LCMS Joint Seminary Fund
The LCMS Joint Seminary Fund, a ministry of the LCMS Foundation, serves our two Concordia seminaries by seeking and securing essential funding that permits flexibility in addressing areas of greatest needs that are indispensible to pastoral education:
- Teaching and researching
- Curriculum and materials development
- Facilities construction and maintenance
- Financial aid to students
- Recruitment of highly qualified faculty and staff
- Providing continuing education and distance opportunities
In turn, our LCMS seminaries prepare pastors who will be called to proclaim God’s Word, Law and Gospel, that works saving faith in lives that will be changed now and eternally!
Dear Partner in the Gospel
Have you ever been blamed for something you did not do? Feelings of anger and resentment are the normal reaction. We will not tolerate being blamed for something we have not done.
What a contrast to our compassionate God who sent His innocent Son to be punished for our sin. Paul summarizes God’s amazing act of compassion for us in these words:
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).
The prophet Isaiah spoke of Christ who would be punished for our sin nearly 700 years before it occurred:
But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Is. 53:5-6).
While we react with righteous indignation when we are blamed for something we have not done, God laid on Christ the sin of the world and Christ voluntarily took the blame for all of us! Now we, the objects of God’s love, stand before Him blameless, clothed in the righteousness of His own Son. He took our blame and we receive His blamelessness! What an incredible exchange!
For decades to come, the nearly 700 students at our seminaries in Fort Wayne and Saint Louis who are preparing to serve as our future pastors, will proclaim this wonderful message of God’s incredible exchange. I invite you to offer a gift in their support. Your offering to The LCMS Joint Seminary Fund provides a great source of encouragement for them and for those who are preparing them for future service.
How blessed we are to know that we are blameless now and blameless for eternity, thanks to our gracious God. The words chosen by Jude to close his epistle are very appropriate in summarizing our response to all that God has provided for us through Christ:
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen (Jude 1:24-25).
In His service,
Rev. Dr. Glen D. Thomas
Executive Director, Pastoral Education
Contact
For more information about the Joint Seminary Fund, please contact:
Rev. Paul D. Kienker, M.A., M.Div.
Vice President for Development
The LCMS Joint Seminary Fund
1333 S. Kirkwood Rd.
St. Louis, MO 63122
1-800-248-1930, ext. 1675
Paul.Kienker@lcms.org