The third C is the Community. Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne also emphasizes the importance of Christian community for preparing servants in the church. “Iron sharpens iron, as one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17 [show]Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
). In fact, in the book Being There: Culture and Formation in Two Theological Schools, the authors came to one conclusion that the most fundamental and enduring experience of former seminarians, now pastors, was being on campus and interacting with faculty, staff, and fellow students. This interaction among students, faculty, and staff in the dining hall during lunch, in the student commons for coffee after chapel and on Friday afternoons for Gemutlichkeit, is part of the unplanned curriculum and create opportunities for students to ask questions that weren’t addressed in class and see how others think of certain issues and topics. These are meaningful and formative experiences that produce thinking and speaking pastors who are able to articulate the truth of the Gospel with competence in a fragmented and chaotic world.

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The second C to discuss is the Chapel. At the center of Concordia Theological Seminary’s physical and spiritual life stands Kramer Chapel. The chapel, where the seminary community gathers to worship, is not an afterthought to theological study but the very source and framework for such study. The chapel, therefore, becomes a integral part of our curriculum and your formation. That is, since formation in Jesus Christ comes by being put into contact with his very person, the worship in the chapel, where he has promised to be in the preached Word and in the sacraments, becomes a crucial place for this formation. And it is there where you will see how what is learned in the classroom has it’s life in the practice of the church liturgically and pastorally because by receiving Word and Sacrament, those things that define and order our lives. Being formed as a servant in Jesus Christ happens, therefore, primarily in the context of altar, pulpit, and font, and secondarily as you examine and encounter foundational texts and arguments in the classroom.

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