TRIP REPORT TEACHING AT LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, TSHWANE, SA (May 20-June 3, 2023)
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
