Sem. Prof. Who Impacted Your Ministry?

[Dave Likeness]

Most parish pastors usually have one or two Seminary Professors who impacted
their pastoral ministry.  You might want to share the name of that professor.

For me, it was Professor George Hoyer who taught Homiletics at Concordia, St. Louis
He made a Gospel distinction between merely reciting the facts of Christ's birth, public
ministry, death and resurrection and proclaiming the power of Christ in our dally lives.
We need to do both in our preaching from the pulpit.

Yes, the Crucified Christ forgives my sins.  The Resurrected Christ shares His victory
over death with me.  Christ strengthens my faith.  Christ speaks to me on the pages
of Holy Scripture, Christ gives me His body and blood in Holy Communion.  Christ hears
my prayers.  Christ guides my life.  Christ empowers me to do His Will

[Dave Benke]

Most parish pastors usually have one or two Seminary Professors who impacted
their pastoral ministry.  You might want to share the name of that professor.

For me, it was Professor George Hoyer who taught Homiletics at Concordia, St. Louis
He made a Gospel distinction between merely reciting the facts of Christ's birth, public
ministry, death and resurrection and proclaiming the power of Christ in our dally lives.
We need to do both in our preaching from the pulpit.

Yes, the Crucified Christ forgives my sins.  The Resurrected Christ shares His victory
over death with me.  Christ strengthens my faith.  Christ speaks to me on the pages
of Holy Scripture, Christ gives me His body and blood in Holy Communion.  Christ hears
my prayers.  Christ guides my life.  Christ empowers me to do His Will

"God, comma, vocative."  Had him for one of the worship courses.

Dave Benke

[Jeremy Loesch]

In no real particular order: Jeff Gibbs, Henry Rowold, Lou Brighton, Norman Nagel, Ron Feuerhahn, Bob Weise.

What did I learn?
Gibbs- devotion to the text
Rowold- devotion to the text and imagination with the text
Brighton- energy from the text; Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
Nagel- Everything is a gift; You can't do math with the Trinity; You get the whole lot; Vegemite is pretty good on toast.
Feuerhahn- older Christians, deceased Christians, they knew quite a lot about Jesus that we overlook.  The ecumenical movement is good but eyes have to be opened when they are talking.  Sherry is for people way more sophisticated than me.
Weise- Learn stuff.  Don't be afraid to be smart.  But never think you are smarter than anyone else. 

If I can go back to college, there were two professors there- Tom Gieschen and Tom Faszholz.
Dr. Gieschen was the Kapelle conductor, super organized, funny, compassionate, a firm hand with a light touch.
Coach Faz was a gentle spirit, fun loving, good to his players, loved, had expectations.

Jeremy

[Dave Benke]

In no real particular order: Jeff Gibbs, Henry Rowold, Lou Brighton, Norman Nagel, Ron Feuerhahn, Bob Weise.

What did I learn?
Gibbs- devotion to the text
Rowold- devotion to the text and imagination with the text
Brighton- energy from the text; Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
Nagel- Everything is a gift; You can't do math with the Trinity; You get the whole lot; Vegemite is pretty good on toast.
Feuerhahn- older Christians, deceased Christians, they knew quite a lot about Jesus that we overlook.  The ecumenical movement is good but eyes have to be opened when they are talking.  Sherry is for people way more sophisticated than me.
Weise- Learn stuff.  Don't be afraid to be smart.  But never think you are smarter than anyone else. 

If I can go back to college, there were two professors there- Tom Gieschen and Tom Faszholz.
Dr. Gieschen was the Kapelle conductor, super organized, funny, compassionate, a firm hand with a light touch.
Coach Faz was a gentle spirit, fun loving, good to his players, loved, had expectations.

Jeremy

Faszholz, it is said, could have played in the NBA but chose the higher calling.

Dave Benke

[Charles Austin]

In no particular order:
Horace Hummel, for what he taught us about J, E, D, and P as sources for the Pentateuch and what he taught us about history in Old Testament times. For years, I kept the notes from his OT class near at hand.
Carl Braaten, who had us read Tillich and the "newer guys" who taught me what systematics was about.
H. Grady Davis, homiletics professor who I admired because of his love for the Word and the words we use to preach. Our class voted to have him preach at our graduation.
Walter Kukkonen and Robert Fischer, for what they taught us about the confessions and Reformation history.

