“Growing up, I was never alone,” says second-year Seminary student Nokukhanya Shabalala. With 17 brothers and sisters, Nokukhanya never lacked a playmate. Food, however, was sometimes hard to come by. “With so many siblings, you learn to eat fast!” she laughs. Noks (her preferred name) is brimming with tales about growing up in a large […]
By Dr. Glenn Nielson It’s October 2017 and a young couple — a future pastor and his wife — walks into my office for their placement interview. They have already met with Placement Counselor Dr. David Peter for an initial interview and have filled out a number of forms. As Concordia Seminary’s director of Placement, […]
By Mark Rockenbach The Association of Theological Schools (ATS) is an accrediting agency for 270 graduate schools of theology in the United States and Canada. According to its website, ATS member schools enroll around 74,500 students. Recently I had the opportunity to attend an ATS conference where it was reported that only 50 percent of […]
By Melanie Ave “I love surrounding myself with people of great faith, which is exactly the people at these seminars. God uses them to strengthen my faith.”
By Mark Seifrid In his Preface to Romans, at the beginning of his discussion of faith, Martin Luther complains that “faith is not the human notion and dream that some people call faith.” As every Christian knows, we can say the same thing today! How often do we hear those who experience struggle, disappointment or […]
By Kim Plummer Krull When friends heard about Rob Bailey’s first call as associate pastor at a Houston, Texas, congregation with more than 2,000 baptized members, many likely pictured him at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, helping with worship and Bible studies. Instead, this new Seminary graduate’s main role is to plant a new church in […]
Rev. Eric Ekong’s parish in Jackson, Mich., is about 480 miles away from the Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Despite the miles, he continues to find ways to be connected to his theological alma mater. A 2013 graduate, Ekong has been back on campus as a guest preacher, serving at the 2016 Multiethnic Symposium. His church […]
The brilliance of the Christian message is that it communicates directly with people — sinners and saints — where they are living and making a living in ordinary, everyday life situations. Christians know that their lives lay bare before a gracious and caring God who made them, performed for them His redeeming act uniquely in […]
By Kim Plummer Krull When Joel Heckmann needed to write a research paper on a “topic of interest” for his LCMS history class at Concordia Seminary, no subject immediately came to mind — until he mentioned the assignment to his grandparents, who suggested he look no further than his own family tree. That’s when Heckmann […]
By Paul Robinson The Reformation had to be a political event. Though we might think of the Reformation in spiritual terms and view its legacy primarily as a renewed understanding of the Gospel, the work of Christ, and the role of Scripture in the life of the church, the reformers themselves had no choice but […]
On Thursday nights in the Denver metropolitan area, about 125-200 people, many of them homeless and struggling in their lives, come to The Table for a free meal and hope. “A lot of them have fallen and are looking for an answer, some kind of hope,” said Trevor Freudenburg, a vicar at Bethlehem Lutheran Church […]
Rev. Brad Birtell of St. John Lutheran Church in Columbus, Neb., stood before the Concordia Seminary community in chapel in October. For three days he preached as part of his church’s role as a host congregation of the Seminary for the 2016-17 academic year. He spoke with particular passion during one sermon about the parable […]
