Dr. Uwe Simon-Netto, director of the Concordia Seminary Institute on Lay Vocation, will address vocational issues each Monday on a radio program that is broadcast worldwide. He also is the featured contributor to a new online discussion board titled “Vocation and Contemporary Issues,” which allows free online discussion to a worldwide audience.

The radio program, “Issues, etc.,” is hosted by Rev. Todd Wilken and is broadcast over KFUO radio (AM 850), in St. Louis, Mo., operated by The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Siemon-Netto will be featured on the broadcast each Monday afternoon. The program is available worldwide via audio streaming over the Internet at http://www.kfuo.org.

“Once a week I will discuss God’s many callings to service in the secular realm, which Lutherans call the left-hand kingdom,” commented Siemon-Netto. “Returning to Luther’s ‘Berufslehre,’ or doctrine in vocation, seems a sound remedy against the postmodern ‘Me’ culture, whose disastrous consequences we sense increasingly throughout the Western world. Against its selfishness we posit the biblical view that by exercising our secular professions conscientiously — and out of love for our neighbors — we render, as Martin Luther said, the highest service to God.”

The online discussion board is available at http://portalold.www.csl.edu/forums. “I invite and look forward to robust online discussion of the important issues confronting the Christian in the secular realm, especially at his or her place of work,” commented Siemon-Netto. “I believe that we must challenge one another to serve our neighbor in our professional and private lives to the best of our abilities.”

Siemon-Netto began service as director of the Concordia Seminary Institute on Lay Vocation on Nov. 1. “Dr. Siemon-Netto will offer seminars, lectures and courses, both on and off campus, on lay vocation from a Lutheran theological perspective,” commented Dr. Dale A. Meyer, president of Concordia Seminary. “He also will write newspaper, magazine and online articles, including regular contributions to the Lutheran Witness. In addition to these activities, he will be available to speak in classes and at special Seminary events.”

For more information, contact the Institute on Lay Vocation, Concordia Seminary, 801 Seminary Place, St. Louis, MO 63105; 314-505-7237; [email protected].