Mark Swanson finds joy in encounter On Mark Swanson’s office door is a quotation from Rowan Williams, the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, which says, “The call of God is very strange.” Swanson would agree: strange and joyful. “For the first two years that I was reading theology, I didn’t know what it was for,” recalls Swanson, […]
Peter Vethanayagamony’s guiding principles in practice “I’m so grateful for Christian missions and missionaries,” said Peter Vethanayagamony (2000, ThM; 2006, PhD), professor of Modern Church History. Vethanayagamony’s positive life-altering experience with services (i.e. education, health, discipleship) of Christian missionaries in India during his formative years stands in direct contrast to what he calls the American […]
Witness while walking: Francisco Javier Goitía Padilla on leadership, faith, service Church experience for Francisco Javier Goitía Padilla (2014, PhD; 2003, ThM) began early, when his grandmother, a woman of deep faith, took him with her to Roman Catholic services in his hometown in Puerto Rico. “I’ve been a church mouse all my life,” Goitía […]
An Overflow of Abundance: Barbara Rossing and Lauren Johnson If you talk to Barbara Rossing about her call to theological education, you’ll hear a word often repeated: abundance. Rossing grew up in Northfield, Minn., with a current population of nearly 21,000. It’s the home of Carleton College, where Rossing studied geology as an undergraduate. She […]
Wisconsin native turned Chicago dweller ready for her future in ministry Melissa Hrdlicka toured four seminaries/divinity schools before settling on LSTC, a school she didn’t visit until she arrived as a student four years ago. “LSTC was the best choice for me,” she says confidently. It’s a wonderful place. The first time I was on […]
Madagascar pastor returns home as a systematic theologian When the Malagasy Lutheran Church identified Hery Andrianotahina Naivoson as a trailblazer, he accepted the call to further his education in the United States, particularly LSTC. Naivoson is a pastor in Madagascar, a big island in the Indian Ocean separated from Africa by the Mozambique Channel, nearly […]
Meet Martha Ernest Ambarang’u Martha Ernest Ambarang’u, who is ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, is a new ThM/PhD student at LSTC—biblical studies, New Testament. Before coming to LSTC she was a pastor of Hosiana Parish Buswelu in Mwanza, Tanzania. “I miss them, they are like family to me,” she said. She learned […]
PhD graduate learned the language and earned her degree(s): ‘God prepared the way’ Montira “Niko” Junnawatt will graduate with her PhD in May, but she’s already in Thailand as a faculty member at the Bangkok Institute of Theology. Bangkok is back where she was born and raised, in a bicultural and bi-religious family—her mother is […]
Podcast with humble beginnings surprises & delights When Kimberly Wagner, Marvin Wickware and their podcast editor Eric Fowler bounced around names for what would become “An Incomplete Field Guide to Ministry,” Wagner says they wanted the name to reflect what the podcast is about, but also “have a little humor, humility and honesty. Hence the […]
Vance Blackfox: Shifting the narrative of mission and service From an early age, Vance Blackfox (2012, MATS) felt a call to help others feel included. Blackfox has fulfilled that call in many different roles across the church: as a youth leader and a director of youth programs, in positions at Women of the ELCA and […]