[peterm]

Great topic!  I took many classes from Forde and Nestingen simply because they were a powerful combination together, though with very different approaches.  I would also include Roy Harrisville in the group of influential professors because he helped us/ forced us to dive into the Greek in his NT classes, and not be afraid of it.  He also held informal seminars at his home on Friday afternoons where he and the students would kick around and debate about theology over coffee and cookies

At the college level I would include Phil Quanbeck, long time head of the religion department at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, who broke open for me the Law/Gospel distinctions

[Weedon]

Mine:

Dr. Norman Nagel (Systems, though he would say “Dogmatics.”)
Dr. Horace Hummel (Exegetical, and particularly for the Christological typological read of the Old Testament)
Prof. Jerry Eickmann (Systems, for teaching the actual dogmatic CONTENT of the Lutheran Confessions and not obsessing on rhetorical forms and such)
Dr. George Robert (Historical, for engendering a great love of the fathers)

[RDPreus]

Three professors who had the most influence on me were Robert Preus, Kurt Marquart, and David Scaer.  They were kind and pastoral men who taught their students to love Lutheran theology.  Nobody gave me better encouragement as a seminarian and as a young pastor than my father, Robert Preus.   

[John_Hannah]

Arthur Carl Peipkorn is at the top of my list. A strict confessionallist who knew the place of Lutheranism in the midst of all the competing Christian denominations without treating them negatively. Excellent at understanding liturgy as evangelization.

Hermann Sasse, visiting professor, had a rich grasp of theology through the turmoils of the 19th and 20th century drawing on all 20 centuries of Christian theology.

George Hoyer tied preaching to liturgy and religious education marvelously.

Fred Danker deepened my appreciation for the NT (Nestle).

Peace, JOHN

[RDPreus]

Most parish pastors usually have one or two Seminary Professors who impacted
their pastoral ministry.  You might want to share the name of that professor.

For me, it was Professor George Hoyer who taught Homiletics at Concordia, St. Louis
He made a Gospel distinction between merely reciting the facts of Christ's birth, public
ministry, death and resurrection and proclaiming the power of Christ in our dally lives.
We need to do both in our preaching from the pulpit.

Yes, the Crucified Christ forgives my sins.  The Resurrected Christ shares His victory
over death with me.  Christ strengthens my faith.  Christ speaks to me on the pages
of Holy Scripture, Christ gives me His body and blood in Holy Communion.  Christ hears
my prayers.  Christ guides my life.  Christ empowers me to do His Will

George Hoyer's wife, Dorothy, was my kindergarten teacher.

[Charles Austin]

George Hoyer’s son came into the ELCA and was my pastor in Maywood, New Jersey. He was an excellent preacher and Anglophile liturgist, and it was a joy to assist him at worship. He always invited me to help him in festival seasons.

[Dave Likeness]

Professor George Hoyer was genuinely interested in each seminarian's approach
to homiletics.  We would write sermons to be analyzed and graded by him.  Then
he would make copies of them for the entire class to analyze.  There was never a
dull moment in his classes.  Peter Hoffmann. the son of Lutheran Hour Speaker,
Dr. Oswald Hoffmann. was in my homiletics class.   Yet Prof. Hoyer treated him
just like the rest of us.

[George Rahn]

Robert Bertram and Ed Schroeder, who both deepened my understanding of the content in the Lutheran Confessions.  Both also gave me insight on a different way of approaching ethics via the Erlangen tradition and Werner Elert.  Ethics is based on the impact of law and Gospel upon the person rather than the Kantian method of applying values to situations outside of the prior impact. 

[Pastor Ken Kimball]

Gracia Grindal for preaching.   Walter Sundberg, church history. Mark Throntveit for Hebrew and Old Testament.  Roy Harrisville Jr., Romans and Galatians.  Roy was also my adviser and I rarely missed one of his and Norma's Friday afternoon coffee and cookies gatherings at their place during my time at LNTS (as it was initialed in those days).  Roy was a masterful and entertaining story-teller and a living repository of ELC (not ELCA, but the ELC and its predecessor Norwegian bodies) history.  He had been pastor to relatives of mine when he served in Mason City, Iowa. 

[peterm]

When were you at LNTS?  Technically I graduated from the last LNTS class in 94