One of my priorities as CTSFW president is to make annual visits to the universities of our Concordia University System (CUS). I’ve just completed my first round of visits, and they’ve been a highlight of my year. Let me tell you about the two most recent trips.
In February, I traveled to California with Rev. Matt Wietfeldt, our director of Admission, to spend a few days on the campus of Concordia University Irvine (CUI), and in the last week of March, we got to be with our friends at Concordia University, St. Paul (CSP). These visits brought us nothing but good news.
Enrollment in church work programs is up everywhere, and in the aggregate across the CUS, specifically pre-seminary enrollments have increased significantly. The pre-seminary students we’ve talked with this year, not just at CUI and CSP but also at Concordia University Chicago (CUC), Concordia University, Nebraska (CUNE), and Concordia University Wisconsin and Ann Arbor (CUWAA), are engaged and girding their loins for robust, faithful service in the parishes and missions of our Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS).
We need more pastors, and the church is ready to help. In the past few months, I’ve had great conversations with CTSFW supporters all over the country. Even as we’re busy back on campus executing our strategic plan (which you can read about in the current issue of For the Life of the World), people in our LCMS congregations are excited to offer their expertise, experience, prayers, advice, and financial support for the efforts CTSFW is undertaking to ensure that we can continue to educate and shape servants in Christ for faithful ministry and caring service for years to come.
It’s hard not to be optimistic about the work ahead, especially knowing that the Lord himself goes before us and is with us as we pursue our mission for the sake of his church.
We are especially mindful of this as we approach Holy Week. The same Lord Jesus who now goes before us has already gone before us. He has made our sin, death, and grave His, so that His holiness, resurrection, and eternal life may be made ours. God grant you His peace!
+ pax domini +
Jon S. Bruss President
Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne
JANUARY
Symposia Week (January 20–24) offered the usual array of thought-provoking theological papers but had lighter moments, too, including the after-dinner entertainment provided by Rev. Dr. Frederic "Fritz" Baue. Baue had President Bruss and other guests laughing throughout his performance of “Adiaphora.”
Dr. Bruss takes a photo at Colloquium sororum (“Conversation of the sisters”), which he offered in addition to his standing Colloquium fratrum when deaconess students were on campus for intensives in January. “Formation is always hands-on, and it’s a delight for me, even in my position, to continue to participate in shaping our students,” said President Bruss.
FEBRUARY
At Memorial Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas, celebrating the retirement of the Rev. Dr. Scott Murray, chairman of the CTSFW Board of Regents, after forty-one years in the pastoral ministry.
MARCH
Back to the whiteboard! Dr. Bruss teaches Greek on his visit to Concordia University, St. Paul.
During his visit to Minnesota in March, President Bruss made a side trip to Waconia for a conversation with Rev. Bryan Stecker, host of the podcast “On the Line.”
COMING SOON
Vicarage and Deaconess Assignment Service, April 28, 7 p.m.
Call Service, April 29, 7 p.m.
Livestream available at ctsfw.edu/callday and on the CTSFW Facebook and YouTube pages.
Founded in 1846, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, forms servants of Jesus Christ in a vibrant, Christ-centered theological community that engages and resources the church and the world, domestically and internationally, with distinctively Lutheran teaching, practice, and worship. To learn more, visit ctsfw.edu.
