It has been a beehive of activity at our seminary since the last newsletter.

There was a graduation, we had several guest lecturers, whose reports are included. 

We’ve also received feedback from the Council of Higher Education regarding our application for accreditation.

Please keep the LTS in your prayers, as we navigate the accreditation process, which is almost done.

Thank you for all the support and prayers.

Click here to view or download the newsletter.

The post Newsletter 3,2023 appeared first on Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane.

My colleague, Dr. John Nordling and I travelled together to Johannesburg, South Africa on May 20-21, 2023 to teach two-week courses.

It was a privilege to return to LTS to teach an intensive term course on “The Pastor’s Devotional Life” for 23 students plus several pastors who audited the course. The course sought to help students discover the importance of the pastor’s own spiritual life in God’s Word and prayer as essential for faithful ministry. Among the topics covered in the lectures were:

• Prayer in the NT;
• “Prayer: Pre-Reformation to the Present” (K. Korby)
• Contemporary Spirituality vs Lutheran Faith
• Luther’s Oratio, Meditatio, and Tentatio
• “The Theology as Askesis” (O. Bayer)
• “Twenty Questions on the Relevance of Luther for Today” (O. Bayer)
• “Acedia” (St. Pietsch)
• “How the Pastor Cares for his own Soul” (B. Giertz)
• Praying the Psalms
• Praying Luther’s Small Catechism

In addition to teaching three hours each day, I preached for Matins on May 23 (John 17:1-11) and on May 30 (John 7:35-37). I also was the preacher on Pentecost Sunday at the English Lutheran Congregation of Acadia. On Pentecost afternoon, I led the youth group of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Pretoria in a study of “The Small Catechism as a Prayer Book.”

Due to the generosity of donors in the USA, I was able to bring 20 more copies of Luther’s Large Catechism with Annotations and Contemporary Applications for students and pastors. Now all of our current students have a personal copy of this book for use in classes and beyond. I was also able to bring 15 copies of Lutheran Preaching? Law and Gospel Proclamation Today for senior students. 1517 generously provided a number of their most recent publications for the library as well as some copies for individual students. Students who received What is Christianity? By Francis Pieper were especially appreciative of this brief monograph from 1517. I hope to bring copies for all students when I return in February.

While at the seminary, I had the opportunity to meet with interim Bishop David Tswaedi of St. Peter’s Confessional Lutheran Church and Bishop Davidson Wawo of Malawi who were visiting the LTS campus.

As is our custom, we concluded the two weeks with a braai. This time we were especially pleased to welcome to the braai, Pastor Jeff Skopak (Grace Lutheran Church, Jacksonville, FL) and pastoral colleagues from SELK, FELSISA, and LCSA as they were beginning a workshop on leadership.

Thanks to Dr. Heinz Hiestermann, Rev. Mintesinot Birru, other LTS staff members, and students who made the visit enjoyable. God willing it, I look forward to returning to LTS to teach again in February, 2024.

-John T. Pless

June 5, 2023

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The post Practicing to Preach appeared first on Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane.

I was privileged to return to LTS to teach a two-week intensive course on “Studies in Law and Gospel” for 35 students (both residential and visiting pastors). Primary text for the course was my book, Handling the Word of Truth: Law and Gospel in the Church Today. The generosity of donors made it possible to provide a copy of this book to each participant. The lectures engaged each of C.F.W. Walther’s theses on the proper distinction of God’s Law from His Gospel with a view toward preaching and pastoral care. We looked at examples of how Law and Gospel are confused in contemporary Christianity. Students provided incidents from their experience within African churches and we enjoyed lively and insightful classroom discussion on biblical, dogmatic, historical, and pastoral topics relating to the necessity of distinguishing Law and Gospel. Each student was required to write a sermon on an assigned text that would demonstrate his ability to distinguish Law and Gospel.

