# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1981_S237
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

HIGHER EDUCATION 237

effort to be fully catholic and evangelical, celebrating the
heritage of the Lutheran Reformation, communicating it to a
new generation, and relating it to the issues of the late 20th
century.

Relations. The work for which this community of faith and
learning is sustained is that of service—to Christ, His people,
and His world through His church, to which have been
entrusted the means of grace, the Word and the sacraments.
Such a strong church orientation intimately involves the
seminary in the ongoing mission of the Synod at every level,
from the local congregation to its global ministrations.

Intentions. The life to which this community of faith and
learning aspires is that of ministry in the church. All members
of the seminary have as their central vision the priestly and
prophetic ministry of Christ’s church, the preparation of men
for that vocation, and the enabling of those already called and
installed in the holy office.

Because Concordia Theological Seminary has as its main
purpose to train “able ministers of the New Testament” (2 Cor.
3:6), its official statement of purpose and all of its programs
grow out of this overarching goal. During the past year the
faculty reviewed the objectives of the seminary and developed
a revised statement of purpose in preparation for a thorough
self-study, which led to a review that was conducted by an
evaluation team of the North Central Association for Colleges
and Schools and the Association of Theological Schools in
October 1980.

Accreditation Renewed

The self-study of the past year provided the opportunity to
review policies and procedures that had “just grown” and had
in some cases never been thoroughly studied. An important
by-product has been a certain amount of openness—to one
another and to new ideas. The study was largely a task-
oriented process, focusing on specific problems involving every
facet of the seminary operation.

The report of the October 1980 ATS-NCA review team
singled out several areas of strength and made some sugges-
tions for change that will be referred to later in this report. The
ATS commission on accreditation in January 1981 granted
continued accreditation for the seminary and for the following
degree programs: master of divinity, master of arts in religion,
master of sacred theology, and doctor of ministry.

The NCA team has likewise recommended accreditation.
Final action was to be taken by the Review Committee in
March 1981 and by the accreditation commission in April.

Board of Control

The present members of the Board of Control are Mr.
Raymond Joeckel (chairman), Rev. Willard Niederbrach
(secretary), Mr. John Biesemeier, Mr. Richard Bultemeyer, Dr.
David Ebeling, Rev. William Fehl, Dr. Roy Kaiser, Rev. Walter
Maas, Mr. Ronald Reinking, Dr. Robert Sauer, and Dr. Elwood
Zimmermann.

Faculty

As of March 1 the faculty consisted of 30 full-time members.
Dr. Otto Stahlke and Dr. Raymond Surburg are on modified
service. Dr. Harry Huth died in August 1979, and Dr. Henry
Boettcher (professor emeritus) died in November 1979. Dr.
Mark Steege (on modified service) accepted a call to St. Peter,
Arlington Heights, I]., in August 1980, which also terminated
the services of Prof. Barbara Steege as director of the library.
Dr. Martin Luebke retired as registrar in November 1980.

At the beginning of the last biennium Dr. Wilbert Rosin
joined the faculty in the Department of Historical Theology
and as academic dean; Dr. Harold Zietlow joined the Pastoral
Ministry Department; and Prof. Alberto Garcia was added to
the faculty as part of the Department of Systematic Theology
and as director of the Hispanic program.

Prof. Richard Muller, who had served the seminary in a
part-time capacity, was appointed to the Systematic Theology
Departmentin 1979 and named registrar, replacing Dr. Martin
Luebke, in 1980. Prof. Kenneth Pflueger, part-time librarian
since 1976, joined the faculty in 1979 and was appointed
director of the library in November 1980. Prof. Dean Wenthe,

who served on the seminary faculty before accepting a call to
an Iowa parish, returned to the Department of Biblical Studies
in September 1980.

Guest lecturers during the past biennium included Rev. Carl
Baringer, Indiana District mission director; Rev. David
Dubbelde, Ascension, Fort Wayne; Dr. John Drickamer, pastor
at Georgetown, Ont., Canada; Rev. Phillip Giessler, pastor at
Rocky River, Ohio; Richard Gudgeon, a graduate student from
the University of Wisconsin who completed an M.A. in Hebrew;
Dr. Bengt Hagglund of Lund, Sweden; Dr. Henry Hamann of
Luther Seminary, North Adelaide, South Australia; Mr. Albert
Hennig of Zion Lutheran School, Fort Wayne; Dr. David Moke
of Minneapolis, Minn.; Dr. Edwin Nerger of St. Paul’s, Fort
Wayne; Rev. Mark Oien, campus pastor at Duluth, Minn.;
missionary Robert Roberts of the Philippines; Dr. Edgar Walz,
former instructor of Concordia Senior College; Dr. Martim
Warth of Concordia Seminary, Porto Alegre, Brazil; Dr. Waldo
Werning of the Seminary Development Department; and Dr.
John Wilch, now professor at Concordia Lutheran Theological
Seminary, St. Catharines, Ont., Canada.

Those who received sabbatical leaves during the past two
years included Dr. Henry Eggold, Dr. Heino Kadai, Prof. G.
Waldemar Degner, and Dr. Howard Tepker. Dr. Robert Preus,
seminary president, was granted a leave during the winter
quarter, 1980—81, to carry out a writing project, and will be on
leave again July 15—December 1981, teaching at Luther
Seminary, North Adelaide, South Australia.

During the past biennium Prof. Norbert Mueller received a
D.Min. from United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio. Prof.
Douglas Judisch was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of
St. Andrews, Scotland. Others who are in the final stages of
their doctoral programs are Profs. G. Waldemar Degner,
William Houser, Daniel Reuning, and Michael Warner.

A Look to the Future

Concordia Theological Seminary strives to fulfill its synodi-
cally assigned role by preparing, graduating, and placing a
larger number of pastors each year. While the enrollment
statistics show that pastors and congregations of the Synod
have been encouraging men to prepare for the ministry, many
parishes have never sent a son of the congregation to a
seminary during their entire history. The demand for pastors
remains greater than the supply. Even the colloquy program, a
synodically directed and somewhat abbreviated program of
training especially for those over the age of 40 and for Lutheran
teachers who have served at least five years, has not narrowed
the gap between supply and demand as had been expected.
Moreover, the Synod in 1979 resolved to send 600 additional
workers to serve in various mission fields at home and abroad
during the next decade.

For the seminary this calls for an even greater effort to
recruit students for the pastoral ministry. At thesame time the
seminaries must give careful attention to admissions pro-
cedures because the Synod rightly expects that only well-
qualified men be admitted to the regular master of divinity (M.
Div.) or colloquy programs. Once the student is enrolled, just as
important are procedures and a climate for promoting personal
and professional development as part and parcel of the total
education of the pastor. Much attention is presently being
given to “readiness for ministry.”

Hispanic Program

Under the leadership of Prof. Alberto Garcia, who joined the
faculty in the fall of 1979, five courses related to Hispanic
ministry were introduced, three of them being taught exclu-
sively in Spanish. In addition, Spanish is taught to Anglo
students and their wives who are interested in Hispanic
ministry or in merely acquiring a proficiency in Spanish so as
to be able to serve Spanish-speaking people in their congre-
gations or in the community. A Hispanic club and other
extracurricular activities serve to develop interest among all
students. Under the direction of the Indiana District Mission
Office, Rev. Jerrold Nichols of Zion, Fort Wayne, and seminary
student Esaul Salomon are now conducting Spanish services
and forming a congregation with the help of seminary students
as fieldworkers. A Hispanic learning center has been estab-
lished, and the Hispanic holdings of the library have been