We are living in a rapidly changing world, presenting us with new challenges and new opportunities on a daily basis. You may be pondering some changes in your own life. Perhaps you are considering how to serve Christ and His Church. If so, the Prayerfully Consider Visit, March 24-27, 2010, on the campus of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, may be just the opportunity for you.

Men and women of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) who are considering a life of service as a pastor or deaconess will have the opportunity to visit with our faculty, staff and student body, worship with the seminary community in Kramer Chapel, learn about financial aid possibilities and see what the Fort Wayne area has to offer you and your family.

There is no fee for the visit. On-campus meals and housing are also provided free of charge. For additional information or to register online, please go to www.ctsfw.edu/pcv. You may also call 260-452-2155 to speak with our Admission staff.

The Walther Library Expansion project continues full-force this winter.   Holes have been dug, concrete is being poured and structural steel is starting to be erected.   In the video below, Prof. Robert Roethemeyer of Concordia Theological Seminary guides us through the construction progress on the Walther Library Expansion project.

Is Christianity a Western religion? Would you say that the Christian Church is waning? Watch this short video of Dr. Douglas Rutt from Concordia Theological Seminary as he addresses these questions.

The following is from page 10 of the Spring 2009 edition of Caring, from LCMS World Relief:

Free Resource Explores Clergy and Depression LCMS World Relief and Human Care’s newest resource reflects Rev. Todd Peperkorn’s personal journey through depression, I Trust When Dark My Road: A Lutheran View of Depression. LCMS WR-HC Executive Director Rev. Matthew Harrison recommends the book to all associated with professional church work: “This book offers a path to hope, and a future through Christ.” Dr. Beverly K. Yahnke, a licensed clinical psychologist, writes in the book’s forward: “When one’s mind and soul journey across the ghastly landscape of clinical depression, the adventure may challenge faith, hope, and life itself. … Peperkorn invites us into the world of a depressed Christian who remains reliant upon God’s grace.” The book is expected to be available in mid-June. To request your complimentary copy, call 800-248-1930, ext. 1380.

Pastor Todd Peperkorn is a 1996 alum of CTS, served in the Admission Office from 1996-1999, and also taught at Christ Academy in 1999 and 2008. He has a long history with our school, and his words are worth reading for anyone who is either in the pastoral office, or is considering it.   Pr. Peperkorn also had a chapter in our book “Formation: Essays for Future Pastors.”

Dr. Gene Edward Veith describes “vocation” masterfully in his book, “God at Work.” For Christians, we are renewed daily in our baptisms, knowing that Christ in us to bring us to repentance and console us that He abides. Furthermore, Veith, Luther and many reformed theologians declare that it is also in our day-to-day, mundane tasks–our vocations–that we find exactly where God is, too.

“Luther goes so far as to say that vocation is a mask of God. That is, God hides himself in the workplace, the family, the Church, and the seemingly secular society. To speak of God being hidden is a way of describing His presence, as when a child hiding in the room is there, just not seen.” (Veith, p. 24)

This exerpt led me to think about the correlation of the doctrine of vocation and diakonia (service, a response/reaction to God’s Gifts of Word with Sacrament) that has been having major surges globally within our Lutheran Community and Christians worldwide in the last two centuries, and especially in the last few decades. In uncertain economic times, a political society that undermines the value of life, and the intrinsic suffering we all endure, it seems that diaconia is the temporal answer to the eternal questions. This is not simply a Golden Rule tactic. But, as Veith’s title indicates, it is God Himself at work in and through each vocation, compelling them to diakonia. Veith concludes;

“To realize that the mundane activities that take up most of our lives…are hiding places for God can be a revelation in itself. Most people seek God in mystical experiences, spectacular miracles, and extraordinary acts they have to do. To find Him in vocation brings Him, literally, down to earth, makes us see how close He really is to us, and tranfigures everyday life.” (Vieth, p.24)