Well, yes, but who are you? Oh, I'm just a layman like yourself.
I've been around quite a bit and have found that a lot of people take for granted their pastor and the good he does for them.
Have you ever investigated the training process your pastor underwent to enable him to do so many things? Well, no, frankly, I haven't.
Do you realize that your pastor combines the skills of many different professions? Besides being a public speaker required to address the same people week after week, he must be a teacher imparting truths fundamental to spiritual development.
His skills include the art of ministering to the sick and confidential personal counseling.
He must be a student of God's word and literature of all ages, including the present.
Frequently, he becomes a supervisor and guiding spirit over large building programs.
He must readily adapt himself to the interests of any age level, youthful fun, as well as adult business, where the ability to get along with other people is all important.
So you see, the ministry is quite a task, isn't it? It certainly is.
But what about that training process? Where could one go to learn so many skills? You and I support an institution for just that purpose at Maywood, Illinois.
In 1891, Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary was founded upon the insistent urging of Dr.
William A.
Passivan.
Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, was the first site of the seminary.
The pictures box is now where the first building stood.
Move to Maywood, west of Chicago in 1910.
Your seminary boasts a beautiful campus, with Wagonall's administration building providing classroom, recreation, and library facilities, besides administrative offices.
Passivant Dormitory, now used exclusively by married students, is one of two fine resident halls guarding corners of the campus.
It perpetuates the sacred memory of the Passivant family.
Single men are lodged at the other end of the walk in Lindop Dormitory, which pays tribute to the generous gifts of the Cummings Lindop family.
Widener Coons, once the president's home, was built by Joseph C.
Coons to honor Dr.
Revere Franklin Widener.
It is now used by couples with children.
Stretching along one side is faculty row with residences for four of the five professors and another apartment for married students.
One professor and his family live off the campus in a seminary -owned duplex, also the home of the widow of Dr.
Franklin Gruber.
Completing the campus picture is the heating plant and caretakers' home to one side of the administration building and on the other side, the refractory, one end of which has been set apart as a place of worship.
The student body has grown through the years to 52 undergraduates and 30 graduate students.
Admission is open only to those with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and spiritual, intellectual and personal qualifications of applicants must meet with final approval by the faculty.
Whether in recreational moments or in solemn chapel periods, when one of the students leads the worship service, development of Christian character receives primary emphasis during the three years of training.
At these daily prayers, the seminary life reaches its climax before the Henry Phelps Memorial altar, the first gift for the new chapel that is so urgently needed.
This is your seminary, and these are the men who will fill the vacant pulpit of our churches.
This is where they learn to be ministers of the gospel, to serve us in so many ways.
Will you agree with me that Chicago Lutheran Seminary deserves our full support? Well yes, but I'd like to see more of what goes on there.
Well, how about you and your friends going with me when I make my next visit to the seminary? That's a good idea.
Don't you think? It's a beautiful day at the seminary, just the right kind of a day to call it an institution devoted to magnifying the Lord for all his works and all his ways.
Everybody's busy.
Pastor Berthold Corte, the registrar, is getting out his reports, and behind this door a conference must be going on.
But let's go in anyway.
The president of the seminary, Dr.
Armand George Wang.
Oh, hello there.
I'm glad to see you.
Come on in.
We're having a meeting of one of the committees of the seminary board.
But I'm mighty glad you came in anyway.
Sit down, make yourself comfortable.
He seems to be quite busy.
Problems of the church do not solve themselves, as every member of a synodical board knows.
The men are faced with the need for expansion of present facilities, and here comes some concrete evidence of what they are discussing.
Plans are taking shape for new buildings at the Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary.
I get the impression that the matter is one of grave concern to those charged with administration.
Let's leave them to consider the problem while we take a look at life in the seminary.
In the comfortable rooms nicely furnished by the seminary guild, interested congregations, and individuals, the students have an atmosphere conducive to difficult and prolonged application to books.
Homework is not the term to describe this type of out -of -class study.
