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 […]
Ji Bu: from Myanmar to Chicago to become a theologian Only a few months into her studies at LSTC, Ji Bu was eager to share gratitude for the chance to be here. Bu was born and brought up in the Mungbaw Village along the China hill border in Myanmar, the eighth child of a Kachin […]
Kilian Schrenk: A voyage to study, learn and experience American Lutheranism Kilian Schrenk, 23, came from Wurttemberg, Germany to Chicago for a semester as an exchange student at LSTC to learn and experience Lutheran theology in contexts. Schrenk first had dreams of becoming a medical doctor, but he was also influenced by his family’s Christian faith. Schrenk was baptized and confirmed in the Südgemeinde in his hometown of Heilbronn. […]
Speaking truth to the church: three global theologians reflect on LSTC, TEEM and joy in the midst of struggle June 30, two esteemed global theologians, José David Rodríguez and Javier “Jay” Alanís, retired from full-time duties at LSTC and the Lutheran Seminary Program of the Southwest (LSPS). Rodríguez began teaching at LSTC in 1981 and […]
Holy chaos: An exploration of the new first call process For the first time in years, the “first call” process in the ELCA has changed. Thanks in part to changes within the church caused by the pandemic. communication about the new system has emerged in video format, not just saving trees (paper), but offering user-friendly […]
