Such an “evil” thought has entered the mind of many a man considering seminary! Men who are excited about coming to prepare for the pastoral office often have their enthusiasm tempered by the reality that the first class they must take before formally beginning their seminary studies is New Testament Greek. They fear that they may not do very well because they do not like foreign languages or—even more frightening—they may fail the class and end their seminary studies before they have really begun.

As one of the professors who teaches Greek, I want to assure you that almost all of our students pass Greek and many do quite well. Moreover, most of our students find studying Holy Scripture in the original languages to be an exciting and rewarding experience, opening up a deeper and richer understanding of God’s Word. They come to realize why Martin Luther valued the Hebrew and Greek text of the Bible and urged the faithful use of these languages: “In proportion as we value the gospel let us hold to the languages. We will not long preserve the gospel without the languages. They are the sheath in which this sword of the Spirit is contained; they are the casket in which this jewel is enshrined.”

Luther’s words remind us of a very strong motivating factor that has helped many students of Greek. We do not learn Greek for the sake of having another language on our resumé. We learn this language because it is the particular language used to reveal the very salvific words and deeds of our Lord Jesus, especially his sacrificial death and victorious resurrection for all sinners of all time. As we read the New Testament in Greek, we are reading the Spirit-inspired words of men who were eyewitnesses of Jesus. These life-giving words are the foundation of the faithful preaching and teaching done by pastors.

There is a familiar saying in education: “Repetition is the mother of all learning.” This is especially true of learning a language. It is not purely IQ that dictates how well students learn Greek, but how disciplined one is in repeating vocabulary, verb paradigms, and noun declensions. A very important element in taking an intensive course like our ten-week Greek class is that you simplify your life so that you can devote your time to learning the language. In fact, once Greek is over, you will probably no longer want to avoid Greek, but will be anxious to take an exegetical class and put your knowledge to work!

So, the bottom line to the question posted above is: no, but who would want to pass up this opportunity?

From Volume 2, Issue 3, May/June 1998

“Allowing students to begin their course of studies at any time will make it even more accessible for a greater number of people interested in learning to read the New Testament in the original Greek, especially if they are interested in coming to the seminary eventually,” said Dr. Douglas Rutt, dean for distance learning.

The Biblical Greek course is taught by Dr. John Nordling, eminently qualified as a professor of Greek.  Besides his seminary training, he has achieved a Master of Arts from Washington University, St. Louis, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  Dr. Nordling taught in the Department of Foreign Languages at Valparaiso University and the Department of Classics at Baylor University before coming to Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, in 2006. Rev. Mark Braden, former Greek instructor at the seminary, is the course tutor, who personally assists each student with questions, further explanation, grades quizzes and tests, and monitors progress through e-mail, the Internet and the phone.

“The response has been really incredible,”  commented Rev. William Johnson, who was responsible for preparing the course for online teaching.  “We’ve seen students who have invested the time in the course consistently doing well on the same benchmarks we use for our residential Greek students.”

Dr. Lawrence Rast, academic dean at the Fort Wayne seminary, observed: “Our purpose at Concordia Theological Seminary is to support the church by forming servants in Jesus Christ.  We are developing new approaches to accomplish that mission.  We hope that offering Biblical Greek online in this flexible way will make it possible for more people to identify and make use of their talents and gifts for serving in God’s kingdom as pastors and missionaries.”

The course is open to anyone, men and women, who have adequate academic preparation to do the course work and are planning on or considering church work, or who simply want to learn the read the New Testament in its original language.

An online demonstration is available at www.ctsfw.edu/greekdemo.  For more information contact Rev. William Johnson at (260) 452-3202 or william.johnson@ctsfw.edu.  To inquire about registering for the course contact Mrs. Barbara Wegman at (260) 452-2153 or registrar@ctsfw.edu.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video link (ctrl-click to “save as”)

CTS was pleased to have Dr. James Arne Nestingen as a visiting professor for a two-week intensive term course on “Luther and Walther on Law and Gospel” this January. Dr. Nestingen has distinguished himself with long service to the church as a parish pastor in Oregon and Canada, an editor at Augsburg Publishing House, and as a professor at Luther Seminary in St. Paul. Now retired, Dr. Nestingen is in demand as a speaker in the USA and abroad. He is leading voice of the confessional movement within the ELCA. Dr. Nestingen is the author of Martin Luther: A Life and co-editor with Robert Kolb of Sources and Context of the Book of Concord. While at CTS, Dr. Nestingen spoke on the significance of Luther’s On the Bondage of the Will for preaching and pastoral care at a fireside chat. We think that you will enjoy and be edified by his words.