Rather it is a matter of extensive reading and serious research, combined with just good hard thinking.
In passive dormitory, one or two single rooms have been converted into apartments for married students without children.
Service in the war interrupted the education of many students, but though older in years and with family obligations, they still move forward to the attainment of their life's goal.
Couples with children occupy apartments in a faculty row residence where they may live and study on the campus.
A missionary on furlough taking graduate courses in preparation for further service abroad is provided with quarters in one of the Widener -Koon's apartments where he resides with his wife and child.
Thus the seminary, keeping in step with the times, adapts itself to the changing requirements of those who look to it for training and knowledge.
Another student physical need is met by the seminary boarding club presided over by officers elected by the students.
A cook is employed to manage the kitchen and through the use of student help and careful purchasing wholesome food is served family style at a minimum cost.
Married students and their wives, most of whom are employed, also avail themselves of this convenience.
The student body officers discuss a varied program of activities carried on by subcommittees.
One plans chapel services.
Another collects offerings to send to the Lutheran seminary at Kiel University, Germany.
Still another has hung plaques in the dining hall for each college or university from which students have come.
There is one for Carthage, Wittenberg, Roanoke, Lenore Rine, Kiel, and many others.
The student body organization also arranges a program of recreation for the limited leisure time available.
There are game room contests, student faculty parties, and a schedule on a local circuit for the seminary basketball team coached by the same faculty member who directs a seminary choir, also a project of the student body.
The colorful procession of seminary faculty and visiting representatives opens the service formally inaugurating two men recently called to professorships.
Broad experience and high scholarship mark the men under whom the ministers of the future will prepare for a lifetime of service to God.
Dr.
Um Ha Wolk, professor of Old Testament interpretation, leaves early for a first hour class in Hebrew.
His educational background includes Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and the University of Chicago.
He also served in the United States Army chaplaincy.
After opening the class session with prayer, Dr.
Wolk leads the students to an understanding of the depth, color, and meaning of the Old Testament through the original Hebrew text of the Bible.
In another class, the Greek of the New Testament is studied under Dr.
Arthur Vavis, professor of New Testament interpretation, until recently a professor in the Baltic University in exile at Hamburg, Germany.
He also studied and taught at the University of Tartu, Estonia.
Deep insight to spiritual truths of scripture follows familiarity with the language of the Gospel writers.
A seminar in Reformation history is conducted informally by professor of historical theology, Dr.
Robert H.
Fisher, who allows free discussion among students.
Christian history shows how the living Christ and his Gospel have been at work in the world and relates the Church's past to the faith of believers today.
The theological field of seminary training demands serious concentration in the classroom, where the professor of systematic theology leads his students through the labyrinths of religious thought.
Let us listen for a moment to Dr.
Joseph Sittler, Jr.
The task of systematic theology is to look deeply into the faith of the Christian Church, now almost 2 ,000 years old, in order to understand what the Christian faith really is.
People have, you know, all kinds of strange ideas about religion.
It is the specific task of Christian theology to disengage the particular character of the Christian faith from religion in general.
And now all of this is done, you see, not in order that we may here engage just in academic speculation or amuse our minds by going over what men have thought about religion in the past, but in order that the minister may be equipped to declare to men now living what God has to say about man, about himself, about society, and that all this may be said pointedly, relevantly, clearly, and in an orderly way.
Practical preparation for the ministry includes careful instruction in the proper rendition of the liturgy.
Classes move to the chapel, where the men take turns conducting a simulated church service.
They face the altar at the proper time, but do not go into the chancel.
Under the direction of Professor of Functional Theology, Dr.
Grady Davis, attention is given to proper orientation, pitch of voice, enunciation, manner, timing, and inflection.
In his home, Professor Davis continues his liturgical materials class by discussing and then playing different musical settings of the church service.
A custom -built high -fidelity amplifier provides reproduction of unusual quality through the great speaker in its specially built cabinet.
The music of Palestrina, Bach, Mozart, and Verdi fills the room as the men listen.
