The Reverend Dr. Carl C. Fickenscher II is Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions at Concordia Theological Seminary, teaching primarily in the area of homiletics.

Dr. Fickenscher received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Southern Methodist University in May 1976 and a Master of Business Administration there as well in August 1978. After working in business and politics, he earned his Master of Divinity degree from Concordia Theological Seminary in May 1984. Dr. Fickenscher pursued his doctoral degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, receiving the PhD in Homiletics from that institution in May 1996, making him the first man in the LCMS to hold a PhD in this field.

Dr. Fickenscher is editor of Concordia Pulpit Resources, the synod’s preaching journal published by Concordia Publishing House, and chairman of the LCMS Preach the Word project, celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. He has published numerous articles, essays, sermons, and curricular pieces, receiving an award from Concordia Historical Institute in 2012 for a series of articles on the preaching of C. F. W. Walther, has edited CPH’s Faith Alive Bible (a study Bible for youth), and was a theological consultant on the current CPH Sunday School curriculum Growing in Christ. His new book for CPH, Looking Forward to Sunday Morning, is due out soon.

From 2011 until 2019 Dr. Fickenscher was a member of the LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations. Earlier he represented the Synod on its dialogue panel with the ELCA. He formerly served as chairman of the Society of Concordia Theological Faculties and on the board of Higher Things (LCMS youth organization), including two terms as its vice president. In 2005 he traveled for LCMS World Relief to areas of India and Indonesia stricken by the tsunami and subsequent earthquakes. He was also an essayist at the 2001 Synod convention, the 2003 Pieper Lectures, district conventions in 2006, 2009, and 2012, and the North European Luther Academy in Varberg, Sweden, in 2009; is a strong supporter of the sanctity of human life, including as a district pastoral advisor for Lutherans for Life; is a frequent speaker for conferences, retreats, and workshops; and is a regular guest on Issues, Etc. (including the weekly show, “Looking Forward to Sunday Morning”), KFUO Studio A, and Table Talks radio programs, having guested also on The Lutheran Hour and on Point of Truth television.

Pastor Fickenscher served Messiah Lutheran Church in Midland, Michigan, from August 1984 to March 1989. He then accepted a call to Peace Lutheran Church in Garland, Texas, where he served from March 1989 until accepting a call to the seminary in July 1999. At their present congregation, St. Paul Lutheran in Fort Wayne, Dr. Fickenscher and his wife, Claire, together have been Sunday School superintendents and youth counselors and currently chair the evangelism board. Even more importantly, they are the very proud parents of Rachel (a deaconess who graduated from CTSFW and served with Lutherans for Life), Daniel (also a CTSFW graduate doing most of his pastoral ministry in Spanish and married to Taylor, a CTSFW deaconess, too), and Gabriel (a recent LCMS GEO missionary to Slovakia and the Czech Republic now on the staff of an LCMS school), and the very, very proud grandparents of Augustana, Simeon, and Magdalena Geraci (children of Rachel and her husband Rev. Coleman Geraci).