isn’t alive and working hard amongst us.  Complete reality check for all of us.  I think we all know the Devil is at work, but until the presentation many of us hadn’t thought about the ways he would use against.  Which leads me to the final thought…

5. Brotherhood – I touched on this one a blog entry a couple of days ago. As brothers in Christ is important that we hold each other accountable in a loving Christian manner.  As such we also should make sure to pick our brothers up and help them along when they struggle.

On a side note I was referred to as the Facebook guy about 4 times today. Hmm, wonder if that is a good or bad thing. I won’t have time for it in the near future so we shall see if someone else takes over the duty.