Sithole Archives - Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane

LCSA Lay Leader Training

LTS Admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 07:00:01 +0000

LTS, together with the LCSA, is offering a lay leader training course to interested laity of the LCSA Mpumalanga diocese from 15-18 July 2025 in the scenic Lüneburg congregation. The first unit covers some basic topics: Introduction into Church Leadership, Old and New Testament Survey, Teaching Luther’s Small Catechism, the History of the LCSA, and Liturgy. The topics are presented by three LTS lecturers: Bishop Dr S.E. Sithole, Dr R. Ntsimane, and Rector Hiestermann. The Lüneburg congregation (FELSISA) is generously providing meals, accommodation, and transport for the 39 participants. We thank them for their generosity! The plan is to offer the same course in the other LCSA dioceses soon, and follow it up with more detailed courses.

Dr. Radikobo Ntsimane

Participants

The Lüneburg Church

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Installation of Bishop Sithole

LTS Admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 07:11:22 +0000

In a festive and joyful service at Salem parish near Piet Retief, Dr Sibongiseni Elliot Sithole was installed at new bishop of the Lutheran Church of Southern Africa (LCSA). Bishop Sithole joined the LTS faculty fulltime in January 2024. He will continue serving as lecturer of Old Testament studies. LTS was represented at the installation by rector Hiestermann, registrar Hanfato, Rev. Huf (who spoke a word of greeting in the name of the LCMS), and some students, who undertook the five hour drive from Pretoria to Salem. The LCSA is the majority shareholder of our seminary.

We are grateful that Bishop Sithole will continue teaching at our seminary, and we wish him the Lord’s richest blessings for his new role in the church!

In the service, LTS graduate Julias Khumalo, who graduated in November 2023, was ordained into the office of holy ministry. We also wish him the Lord’s blessing in serving the LCSA as pastor.

The church was packed

Bishop Sithole being installed by former bishop Maragelo

Rector Hiestermann

Two former LTS graduates (left: Pastor Given Masemola, right: Rev. Julias Khumalo, who was ordained during the service).

Second row (Rev. Huf)

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Dr Sithole elected LCSA bishop

LTS Admin — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 06:03:55 +0000

Dr Sibongiseni Elliot Sithole has been elected as new bishop of the Lutheran Church of Southern Africa at its Synodical Convention in December 2024. His installation is planned for 23 February 2025 in Salem. Dr Sithole has been serving as part-time lecturer at LTS for many years, and joined the seminary faculty full-time in January 2024. He will continue teaching at LTS where he leads the Old Testament studies. We wish him God’s richest blessings for his new role as bishop!

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Dr Sithole meets with LCSA KZN Pastors

LTS Admin — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 12:08:25 +0000

LTS lecturer Dr Sibongiseni Elliot Sithole has been entrusted with the responsibility of making LTS more known amongst LCSA congregations, and at the same time, to encourage young men to come to study at the seminary. On 24 September, he met with the pastors of the KZN diocese. They discussed the following points:

Strengthening relationship between LTS and LCSA
Encouraging prospective students to apply at LTS to serve as future Pastors in LCSA
Student support
LTS Intensive Courses
LTS participating in LCSA Church Activities in KZN Diocese

Dr Sithole distributed LTS brochures to the pastors to share with interested congregation members. The Meeting was fruitful and meaningful in terms of furthering relationship between LTS and KZN Diocese. We thank Dr Sithole for his efforts, and pray that they may bear fruit!

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Further training for LTS lecturers

LTS Admin — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 08:20:37 +0000

From January 29th to February 2nd, six LTS lecturers have changed roles, and became students again. They are attending a training course on the “Design and Development of Learning Material”. The course focuses on:

The Design of Outcomes-Based Learning Material
The Development of Outcomes-Based Learning Material
The Design and Development of Outcomes-Based Assessments
The Evaluation of a Learning Invention

Training takes place at a private institution, and will hopefully help with the continued improvement of the LTS academic programme.

The lecturers attending are Registar Rev. Hanfato, Rev. Mntambo, Mr. Schütze, Rev. Schnackenberg, Dr Sithole, and Rector Hiestermann.

God willing, the 2024 will start next week, on February 6th, with the welcoming and orientation day.

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3rd Quarter Intensives

LTS Admin — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 07:09:06 +0000

For the two weeks of August 29 – September 10, LTS has the privilege of hosting Dr. Walter Steele and his wife Robyn, as well as Dr. Elliot Sithole. Drs. Steele and Sithole are providing our students with instruction in the form of a two-week intensive class. Dr. Steele is teaching on the general epistles of the New Testament, focusing on 1 Peter. Dr. Sithole is teaching the book of Genesis. Dr. Steele is an LCMS missionary who serves as registrar of Matongo Lutheran Theological College, Kenya. With this intensive, not only the students are learning from our guest lecturers, but also the LTS lecturers are learning about another Confessional Lutheran Seminary in Africa. We are grateful for this opportunity. May the Lord strengthen the relationship between the seminaries.

LTS rector Hiestermann (left), Dr. Walter Steele (right)

Students in the class of Dr. Steele

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LTS 1st Quarter Intensives Successfully Completed

LTS Admin — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 13:50:39 +0000

Report about LTS Intensive Courses 09^th March 2018

Rev. Mbongeni John Nkambule

It was a joy and an honour for us at the LTS to have Professor John Pless and Dr. Sibongiseni Sithole among us for two weeks of intensives. It was a good combination indeed. Professor John Pless serves at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, and Dr. Sibongiseni Sithole (LCSA) currently serves as an isiZulu translator for the South African Bible Society.

The students were able to attend these intensives in great numbers as the regular classes were suspended to allow the students enough study time under the guest professors without worrying about regular classes as well. In exchange, we maximized the benefits received from the visiting professors. As usual, we had also guests and visitors from various area congregations attending the classes as well. Some of them were pastors serving congregations, while others were either vicars or lay leaders. It was a blessing to our students to be among and interact with people with such significant congregational experience.

Professor Pless taught Luther’s Catechisms (Chief Part 2: The Apostles’ Creed) in the morning, while Dr. Sithole taught his Introduction to the Old Testament course in the afternoon. Our students gained a lot from them. One could pick that up from their vote of thanks at the end of the courses. We thank those congregations that paid for their travelling fees and the books Prof. Pless brought for his students and for our library. He has been doing this for years now – we are most grateful. Praise be to God for giving His church faithful servants like you, who support the seminary tirelessly.

At the end of professor Pless’s class, he hosted the entire campus for a braai, as is his custom. Thank you to him and to all who made it possible for him to do so. During the braai, certificates were issued to those who attended the course. The braai was an enjoyable event indeed. There was enough time to chat and catch up as a seminary family in a very relaxed way. May the Lord of the church touch the hearts of many, so that financial and prayer support of the seminary can continue and so that more and more pastors and deaconesses for the confessional Lutheran church in Africa may be trained.

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