The communication of the gospel is taught to the student minister in a special pericope's course, where each man in turn preaches on the gospel for the day.
The class and several professors are the congregation.
The sermon is recorded on tape for later more detailed criticism.
The scripture lesson upon which the sermon is based has been discussed during the preceding week by professors in different fields.
Dr.
Davis gave an exegesis from the Greek the first two days, and Dr.
Sittler furnished the theological analysis on the third day.
On the fourth day, the preaching techniques and sermon structure were discussed by Dr.
Davis.
Now as the student concludes his sermon, Dr.
Davis again takes charge and leads the group in a searching critical analysis.
But her frankness rules as theology, biblical interpretation, and delivery come in for close scrutiny.
Humor seems to be appreciated by everyone except the preacher for the day.
Pioneering in many directions, Chicago Lutheran Seminary has established a graduate school of theology.
At the summer session, over 100 men take courses under such visiting lectures as Dr.
Theodore Tappert, professor of history at Mount Airy Lutheran Seminary, Philadelphia.
Increasingly, congregations grant their pastors time and expenses in addition to their vacations to attend the graduate school.
Another section of the group is led by the president of Gustavus Adolphus College, St.
Peter, Minnesota, Dr.
Edgar Carlson.
Stimulating contacts are afforded by the varied backgrounds of those who come for credit toward advanced theological degrees.
And now we are back again with the committee in the president's office.
Your seminary with all its many activities must look to the future, and the immediate future demands the erection of a library.
26 ,000 volumes crowded into rooms on the second floor of the administration building take space needed for classrooms and professors' offices.
Even the hallways have been utilized.
Bookshelves must be kept near the walls to avert danger of collapse because the building was not designed for such weight.
Many books, because of overfilled shelves, must be stored in the attic, out of reach, or laid on top of the shelves, and otherwise improperly stacked.
The valuable L.
Franklin Gruber collection of New Testament and Reformation history manuscripts is locked in a bank vault, unavailable for research use.
The rapid growth of the library through the constant addition of new books is necessary to properly serve the students and faculty, and to meet the strict requirements of the accrediting association.
Where to put them is a problem that becomes increasingly serious with every shipment.
The only answer, the committee concludes, is a new building.
It will be simple in design and construction, but completely fireproof because the manuscripts and many of the books can never be replaced.
It will contain reading rooms, work rooms, and adequate stack space for present and future needs.
But the matter of finances for such a project comes up for earned consideration by members of the committee.
Will the church rally to the seminary support in this crisis, they ask each other? We are entirely dependent now upon what the members of our congregations will do.
Am I right? You are exactly right.
It is upon us that the individual responsibility rests.
The United Lutheran Church in America is engaged in a great endeavor to raise five million dollars for its colleges and one million for its seminaries.
The Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary at Maywood will receive from four supporting synods, the Illinois, the Wartburg, the Indiana, and the Michigan, the sum of $100 ,000 in the Christian Higher Education Year Appeal.
That much and more is needed for a modest library.
The library is the nerve center of an educational institution.
The young men who are in training should have the best possible facilities that they may serve you better as they go out in the ministry.
To accomplish this means sacrificial giving on the part of all of us.
But you who are the church will not fail us.
The result will be a better seminary and a greater ministry.
Hello there.
Oh, it's you again.
I guess you're one layman that won't take his pastor for granted after this.
You're right.
And what's more, from now on I'm all for our seminary.
And don't forget, the seminary needs our support in the Christian Higher Education Year Appeal.
Yes, only last Sunday.
Pastor was saying he needed more helpers for the Che campaign in our congregation.
Well, how about a little action? Huh? Oh, all right.
I'll show you.
A hundred thousand dollars for our own seminary in Maywood.
Well, it certainly would be nice to see that new library.
Oh, hello pastor.
I think you said you needed more helpers for the Che Appeal.
Well, here's one you can count on because I believe in Christian Higher Education and the future of our seminary.
The Che Appeal
