LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 107

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SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

The Biblical and Reformation Heritage of LCMS Pastoral Formation
Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, President Lawrence R. Rast, Jr.
68th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod • August 1, 2023
Be alert, study, keep on reading! Truly you cannot read
too much in the Scripture; and what you read, you
cannot understand too well; and what you
understand, you cannot teach too well; and what you
teach well, you cannot live too well. Believe me, I know
by experience! It is the devil, it is the world, it is our
own flesh that storm and rage against us. Therefore
dear sirs and brothers, pastors and preachers: pray,
read, study, be diligent! I tell you the truth: there is no
time for us to lazy around, to snore and sleep in these
evil, wicked times. So bring your talents that have been
entrusted to you and reveal the mystery of Christ. 1
These are Luther’s words. They shouldn’t surprise us given the
fact that Luther, in addition to being a pastor, was a professor
and an unswerving proponent of Christian education. The
Lutheran Reformation was born in the context of the
university, and its identity is inseparably bound up with that
fact. Luther dedicated his life to raising up pastors who were
“able to teach” the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3) in
the home, at Christian primary schools, and at the university in
Wittenberg.

I.

Pastoral Formation in The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod

Our founders established The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod on April 26, 1847. Even prior to its foundation the
founders had established two institutions dedicated to forming
servants of the Word. What is today Concordia Seminary, St.
Louis, (CSL) was founded in December 1839 and Concordia
Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, (CTS) was established in
October 1846. This simple fact not only shows that the founders
wanted to continue historic Lutheran practice, it underscores
the importance that they placed on pastoral formation and the
need for pastors to be “apt to teach.”
The following notice appeared in a German-language
newspaper in St. Louis in the late summer of 1839:
We, the undersigned, intend to establish an institution
of instruction and education, which distinguishes
itself from the ordinary elementary school especially
by including, besides all the usual elementary studies,
all branches of a Gymnasium, which are requisite for
genuinely Christian and scientific education, such as:
Religion, the Latin, Greek, Geography, Mathematics,
Physics, Natural History, Fundamentals of Philosophy,
Music, Drawing. In the branches named the pupils at
our institution will be sufficiently advanced so that
after completion of a full course they will be prepared
for university studies. 2

This commitment was rooted, of course, in the Holy Scriptures.
St. Paul clearly communicated the qualifications one needed for
the pastoral office—especially his injunction that pastors be
“able to teach.” And here “able to teach” does not simply mean
pedagogical proficiency. It means being an informed, skilled,
and faithful confessor of Christ who properly distinguishes Law
and Gospel as he carries out his God-given pastoral vocation of
preaching the Word and administering the Sacraments.
1 Timothy 3:2, 2 Timothy 2:2, and 2 Timothy 2:24 have provided
the basic rationale for pastoral formation and, ultimately, the
establishment of theological seminaries for what we now
consider the “traditional” mode of preparing pastors. The
Scripture is clear on the requirements for pastoral candidates;
the question for Luther and his successors—including us—was
and is, how is formation for service in the name of Christ best
accomplished?

This was the foundation of what we know today as Concordia
Seminary, St. Louis. Despite its humble beginnings in rural
Perry County, Missouri, its program of studies was a rich one,
carried out by capable teachers, including C.F.W. Walther, later
president of Concordia Seminary.

Martin Luther, introduction to Spangenberg’s Postille of the Year
1542, vol. XIV, page 379ff. (from C.F.W. Walther, “Third Sermon at the
Synodical Convention,” trans. Everette W. Meier, in C.F.W. Walther,
Lutherische Brosamen: Predigten und Reden (Saint Louis: Druckerei der
Synode von Missouri, Ohio, u. a. Staaten, 1867), 11.
2
C. Ferd. W. Walther, Ottomar Fürbringer, Th. Jul. Brohm, Joh.
Fr. Bünger in the Anzeiger des Westens, August/September 1839. Cited

in Walter Forster, Zion on the Mississippi: The Settlement of the Saxon
Lutherans in Missouri 1839–1841 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing
House, 1953), 502. See also Carl S. Meyer, Moving Frontiers, 214.
3
Carl S. Meyer, From Log Cabin to Luther Tower: Concordia
Seminary During One Hundred and Twenty-five Years Toward a More
Excellent Ministry 1839–1964 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House,
1965), 9.

1

Special Presentations

At its inception, the institution was more a “school” than a
“seminary.” But in 1843 its curriculum was revised to
emphasize theological formation more intentionally. “The
scope of the original program was curtailed,” noted Carl Meyer.
“Now it was to be a preparatory school for those entering the
service of the church….” 3 By the time the institution moved to
St. Louis in 1850, it was a seminary in every sense of the term.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 (68TH) LCMS CONVENTION | 107