Rev. Joel P. Fritsche

Rev. Joel Fritsche is director of Vicarage and Deaconess Internships, assistant professor of Exegetical Theology and the Buehner-Duesenberg Professor of Lutheran Missions at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He joined the faculty in 2023. He is the third person to hold the Buehner-Duesenberg Endowed Chair.

Fritsche previously served as a missionary pastor and church planter in the Dominican Republic (2014-23). In 2017, he also became the director and professor of biblical languages at Seminario Concordia el Reformador (Concordia Seminary the Reformer) in Santiago, where he helped form Lutheran pastors and deaconesses for partner churches and mission fields throughout Latin America.

Before beginning his missionary service, Fritsche was associate pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Cheyenne, Wyo. (2000-02); assistant pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas (2002-05); and senior pastor at Zion Lutheran Church in Staunton, Ill. (2009-14). He was a guest instructor of biblical languages at Concordia University, Nebraska, Seward (1995), and a guest instructor at Concordia Seminary (2008), where he also worked as an admissions counselor (2005-09).

Since 2007, Fritsche has served on the Board of Directors for Higher Things, a Recognized Service Organization (RSO) of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

After earning a Bachelor of Arts in music from Concordia, Nebraska (1996), Fritsche earned a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) from Concordia Seminary (2000). He is pursuing a Ph.D. in the Old Testament from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.

Fritsche lives in St. Louis with his wife, Clarion. They have three sons: Viktor, Max and Andrei.

Interests:

Missions
Spanish