About a month ago, Dr. Detlev Schulz, Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions as well as Director of the Ph.D. in Missiology Program, attended the convention of the Free Evangelical Synod in South Africa (FELSISA) from September 13-16, bringing greetings on behalf of LCMS President, the Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison, and Director of Church Relations, the Rev. Dr. Al Colver. A partner church of the LCMS, FELSISA supports and cooperates with the Lutheran Church in Southern Africa, though it is “still very ‘German’ in character” (as the LCMS website describes the church body). Only a few of their congregations use English or Afrikaans only, with the majority worshiping primarily in German.
Dr. Schulz is on the very end of the far left, standing in the front row, and South Africa (and the German language) are both very familiar to him. He earned his B.A. in South Africa in 1984, his M.Div in Germany in 1988, and finally a Th.D. in Systematics from the St. Louis Seminary in 1990. Dr. Schulz has been on our faculty since the fall of 1998 (first guest lecturing in 1997), and if you are fortunate enough to hear him teach (or preach, which is more likely considering our daily chapel livestreams), you can still hear his accent.