Audio:

Download audio file (04Feb2009_Nestingen_audio.mp3)

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The schedule for the tour is:

Wednesday, April 15 Trinity Lutheran Church, Peoria, IL, 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, April 16 Zion Lutheran Church, Beecher, IL, 7:00 p.m.

Friday, April 17 Concordia University Chicago, Chapel Service: 11:00 a.m.

Friday, April 17 Apostles Lutheran Church, Melrose Park, IL, 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, April 18 Trinity Lutheran Church, Elkhart, IN, 4:00 p.m.

Sunday, April 19 St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, IN, 8:30 and 11 a.m. worship services

Saturday, April 25 St. Paul Lutheran Church, Columbus, IN, 2:00 p.m. Dedication of the new sanctuary

Sunday, April 26 St. Paul Lutheran Church, Columbus, IN, 8:00 and 10:45 a.m. worship services

The Kantorei will also share Easter Choral Vespers in Kramer Chapel on the Concordia Theological Seminary campus at 4:00 p.m., on Sunday, April 19.

For additional information, please phone 260-452-2224.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In an increasingly pluralistic society, Concordia Theological Seminary recognizes the need for Christians to be able to defend the truthfulness of the Gospel in the public square. To that end, the seminary is pleased to offer a new retreat entitled “Contending for the Faith in the Twenty-First Century.”

Held on May 1–2, 2009, the seminar will offer several presentations on differing topics, such as atheism, Islam, and the historical and practical implications of a Christian witness. Featured speakers include:

Dr. Steve Mueller (Dean of Christ College, CUI)
Dr. Angus Menuge (Prof. of Philosophy, CUW)
Dr. Jeffrey Mallinson (Academic Dean, Trinity Lutheran College)
Rev. Dr. Robert Newton (President, California-Nevada-Hawaii District)
Rev. Dr. Steven Mueller (Concordia University Irvine)
Mr. Craig Parton (United States Director of the International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism and Human Rights)
Mr. Sam Shamoun (Apologist and Islamic scholar, www.answeringislam.org)
Dr. Adam Francisco (Concordia Theological Seminary)

Their combined expertise on apologetics will give attendees a greater confidence and insight into Christian witness in the public arena and will give them the tools to “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for the reason for the hope among us” (1 Peter 3:15).

The cost of the retreat is $50.00 and includes lunch and refreshments. To register, call 260-452-2100, e-mail retreats@ctsfw.edu, or go to www.ctsfw.edu/retreats.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette newspaper covers the project nicely here.

While in Madagascar the cohort visited two tobys (villages of mercy unique to Madagascar), a leper colony, an orphanage, a school for the blind, two hospitals, an agricultural school and a seminary all operated by the Malagasy Lutheran Church, a church body of around four million members. While in the central Malagasy city of Antsirabe, the CTS group worshipped at a Sunday morning service attended by nearly 3500 people. The group also witnessed a service of exorcism at a toby on the outshirts of Antsirabe.

Rioting blocked the highway to Fianarantsoa preventing the group from visiting the Good Samaritan Center for the Poor, a project supported by LCMS World Relief and Human with funds raised by the 2006 Mercy Mission Expedition. Nevertheless, this year’s group was afforded many opportunities to see the church’s corporate work of mercy in action. It was exciting for the group to tour the newly-completed pediatrics unit at the Lutheran Hospital in Antsirabe. The unit was constructed with a grant from LCMS World Relief and Human Care.

Two days were spent visiting the seminary in Antsirabe. Prof. Pless gave a convocation lecture on “The Doctrine of Vocation in the Small Catechism.” The CTS students made a presentation of books to the seminary library purchased with funds from Student Association in Fort Wayne. Copies of Concordia: A Readers of Edition of the Book of Concord and other theological books were presented to each of the Malagasy students as a gift from Redeemer Lutheran Church in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Clerical shirts, vestments and communion ware from the CTS Clothing Bank were also distributed. Prof. Pless presented the seminary president, Rev. David Rakotonirina a gift of $1250.00 from Bethany Lutheran Church in Naperville, Illinois to assist the school. A day earlier the CTS group also delivered a gift of $1250.00 from Bethany Lutheran Church to the Lutheran orphanage in Antsirabe.

As with past groups, the students who traveled to Madagascar have selected a project to support in partnership with LCMS World Relief and Human Care. This year’s project will provide cows for the leper colony and the toby in Antsirabe.