In addition to teaching I preached for morning chapel on March 3 and 10. I also preached at the Divine Service at the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Arcadia on the Second Sunday in Lent (March 8).

Rev. Stephen Preus of the St. Philip Mission Society travelled to South Africa this time. It was good to have him as a colleague teaching a course in hermeneutics.

Given a break in a water main that deprived the seminary of water for several days, I want to thank Dr. Heinz Hiestermann and his family for hosting me at their home from March 1-4. After the water was restored, I enjoyed staying in the newly renovated guest apartment. I’m grateful to St. Paul Lutheran Congregation in Pretoria for sponsoring this renovation.  Visiting professors now have comfortable, clean, safe, and accessible lodging on campus.

It was a special joy to see the completion of the library expansion and renovation. This project was completed with the fine support of the St. Philip Lutheran Mission Society. In addition to providing space for the growing collection of books, the facility includes a conference room, a work station for the library, and a comfortable setting for students to study. I want to especially acknowledge the expert work of our librarian, Mintesinot Birru who has organized the library and put in places measures to make sure that books are not stolen.

This trip I was able to bring several new volumes for the library including the new two-volume set, LSB: Companion to the Hymns and Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation. These volumes will be placed in the closed reserve section of the library. Numerous other new publications were brought for the general collection including books donated by 1517 Publications. Again I thank all donors for their contributions making these additions possible.

The library is still in need of the following volumes in the Concordia Commentary Series: Ephesians (Winger), John (Weinrich), Mark 8:27-16:8 (Voelz), I –IIJohn (Schuhard), I-II Kings (Maier), Galatians (Das), Romans (Middendorf), 2 Peter-Jude (Giese), Ecclesiastes (Bollhagen), Ezra-Nehemiah (Steinmann), Jonah (Lessing), and Amos (Lessing), Isaiah 40: 55 (Lessing), Ruth (Wilch). In addition we also need  The Pillar New Testament Commentary on Second Corinthians (Mark Seifrid) and The Pillar New Testament Commentary on the Letters to Timothy and Titus (Robert Yarbrough). If there are any donors wo could contribute these books, please contact me.

I want to thank our Rector, Dr. Carlos Winterle for this excellent leadership and kind hospitality. On Saturday, March 7, he drove Pastor Preus, Noah Müller (Oberursel student auditing my class), and me to Plainesberg National Park for an enjoyable day of watching a variety of animals native to South Africa. We are grateful that Dr. Winterle has now received a renewed visa making it possible for him to continue at the seminary. Under his leadership the seminary has moved forward.

I enjoyed a fine Sunday afternoon braai at the home of Pastor Siza Lugojolo in Johannesburg on March 7. On our last evening at LTS, I hosted a farewell braai for students and faculty. This has become something of a cherished tradition as we celebrate our work together.

I enjoyed lunch with Prof. Alwyn Swanepoel from the faculty of the Afrikaanse Protestantse Akademie located near our seminary. Prof. Swanepoel has been helpful in consulting with us as we move toward accreditation.

We left South Africa before the Covid-19 outbreak made an impact there. Just a few days after we left, the seminary had to close on account of the pandemic. It will remained closed until after Easter at the earliest. Deo volente, I will return to teaching an intensive course on pastoral counseling at LTS on July 27-August 7, 2020 and then staying on for a mission festival and pastors’ continuing education course in Wartburg. However, the pandemic make these plans tentative. When I checked the cost of an airline ticket to South Africa yesterday, the cost was over $4,000. That is more than double the price of a ticket. So we will need to wait and see if the prices come down and travel restrictions are lifted. Please keep this in your prayers.

I want to express a word of profound thanks to the donors –both individuals and congregations- whose gifts made this trip possible. Thank you!

I am grateful to God for the many teaching trips I’ve been permitted to make to South Africa since August of 2009 and I fervently pray that I might return there again in July.

John T. Pless, M.Div.; D.Litt.

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, IN USA

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