Donation Day 2018

The Annual Donation Day is an incredible gift to the Seminary. Begun in the 1900s during the early Springfield days, Donation Day is instrumental in stocking and providing gifts to the Food & Clothing Co-op, which both feeds and clothes our students and their families at no cost to these future church workers and their spouses and children.
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To give you an idea of the kind of generosity we’re talking about, click on the following graphic of the incredible amounts of food both gifted and purchased by gift from July 2017 to June 2018. We’re talking nearly 50,000 pounds of food (49,130 when you take into account the fact that the two butchered cows provided about 1,000 pounds of beef), which still doesn’t take into account the weight of milk, bread, eggs, all the unknown poundage donated from farms, and the money spent in grocery stores for additional items (canned food, medicine, diapers, etc.).

Some additional items missing from this list are 2,000+ dozen eggs; an unknown poundage of farm produce; 50 weeks of bread and treats from Panera and Kroger (equaling about $650/week).
Katherine Rittner, Director of the Co-ops, speaks after chapel, thanking the Seminary Guild and the LWML.

“You provide for the bodily needs of the students with generosity,” said Katherine Rittner, Director of the Co-ops, speaking to the women of the Seminary Guild and the LWML visitors. “We thank God for you every day and ask that you continue to support the students, faculty, and staff by keeping us in your daily prayers.”

The Student Association President, fourth-year Paul Gaschler, extended a thank you on behalf of the whole student body, for both those living in the dorms and those living off-campus. He has experienced both (spending the first two years of seminary in the dorms as a single student before he married during vicarage), and on his own account thanked the LWML mission grant that paid for laundry (one of the many often overlooked expenses of a life in higher ed, but one which is covered for our students because of the LWML), and the Clothing Co-op, which provided 90% of the furniture and appliances for him and his new wife that would have otherwise cost them hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

Donation Day is in part a time for the day’s visitors to drop off donations (there was a long line of cars outside of the drop-off donation area this morning from the 80+ attendees using the time to drop off the items they’d gathered from their own churches and congregations), and on another part a chance to thank these ladies. Phyllis Thieme, President of the Seminary Guild, is pictured on the right, stepping up to the podium to address the room of about 80 women (with a few men in attendance as well). During lunch they were treated to a “fashion show” in which the wives and children of seminarians walked the room, showing off the clothing that came from the Co-op. Dr. Zieroth then served as keynote speaker.

The fashion-show models. It was also a good chance for the Donation Day attendees to get to know some more about the families they were serving — Katherine Rittner described who they were (including what the kids loved to do and wanted to be when they grew up; I believe a multilingual spy was among them, as was a hopeful future deaconess) as they walked through the tables.

Deaconess Placements

Three deaconess placements were announced at the end of chapel today. They are (pictured left to right):

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Brittany Baumgartner to Chugiak, AK; Our Redeemer Lutheran Church (Northwest District)

Rachel Geraci to St. Louis, MO; Lutherans for Life, Nevada, IA (Iowa District West)

Christina Gillet to Wheeler, IL; Lutherans for Life, Nevada, IA (Central Illinois District)
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“These days are a source of great joy for us,” Dr. Bushur, Director of Deaconess Formation, said, “as they represent the fruition of the most fundamental mission of this Seminary; namely, to send out servants of Jesus Christ who teach the faithful, reach the lost, and care for all.”
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These deaconesses will be working with congregations to meet specific needs in their communities. Rachel Geraci (pictured here caring, as she put it, “for the least of these:” aka her daughter on the occasion of her Baptism), for example, has been called as the Mission and Ministry Director at Lutherans for Life. “I help to encourage Lutheran pastors and laypeople alike to start Life Teams and to be ‘Gospel-Motivated Voices For Life’ where God has planted them,” she explained. “By providing resources and tons of encouragement, I strive to equip Lutherans to speak about life issues in the same way God does so in His Word.”
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Dr. Bushur concluded his announcement with a call to prayer. “Indeed, the announcement of these placements, as always, must be accompanied by our prayers that our Lord would bless our students, these congregations, institutions, and their pastors as they now together fulfill their service to Christ.”

Convocation: Life Issues (Abortion)

During today’s convocation, Dr. William Lile, OB/GYN from Florida, spoke on the topic of life issues as they pertain to abortion. Dr. Lile has served as both Chair of a hospital and instructor at a university and in a medical school. From his website www.prolifedoc.org:

“In 1999 he took over a practice that was also the largest provider of abortion services in Pensacola. All abortion services and abortion referrals were stopped on day 1. The abortionist retired and left the country. The abortion equipment is now used to demonstrate the brutality of abortions performed in all 3 trimesters. The tools of modern obstetrics are used to demonstrate the life and personhood of the unborn. Babies in the womb are viewed as patients, abortion is never the right ‘choice’, and forgiveness is available to ALL through the blood of Jesus Christ.”

He spoke on the subject especially in light of the fact that the preborn (as he refers to babies in the womb) are viewed and treated, in his profession, as patients. If they’re patients, then that means they’re persons. And if a person, then they deserve protection.

Dr. Lile was born into a Christian family, whose parents taught him pro-life values. After he finished his residency, the OB/GYN took over a practice in the Pensacola area that also quietly operated as the largest provider of abortion services in the area, and had since the 70s.

From that day, the abortions stopped. There was no major backlash in the community (much like the concentrations camps in WWII, people turn their eyes away and do not look), and he realized that many people didn’t know what was going on behind those doors, once you walked up the stairs to the second floor. He now uses the equipment left behind to demonstrate the brutality of abortion.

Though his most well-known presentations involve these demonstrations (his first presentation was at his own church, but now he’s a nationally renowned speaker and his YouTube videos have hundreds of thousands views, which you can find by searching for “Lile abortion” and “abortion demonstration”), today he spoke primarily on chemical abortions and, borrowing from Dr. Seuss, that “A patient’s a person no matter how small.”

Chemical abortions are largely unreported, which he calculated amounted to 20% of abortions that are being done. The two main abortifacients are RU486 (a progesterone blocker which, by blocking the hormone that tells your body it’s pregnant, induces a menstrual cycle), and methotrexate, which is used in the treatment of cancer to attack rapidly dividing cells. It is 98% effective.

Reversals are now possible for both of these chemicals. So far, over 100 abortions have been reversed by flooding the body with progesterone following the ingestion of RU486, and a paper has been published and accepted on the findings, which means that ERs can now tell patients about the reversal option if they come in and ask for an abortion reversal.

As to the methotrexate, only four reversals have been done in the world. Dr. Lile performed one of them. An engaged couple were talked into an abortion after going to Planned Parenthood for advice, and both were hit with deep regret as soon as they got back to their car. The young woman was a nursing student, and when they got home she immediately began googling abortion reversal and was then connected to Dr. Lile (who lived in their area) through the website www.abortionpillreversal.com. He called around to the pharmacies in the area, and finally found one carrying the drug he needed.

When he explained the dosage and directions, the pharmacist suddenly got suspicious. “Are you trying to reverse an abortion?”

He hesitated, but decided he needed to be bold. “Yes I am.”

“Oh sweetie, I’m going to take care of her.”

He wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but the young woman got her prescription just fine. The next day, when she spoke with him, she explained that he had sent her to the strangest pharmacy she had ever gone to. The pharmacist had come out from behind the counter and given her a hug. “And,” the young woman added, “the pharmacist had paid for the medication herself.”

Dr. Lile then spoke on the treatment of the preborn, which makes them patients and thus persons. This isn’t new; prenatal testing began in the 60s, not to look for reasons to abort but to diagnose problems and treat them. Now the medical capabilities are incredible. These include prenatal blood transfusions, intrauterine medications (injected directly into the amniotic fluid so as not to affect the mother), and fetal cardiac surgery at 20-22 weeks gestation.

In fact, if a doctor fails to diagnose these developmental issues in the preborn, then he can be sued for millions of dollars for failing to save the baby. So clearly there is recognized value there.

Delayed Interval Delivery. It has happened that two identical twins were born months apart – one in June and the other in August (early delivery, had to live in the NICU; kept the other baby in mother’s womb, which is an even better, more effective NICU; “It’s not ‘your body,’” Dr. Lile pointed out. “’Your body’ is an amazing life support system” for another’s.).

But according to Washington D.C. and the eight states that do not put a cap on gestational age for abortions, one identical twin has rights and protections while the other doesn’t. Because of location, the purposefully caused death of one twin would be murder, and the other a legal termination of a pregnancy.

Dr. Lile took questions after the presentation. Dr. Fickenscher asked how his fellow doctors could perform surgery with one hand and abortions with the other, as is so often the case.

“You’ve got to have a cold heart,” Dr. Lile answered. “It’s not a choice. It’s a spiritual battle.” It’s not the first time in the history of the world that we’ve sacrificed children on the altars of idols. ““Why do I do this?” he added, speaking of his presentations and his passion for the pro-life movement. “Because it’s my peers performing these abortions.”

Dr. Grobien asked what the church’s future workers could do – her pastors and deaconesses – to assist in the battle.

“Talk about it in church,” he said, finding that many people have never heard their pastor speak about abortion from the pulpit. Since it’s a spiritual battle, he spoke on how our weapon in this fight is the Word of God. He also touched on a life apologetics course for men (to both minister to their own losses as well as to educate and train them as they are meant to be the defenders), which he held in Pensacola. Dr. Lile’s main message:

Is abortion a sin? Yes.
Is it an unforgivable sin? No.

A man came up to him afterwards, to tell the story of his first grandchild. Years ago the man had taken his pregnant, 17-year-old daughter to the clinic (in fact, the very clinic which Dr. Lile later took over) for an abortion. He briefly saw his first grandchild on the ultrasound, a sight which did not stop him from paying to terminate the pregnancy, but one which has haunted him since.

His first grandchild and, as it turns out, his only grandchild. “Oh, I have paid for it,” he said to Dr. Lile. Since then he’d also felt that he could never go to God to ask for forgiveness because it was such a vile sin. But that simple, scriptural message (Is it unforgivable? No.) drove him to repentance. His burden was lifted.

“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
(Esther 4:14)
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Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me…

Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
(Psalm 51:5, 9-12)

Prof. Ryan Tietz Earns PhD

Dr. Ryan Tietz teaches a class.

On August 30, the Rev. Professor Ryan M. Tietz became Dr. Tietz, successfully defending his dissertation “The Deliberately Delayed Eschatological Vision: The Hermeneutical and Theological Function of Isaiah 30” and earning his doctorate from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. In his dissertation he argued that Isaiah 30 functions as a mirror text for the tension in the delay of salvation, especially in Isaiah 30:18:

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.

Dr. Tietz’s interest in Isaiah goes back to his days as a seminarian, when he took a course on Isaiah 1-39 and discovered how “horribly complex” it is. “I’m convinced Isaiah is bad for your spiritual health,” Dr. Tietz said. “The moment I think I know what’s going on, I discover something new was meant. But seriously, I enjoy getting into the vividness and complexity of Isaiah and his eschatology. One of my biggest interests is how Isaiah moves us from creation to the new creation, and the tension of what it means to wait for God. Frankly,” he added, “that’s what I love about what I do.”

The Assistant Professor of Exegetical Theology first came to Concordia Theological Seminary (CTSFW), Fort Wayne, in 2015. He had been working in Chicago as an interim pastor and adjunct professor at Concordia University Chicago, teaching courses in Theology and Hebrew, when Academic Dean Rev. Dr. Charles A. Gieschen asked if he’d be open to an interview at the Seminary. He’s not the only one who’s happy he said yes. “He’s been a wonderful teacher in Old Testament as well as colleague,” Dr. Gieschen said of Dr. Tietz. “Along with the entire faculty, I rejoice in his successful completion of this Ph.D. program and am confident that his exemplary academic achievements will bear much fruit that will benefit our students and the wider church for many years to come.”

To learn more about Dr. Tietz and to view some of his written work, as well as recordings of his lectionary podcasts and other presentations, click HERE. For more information about all the faculty serving at CTSFW, visit www.ctsfw.edu/faculty.


When writing a news release, a common difficulty is having to edit out some of the details in order to make it fit into a shorter format. On this occasion, I had to cut out much of my short interview with Dr. Tietz on his newly earned PhD. Here’s some of the interview that didn’t make the cut:
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Why did you become a pastor?
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“For the longest time I was convinced I was going to be a lawyer. But I’ve always had an interest in human care and service. Then while studying for my M.Div.” at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis “I was convinced I would do Chinese mission ministry. Then I fell into hospital chaplaincy.”
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Why did you come to work at CTSFW?
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(Laughs) “Because I never wanted to. No sooner was I comfortable at Chicago River Forest when out of nowhere I got an email from Dr. Gieschen asking me to do an interview.”
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He went on (my notes here get a little choppy):
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“It’s been a fun discovery. The academic integrity. In the first year/first faculty meeting I remember thinking ‘What am I doing here?’ Surviving the learning curve was hard. But I couldn’t be happier. I’m still surprised. I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I’ve been spoiled rotten. Five years ago I would have laughed if someone told me I was going to be working at CTS and that I’d like it.”
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What is your favorite thing about teaching at CTSFW?
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“Bridging the gap between Old Testament exegesis and pastoral care. I still think of myself as a hospital chaplain.” Note: here in Fort Wayne Dr. Tietz does hospital visits once a month through his local church, Emmanuel. “It’s one thing to do academic theology and another to do practical. We had a discussion in class the other day: how do I preach justice issues? How do I have that conversation in a congregation?”

Collegial Conversation: Leadership & Authority

President Rast held a Collegial Conversation today following chapel. The Collegial Conversations are a quarterly convocation for all MDiv, AR, and deaconess students, in which the president speaks on a topic that will affect students after they leave the Seminary. For the opening quarter of this academic year, Dr. Rast presented on leadership and authority, shaping his talk around the verses of LSB 718:
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“Jesus, lead Thou on
Till our rest is won.
Heav’nly leader, still direct us,
Still support, console, protect us,
Till we safely stand
In our fatherland.”
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Dr. Rast pointed out that, for future deaconesses and pastors, “It’s not ‘will I be a leader’ but ‘what kind of leader will I be.’” His practical advice? “Be intentional about it. Use the style that best fits you and don’t fall into the temptation of falling back on authority.” (Such as, “You must listen to me because I am the pastor/deaconess/etc.”) “As soon as you make that statement,” Dr. Rast declared, “your authority is shot because you’ve gone the way of the law.”
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Always the historian (besides his role as President of CTSFW, he also serves as Professor of Historical Theology), Dr. Rast looked back at the 1519 Leipzig Debate to use Martin Luther’s words for where authority rightly comes from; That, “A simple layman armed with Scripture is to be believed above a pope or a council without it.”
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“And, I would add,” Dr. Rast immediately appended, “a pastor or a deaconess.”
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Two years later, in April of 1521, Luther would give his famous Here-I-Stand speech at the Imperial Diet in Worms, again on the issue of authority. “Since your most serene majesty and your high mightinesses require of me a simple, clear and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is as clear as noonday that they have fallen into error and even into glaring inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God’s word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise; God help me! Amen.”
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“Ask yourself,” Dr. Rast went on, speaking of times when leadership and authority is called into question in a ministerial or service setting: “what’s at stake? Me? Or the Word of God? So be very wise.”
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He ended on the Word, and the promises given to us in Jesus Christ; those same promises of mercy, grace, and peace carried by pastors and deaconesses into the world. “God works in and through us, in all the seasons of our lives,” Dr. Rast said. “That’s leadership – to understand your place, your gifts, and the gifts He has given to others. And through it all the Lord’s promise remains true: ‘I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”
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After the half-hour talk (only shallowly summarized here), the students got together with their faculty mentors over lunch to discuss the topic of leadership and authority further in light of their unique roles as future pastors and deaconesses.

 

Saarinen’s Legacy

Professor Roethemeyer, Director of our library and Associate Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions, was invited to participate in a National Symposium on Design, Community, and Preservation in Columbus, Indiana, on September 27-28. A highlight for him was the opportunity to meet and interact with Eero Saarinen’s son and daughter, Eric and Susan. Professor Roethemeyer is pictured to the right of the Saarinen siblings at North Christian Church in Columbus, a church designed by their father.

Though most famous as the architect of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, we know Eero Saarinen more familiarly as the designer of our own award-winning Concordia campus. Dedicated sixty years ago on May 20, 1958, our chapel is one of five sacred buildings designed by the Saarinen family. Eliel Saarinen (Eero’s father) designed First Christian Church in Columbus, IN, dedicated in 1942, and Christ Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, MN in 1949. Eero also designed a church (North Christian Church in Columbus, IN in 1964, where this picture was taken) as well as two chapels: one at MIT in Cambridge, MA in 1955 and the other our own Kramer Chapel at Concordia Senior College (now CTSFW) in 1958.
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The two chapels by Eero are notable for their simplicity of design. The chapel at MIT is in the shape of a cylinder, giving us architecturally the circle and theologically eternity. The chapel at CTSFW is architecturally a triangle and theologically symbolizes the Trinity.
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Art, design, and creativity continues to run in the family. Eric Saarinen is a cinematographer and film director. He is the director of photography and co-producer of the award-winning documentary, “Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future.” Released this past December in the PBS American Masters series, the documentary explores the life and visionary work of Finnish-American modernist architectural giant Eero Saarinen. Now Eric is working on a documentary project that explores the work of his grandfather, Eliel Saarinen.
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Susan Saarinen is an artist, designer, and artisan comfortable working in many different media. She holds degrees in Fine Arts (weaving and ceramics) and Landscape Architecture. Her firm, Saarinen Landscape Architecture, concentrates on environmentally appropriate projects. She is presently writing her memoirs.‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍


(With thanks to Professor Roethemeyer for writing today’s post.)