Reflecting on the trip, Prof. Pless commented “In spite of the perpetual tension generated by the unstable political circumstances in Madagascar, we had an excellent trip. In many ways this was the best of our trips to Madagascar. The students exhibited a good sense of humor, eagerness to learn from the Malagasy experience and a real empathy for the plight of our Lutheran brothers and sisters there. I am confident that this trip will be a formative event in the lives of these future pastors. We are deeply grateful for the steady support and visionary leadership of Pastor Matthew Harrison in making this opportunity available for our students.”

We provide three methods to receive the devotions:
- Concordia TheoBLOGical Seminary Devotions
- RSS Newsreader feed
- iTunes Store (free)

Archive:
Dec 26 / 25 / 24 / 23 / 22 / 21 / 20 / 19 / 18 / 17 / 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 / Nov 30

Dr. John G. Nordling

Associate Professor of Exegetical Theology
Concordia Theological Seminary
Ft. Wayne, IN 46825

For more on learning Greek (and Latin) in its initial stages, see John G. Nordling, “Why Should I Learn Latin When Everything has been Translated into English?” Logia: a Journal of Lutheran Theology 11.2 (2002) 27-33.

1. Follow a plan to read through the Bible in one year.
2. Ask your pastor (and his wife) to tell you about his seminary experience.
3. Join the church choir.
4. Volunteer to serve on a church board. If you’ve spent time on church boards, volunteer for a board you’ve never been on before.
5. Go to your congregation’s voters’ assemblies.
6. Read Formation: Essays for Future Pastors. Get it by clicking here.
7. Shadow your pastor on shut-in visits one day.
8. Pay visits to hospitalized members of your congregation.
9. Memorize (or re-memorize) Martin Luther’s Small Catechism.
10. Rent and watch the 2003 movie Luther.
11. Interview a senior life-long Lutheran to learn about life in the church in the 30s, 40s, 50s, etc.
12. Take notes during your pastors sermons.
13. Join the local Lutherans for Life chapter. If there is no local chapter, start one.
14. Attend a performance of Handel’s Messiah.
15. Research the history of your congregation.
16. Read all the pamphlets and newsletters in your church narthex.
17. Order and read a copy of the Book of Concord. Click here to order one from Concordia Publishing House.
18. Re-take the adult (or youth) confirmation class as a refresher.
19. Listen to CDs of Lutheran hymns.
20. Join Toastmasters
21. Help out with Rally Day.
22. Teach for VBS.
23. Join the Altar Guild.
24. Read Walther’s Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel. Click here to order a copy from Concordia Publishing House.
25. Find and research the meaning of all the religious symbols in your church building.
26. Use hymns from the hymnal as personal devotions.
27. Memorize a new bible passage every week.
28. Pick a favorite hymn to commit to memory.
29. Volunteer at a community soup kitchen.
30. Take advantage of opportunities to receive individual absolution.
31. Read more classic and contemporary fiction.
32. Read a major text from a non-Christian religion.
33. Take a logic or critical thinking class from a community college.
34. Become more computer literate.
35. Offer to drive older church members to church functions.
36. Listen to thoughtful religious talk programs on the radio.
37. Ask more questions during bible class.
38. Attend a Lutheran Layman’s League Rally.
39. Organize a surprise appreciation banquet for your pastor.
40. Watch religious television broadcasting.
41. Help out with the youth group.
42. Go on a short-term mission trip.
43. Go on a Servant Event.
44. Interview a retired pastor about the joys and challenges of his ministry.
45. Go to your district and the synod’s websites and explore the resources available there.
46. Spend more time with your family.
47. Watch less television.
48. Read the newspapers.
49. Get a physical.
50. Find a hobby.
51. Spend some time (but not too much time) exploring the Lutheran blogosphere. For example, check here, here, and here.
52. Talk to a neighbor about Christ.
53. Spend less time thinking about yourself and more time thinking about others.

* 54.  I’m cheating and adding one. Send me an email NOW and I will send you a list of recommended readings prepared by our office.

Not many of us get a burning bush in the desert telling us, like Moses, to be God’s spokesmen.  But the above examples are good indications that you’d be well suited for the pastoral office.

So now you’re more than interested.  The idea of becoming a pastor is on your mind every day.  Naturally, you are worried about how you’ll support your family if you go back to school.  You wife is supportive but cautious.  The kids don’t want to move.  Self doubt roars in the background.

All of that is common and natural.  Jesus never promised that your life on earth would be easy.  And if the easy life is what you seek, you should definitely not become a pastor.  If you are not willing to lose everything, including your family, don’t become a pastor.  If you are not willing to be ruined, humiliated, tortured and killed, then do something else.  Obviously, most pastors don’t face those extremes of persecution but the willingness is all.  Die to the world.

