Sem. Prof. Who Impacted Your Ministry?

[PrTim15]

William J Schmelder ... “I have heard so much about concerned Lutherans, as if they are more concerned than anybody else, don’t think that way.”

[Dan Fienen]

The great Gerhard Aho for homiletics, Harry Huth whose knowledge of the Confessions was encyclopedic, C. George Fry for some of the more interesting Systematic electives.

[GalRevRedux]

Walter Michel, who was my adviser and OT prof. He was amazing in his zeal for Scripture.

Leroy Norquist, who taught NT at that time at LSTC. he was a small man with a mild manner - and an enormous spirit, faith and intellect. The course he co-taught with Joseph Sittler was one of the great experiences of my life.

Frank Sherman, a great professor of ethics and who was a leader in Christian-Jewish dialogue.

Robert Fisher, from whom I learned Church History and polity.

Sorry the list is long, but Jim Scherer was so important to me also. We had shared experience as missionaries to Japan, though he of course had so many rich years of service. I learned so much from him!

Donna

[Dave Benke]

John F. Johnson who was a prof at Springfield, but prior to that was my confirmation pastor as well as instructor at Concordia Milwaukee, and who opened up to hundreds of us the wonder of God's grace in the Elements of Biblical Theology course.

Ralph Klein, Hebrew prof at Ft. Wayne Senior College and St. Louis Sem, who pushed and prodded a small group of us to search the Scriptures to plumb the depths of what it meant and what it means

Richard John Neuhaus, who taught a graduate seminar on how to be in pastoral ministry as an evangelical catholic priest every Wednesday evening at the rectory of St. John the Evangelist in Brooklyn.

Dave Benke

[John_Hannah]

I somehow forgot to mention Robert Bertram from whom I honed a deep seated understanding of Law/Gospel. Mea culpa, Bob.

Notable post seminary professors who influenced me greatly were John Tietjen on American Lutheran Unity.

Also Richard C. Wolf of Vanderbilt Divinity School on American Church history.

Peace, JOHN

[John_Hannah]

John F. Johnson who was a prof at Springfield, but prior to that was my confirmation pastor as well as instructor at Concordia Milwaukee, and who opened up to hundreds of us the wonder of God's grace in the Elements of Biblical Theology course.

Ralph Klein, Hebrew prof at Ft. Wayne Senior College and St. Louis Sem, who pushed and prodded a small group of us to search the Scriptures to plumb the depths of what it meant and what it means

Richard John Neuhaus, who taught a graduate seminar on how to be in pastoral ministry as an evangelical catholic priest every Wednesday evening at the rectory of St. John the Evangelist in Brooklyn.

Dave Benke

Richard John Neuhaus, who taught a graduate seminar on how to be in pastoral ministry as an evangelical catholic priest every Wednesday evening at the rectory of St. John the Evangelist in Brooklyn.

Yeah!!! Same here.

Peace, JOHN

[D. Engebretson]

Gerhard Aho was my primary homiletics prof. He instilled a discipline in me that took seriously how one approaches crafting a sermon in an organized fashion. Now as I teach homiletics for the SMP program years later, I know that it was his teaching that had the greatest impact on my work now.  I feel humbled, however, knowing that he was far more gifted in this area than I am. But I am thankful to have had him for most of my preaching courses even including one post-grad course.

Kurt Marquart and David Scaer shaped me in systematics.  I was grateful for the introduction to Sasse in Marquart's course that saved me in my first parish by helping me review the fundamentals of the Theology of the Cross.  Scaer taught me that exegesis and dogmatics go together.  The joke was that when you took him for a course it was always a version of a course on Matthew.  But how often do you open a Greek Bible in a systematics course?

The sainted John Seleska shaped my approach to pastoral theology with an approach that was deeply biblical even as we discussed psychology.

Art Just helped me understand the liturgy and influenced my love of its historic roots and meaning right into my post-graduate studies many years later. 

[Richard Johnson]

George Lindbeck, who taught me to love doctrine and to understand its importance.

Brevard Childs, who exuded a love and respect for the Bible as Scripture.

