Concordia Seminary Newsroom
Built Together in Christ
The front door of a faculty home opens to the sound of conversation and laughter. Inside, stories are shared, prayers offered and friendships deepened. These moments of welcome — often unseen — reflect the heart of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.
Rooted in this year’s theme, “Christ the Living Stone … Building Us Together,” the Seminary’s ministry of hospitality and its investment in faculty housing reveal a truth that extends beyond bricks and mortar. They reflect how Christ Himself builds His people into a living household of faith — a community of grace, stability and shared life.
Faculty housing is more than convenience; it is a foundation for ministry and formation. Living near campus allows professors and their families to share daily life with students, offering stability and connection beyond the classroom.
“The faculty homes on campus enrich our life together in many ways,” says Seminary President Dr. Thomas J. Egger. “Those who live here have a great advantage in fully investing themselves in the Seminary community outside of the classroom. Living as neighbors helps develop bonds of friendship and collegiality among professors and allows them to invite students into their homes — modeling the posture of hospitality and shared life we desire to form in our future pastors and deaconesses.”
Egger also emphasizes the Seminary’s stewardship of these historic homes. “I thank God for our forefathers who constructed these homes on our campus and for Mrs. Jean McCall and other generous donors who have contributed to their renovation and upkeep,” he says.
Such care ensures that these homes remain welcoming spaces where teaching, mentoring and ministry take root.
“Christ builds us together by giving of Himself,” says Tori Egger, wife of Seminary President Dr. Thomas J. Egger. “He brings us together around His Word in the classroom, yes, but also in daily chapel. Most notable is when our Lord spreads a table for us to feast upon at each Wednesday’s Divine Service. There we approach His table together — each of us comes empty handed — and we receive His very body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. Christ actually feeds and nourishes us there and gives just what we need most. He shares with us all that He has to give. Then we rise together from our knees and leave the chapel, ready to serve one another.
“All other acts of hospitality flow from this one,” she continues. “Following Christ’s example, we share what we have been given with others who need it. We are willing to sacrifice ourselves because we have been given so much. This is really all that Christian hospitality is — responding to the needs of those around us just as Christ has responded to our needs.”
Hospitality at the Seminary mirrors this Christ-centered generosity. Faculty families open their homes for dinners and Bible studies; students and their spouses gather for fellowship and prayer; and faculty members extend care to those in need. “The best kind of hospitality isn’t practiced on our own terms — it’s given as needs and opportunities arise,” Tori Egger says. “Practicing hospitality is a powerful tool in the pastor’s home. Relationships are built. The pastor and his family become ‘masks of God,’ as Luther put it, serving their parishioners and other neighbors in a very real way.”
In this shared life of service, faculty and students alike learn what it means to embody Christ’s love — to wash one another’s feet, as Jesus taught His disciples in John 13. Through such acts, the Seminary community is truly built together in Christ.
Hospitality leaves a lasting imprint on students and their families. “I often receive sweet notes from Seminary women thanking me for opening our home to them,” says Tori Egger. “Student wives tell me that they hope to do the same in their own parishes one day because they have experienced love through hospitality. I also see them opening their own apartments to one another now and sharing life together. I hope that the Seminary is a safe place to practice hospitality, even if it’s just spreading a blanket in the backyard and sharing peanut butter sandwiches. It’s a good place to work at it together, for the sake of the Gospel.”
Dr. Egger witnesses the same ripple effect. “In my few years as Seminary president, I have had hundreds of opportunities to visit with students, staff, faculty, pastors, LCMS church leaders and international visitors around our firepit, on our patio, on our screened-in porch, in our living room, around our family table or even hosting them overnight,” he says. “I thank God for the friendship and love given and received in these ways, and there is no question in my mind that this magnifies the mission and impact of the Seminary. The ripples of these occasions extend out into the church — into parsonages and congregations across the LCMS and even around the world.”
When students witness a professor’s simple act of welcome — a shared meal, a listening ear, a moment of prayer — that experience becomes a model for ministry. It is formation not only of the mind but of the heart.
Behind every meal shared, every porch gathering and every moment of comfort offered in Christ’s name stands a network of faithful donors who make it possible.
“I am grateful every day for the beautiful faculty home that I am blessed to share with others,” says Tori Egger. “I am very well aware that it is all gifted to me, not earned or deserved, and that is part of why I enjoy sharing it with others. It is the same for the beautiful campus we have inherited from those who have gone before us. I am so thankful for those who gave sacrificially to build this Seminary campus in the first place and for those who have given so generously over the years to preserve it. Generous donors over the past 100 years have ensured that we still have this treasured campus to share with others.”
Those gifts sustain not only the buildings that shelter the Seminary’s work but also the ministry of hospitality that flows from them. Through their generosity, donors join in this ministry of welcome — helping to build up the next generation of servants for Christ’s church.
“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (Heb. 13:16 ESV).