If you’ve now been sobered and are still reading this post, then you should definitely take the next step.  Every long journey begins with those first few tippey toes.  What is your next step?  For some of you, the next step is to phone my office (800-481-2155).  For others, the next step is to pay a campus visit.  But for many of you who have already talked to us and have been to the campus, now is the time to fill out the application.  Go here to download an application form.  Fill it out and send it to me today.  You don’t know what tomorrow may hold.  Do it TODAY!

If you think that you could be at the seminary in fall 2009 or 2010, then RIGHT NOW is the best time to apply.

If you have received a set of the posters and have them hanging in your church, school or home, please take a few snapshots of them and send them to me (email: scott.stiegemeyer@ctsfw.edu).  I’d like to create a little album showing all the places our posters are at work.

If you would like to receive a set, simply email me at the above address.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Jeremiah was not real fond of his lectionary.  God had given him the unenviable task of calling the city of Jerusalem to repentance for their unbelief, their evil sacrifices to Baal, and their lackadaisicalness if not outright hostility toward the God of Israel, their God, who had redeemed them from the hand of Pharaoh, who had given them a name, a land and a city to call their own.  The reason they lived in Jerusalem, the city of peace, is because their heavenly Father had delivered it to them with a mighty hand.

So God had put His Word into Jeremiah’s mouth to speak to the people, to warn them of their coming destruction, and to call them to repentance and faith in the one God who would save them.  Just moments before our text, God had placed Jeremiah at the Potsherd Gate outside the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, told him to carry a potsherd with him, and that he was to preach against the city for their idolatry.  God renamed it the Valley of Slaughter, for it is there that the people of Judah would fall, some to death, others to captivity in Babylon.

No, Jeremiah was not fond of this lectionary, but he preached it nonetheless.  This perfect law of God, through which their only hope of survival lay, this perfect law of God was not going to be received well.  Not this time, and it was a part of the pattern of life for Jeremiah, the weeping prophet.  Jeremiah preaches in season and out of season, and breaks the pot in their sight, signaling the beginning of their destruction.

This is not how to win friends and influence people.  The weeper does not want this message, but he sends it.  That is part and parcel of the ministry, after all. Our Lord Himself wept over Jerusalem, crying out to her that this warfare was folly, that He would redeem them of their sins, that God would place a heart of flesh into their heart of stone, and that He would keep them alive in the time of destruction.

But, much like Jeremiah, our Lord is taken outside the gate.  Jeremiah was beaten, scourged for the Word of God which He had spoken and enacted against the people.  Jesus is taken outside the gate, scourged, beaten and murdered.  The high priest’s man goes after Jeremiah for his message of doom.  The high priest himself attacks our Lord.  The high priest’s man goes after Jeremiah for what he thought was a false word from God.  The high priest goes after our Lord Jesus for claiming to be the Son, the very Word of God made flesh.  Where Jeremiah is bound in stocks of wood, our Lord is nailed to the wood of the cross.  Jeremiah is a shadow of the one to come, the prophet like Moses, Jesus Himself.

When Jeremiah is beaten and imprisoned by Pashhur, the chief overseer of the Temple, Jeremiah changes the man’s name.  He says to Him, “The LORD does not call your name  Pashhur, but Terror On Every Side.  4 For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you  a terror to yourself and to all your friends.”  Jeremiah knows that this man will end in derision, confusion and death, as will all who steadfastly reject his gracious invitation.

But here the comparison takes a different turn.  Jeremiah knows this man’s fate, along with all of Jerusalem.  Our Lord, too, knows their fate and ours.  But where Jeremiah changes Pashhur’s name to “Terror on Every Side”, our Lord, for them and for you, gives you a new name, a different name.  The name He gives to you is son.  For you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus, according to His word.  St. Paul reminds us:

“So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:24-29 ESV)

The Law was your guardian and tutor, to teach you the will of God, until Christ. Christ has come, and though He was murdered outside the gate, He rose again.  Though we have abandoned Him just as the people of Judah in Jeremiah’s day, He has not abandoned us.  He gives you a new name.  That name has washed you and made you white in His blood.

“You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.  A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.” (Psalms 91:5-8 ESV)

Jeremiah did not like the lectionary which God had given to him, but he delivered it nonetheless.  Even Jeremiah, in his crosses, could see the coming dawn of eternal life.  So weep and rejoice with the prophet, Jeremiah.  Weep that your sins are great, that you deserve the terror of the night like Pashhur and all Judah.  But rejoice, for though you deserve it, you do not bear it.  The terror of this day is but a shadow.  The joy of tomorrow lasts to all eternity.  Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

Jeremiah 20:1-6
Kramer Chapel
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana
June 26, 2008 (Jeremiah)
Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn