Greetings to the Concordia community in the name of Jesus Christ. On Saturday February 6, the Board of Regents and the presidential electors extended to me a divine call to serve as President of Concordia Seminary succeeding our beloved Dale Meyer. It is with much joy and anticipation and also with prayers to God for wisdom and grace and with some trembling that I announced today the acceptance of this call. The Lord has been so kind to me in calling a poor miserable sinner to speak in His name and to serve His dear bride the church first as a pastor at Zion Lutheran Church in Storm Lake, Iowa. Wonderful years that I will never forget. And for the last 16 years as a professor of Old Testament here at the Seminary studying the sacred Scriptures with many of you. Also wonderful years that I will never forget. And now He has called me to serve His dear church as Seminary president and to lead this renowned seminary into the heart of the 21st century. These are strange days for the church for a number of reasons. Challenging days. As the Apostle Paul said, with a healthy dose of reality, the days are evil. More and more it would seem our witness to Jesus Christ before the world will be a witness that proceeds from apparent weakness and lowliness but we do not lose heart for the Lord Jesus has redeemed us to be His own and to live under him in his kingdom and to serve him in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness forever. We do not lose heart even in our weakness and lowliness, for we are weak and lowly. But it is not ourselves that we proclaim but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as servants for Jesus sake. The mission of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, is to serve church and world by providing theological education and leadership centered in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ for the formation of pastors, missionaries, deaconesses, scholars, and leaders in the name of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. This is an amazing place to be, Concordia Seminary. When our forefathers planted this seminary here on these 72 acres they planted it firmly. Walk around these grounds, walk in the midst of these imposing stone buildings, our stately chapel, the towering tower. Our forefathers planted this place firmly with great love and labor and sacrifice. They planted it for the sake of the Gospel and for the sake of our confession. This seminary has served the Lutheran Church for 182 years and this campus has stood here for almost 100. But it is firmly planted, and by God's grace, if Jesus doesn't come first, I hope the Concordia Seminary will continue to serve the Lutheran Church for three or four hundred more years. The distinct role of Concordia Seminary flows from our Lutheran confession of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This Gospel is distinct, true, and desperately needed. In Apology Article 4, Melancthon writes this Gospel illumines and magnifies the honor of Christ and brings to pious consciences the abundant consolation that they need.
Our Seminary is named Concordia in the hope that this school will always stand firm and unified in this confessional teaching and our Seminary's motto. Light from above emphasizes that this Gospel, in all its articles, comes to us by gracious divine revelation in Jesus, who is the light of the world, [4:19 mark] and in the sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments which cannot be broken. Dr. C. F. W. Walther, our first seminary president, pledged this about the seminary in 1883. Walther wrote:
“in this house neither the word of man nor the wit and wisdom of man but rather the Word of God and the entire Word of God and that which serves the elucidation and application of that Word shall be studied with unwearied diligence day after day from the first rays of the morning until late after nightfall”.
Concordia Seminary exists to further the proper understanding and the energetic promulgation of heavenly Scriptural doctrine so full of Christ. This is our service to church and world. This is our service to the church and to the world. I thank God for the privilege of sharing this work with you dear brothers and sisters. “I am the vine you are the branches” Jesus said. “He who abides in me and I in him he bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing.” But we do not labor apart from Jesus, thanks be to God. May our gracious Lord bless you all richly in His Son and may He bless and further the work of this Seminary.
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In diesem Hause soll nicht Menschenwort und Menschenwitz und -Weisheit, sondern Gottes Wort, und zwar nichts als Gottes Wort und das ganze Wort Gottes, und was der Aufschließung und dem Gebrauch desselben dient, mit unermüdlichem Fleiße studiert werden, Tag für Tag, vom ersten Morgenstrahl bis hinein in die sinkende Nacht. Dieses Haus ist daher auch keineswegs um seiner Bewohner willen so herrlich geschmückt worden, sondern um des Wortes Gottes willen, welches darin eine Wohnstätte haben soll.
In this house, not the word of men and the wit and wisdom of men, but the Word of God, and nothing but the Word of God and the whole Word of God, and what serves to open it up and to use it, is to be studied with untiring diligence, day after day, from the first ray of morning until the setting night. Therefore, this house was not decorated so splendidly for the sake of its inhabitants, but for the sake of the Word of God, which should have a dwelling place in it.
“the sacred Scriptures… cannot be broken” — John 10:35
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