Sydney Ahlstrom, who sparked my interest in American church history.

Don Saliers, who showed me that it was OK for a Methodist to love the liturgy.

[Dave Likeness]

Dr. Fred Danker taught a Theology of the New Testament class which
was an opportunity to learn from an excellent N.T. scholar.

Dr. A.C. Piepkorn taught our Dogmatics class for 2 of the 3 quarters.
He made Pieper come alive and added doctrinal insights along the way.

Dr. Robert Bertram taught two required Church Histor courses.  He
expected us to be able to debate the turning points in the life of the
church.

Along with George Hoyer, these three men above made an impact on  me
at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.

[Michael Slusser]

Odd for me to chip in here, though I did take courses from three Lutheran professors at Luther Seminary. But the biggest impression on me was made by Prof. John Reumann, who taught NT at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. We worked closely together for a few years in the Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue, round X, and I came to admire greatly both his scholarship and his integrity.

Peace,
Michael

[therevev]

Jeff Gibbs: He made it clear that the pastor needs to know the text in unity and not just in pericope.
Ron Feuerhahn: The sherry at his home was always a wonderful bridge between being students and colleagues.
I had Norman Nagel for one class and I appreciated it a great deal. I also felt like a I was drinking from a fire hose.
Not on any other list yet, Paul Raabe's course on Amos taught me how to read the Old Testament with a desire to understand the prophet's context.

[Pastor Ken Kimball]

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

1983-1987.  I was TALC (from the ELC part of that 1960 merger and curiously or unsurprisingly enough, the two congregations I've served for the last 26 1/2 years were both ELC; I suppose it's the church culture I knew best).  Anyway, it was an interesting exposure to the handful of profs from the Northwestern side of things.  My sense (but never took a count) was that most of my fellow sem students also came from TALC.  Glad to know we shared a common enjoyment of those Friday afternoons with Roy and Norma, though we didn't get to do it simultaneously.   

[pastorg1@aol.com]

Dr. Goeser who taught me the drama of the chalkboard while discussing Augustine and Luther.

Peter (If you’re not excited your students aren’t either) Garrison

[peter_speckhard]

I would say I had good professors generally in the sense that I learned the content of their courses well enough, and in many cases enjoyed the way they were taught. I liked Voelz's style and also played in the afternoon pickup soccer games he organized and a time or sat with him at Freddy Froghammer's for a Packer game. I liked Feuerhahn and the perspective he brought, as well as Brighton and his passion, especially his class on Revelation. I had Rossow for homiletics and he was in my vicarage congregation, so I know he and I saw eye-to-eye on preaching and how to bring literature and creativity to the task. I still say, "Fair enough," all the time having taken classes from Bartelt. But even listing these few names feels like leaving people off the list, because I could probably say something about every prof I had, and I can't really say of any one or few of them, "That was my mentor." I took whatever they had to offer.

I think I came to seminary without much perspective, so it never occurred to me that my professor was emphasizing something in particular that another professor might not emphasize, or bringing some personal insight or theological genius to the table that wasn't in the textbook. I didn't have the wherewithal to disagree with much of anything, or even anything else to compare it to. I took the classes as "This is what the people on the clergy roster believe, teach, and confess." So be it. It was only later, really in my last year of seminary and in contact with contrary viewpoints through ongoing education and reading that I started to see differences in emphasis and to be able to locate myself in relation to others. I think that gave me a solid theological platform from which to practice and apply what I had learned and engage with contrary teachings and practices. It wasn't until my last semester, after long talks with Paul Bretscher and some correspondence with people like Ed Schroeder that I started to really understand the nuances of the issues and why their views were incompatible with what I had been taught. I still have a big drawer full of snail mail correspondence with Paul Bretscher from about 20-25 years ago.

[Steven W Bohler]

Since the question was which seminary professor(s) that impacted one's ministry, and since vicarage supervisors were/are technically considered "adjunct instructors", I would say David Anderson, who supervised me as a vicar.  I learned much more about the practical and day-to-day work of a pastor from him than from the resident instructors (as wonderful as they were!).  The lessons I learned from him are used daily.