PILGRIMAGE Concordia Theological Seminary
Admission Bulletin
OFFICE OF ADMISSION CONTACT INFORMATION
Phone Numbers E-mail
(800) 481-2155 (260) 452-2155 Admission@ctsfw.edu
DEAN OF STUDENTS
Rev. Thomas Zimmerman Tom.Zimmerman@ctsfw.edu
ADMISSION COUNSELORS
Rev. John Dreyer John.Dreyer@ctsfw.edu Rev. Neil Ray Neil.Ray@ctsfw.edu Rev.Andrew Yeager Andrew.Yeager@ctsfw.edu
RELOCATION COORDINATOR
Marsha Zimmerman Marsha.Zimmerman@ctsfw.edu
WEBPAGE
www.ctsfw.edu/Admission
Any information is subject to change without notice. If you would like to be placed on the Pilgrimage mailing list, please contact the Admission Office by phone, e-mail or write: Office of Admission Concordia Theological Seminary 6600 North Clinton Street Fort Wayne, Indiana 46825
Spring 2012
Volume Fifteen, Issue One
Seminary as Life Together I
By Rev. Andrew T. Yeager
n the classic work on Christian community, Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “God has willed that we should seek and find God’s living Word in the testimony of other Christians, in the mouths of human beings. Therefore, Christians need other Christians who speak God’s Word to them. They need them again and again when they become uncertain and disheartened because, living by their own resources, they cannot help themselves without cheating themselves out of the truth. The Christ in their own hearts is weaker than the Christ in the words of other Christians. Their own hearts are uncertain; those of their brothers are true.”
neighbor. If a community exists only to promote some kind of political agenda, then when that agenda is rejected, the community collapses because the strength of any community is proportionate to the strength of its cause. Outside of Christ we only have our own egotistical agendas that will all be confounded unequivocally. It is only the community formed in Christ which can firmly trust that it will not pass away, that its arduous tasks will not be in vain, that it will remain into eternity. So at ten o’clock every weekday morning, the community at CTS pauses and gathers in the chapel for a little community, a little “life together.” The community of the faithful at CTS looks toward the eternal community of the new heaven and the new earth when the community of God and man shall be perfect and uninhibited and, therefore, community with one another shall be perfect and uninhibited. Until that blessed moment, we work while it is still day (John 9:4) putting our hope and trust in Christ who has promised to “gather into One the dispersed children of God” (John 11:52).
Christians need other Christians who speak God’s Word to them.
How vital, therefore, is the brotherhood of Christians gathered in community when one begins his preparation for the Holy Ministry. The Christian community gathers so that God’s universal pardon over mankind may be heard and received by the condemned individual that God has placed before us. Your brother (or sister) is there before you for your Word; you are there before him for his Word.
Concordia Theological Seminary is all about community, the community of brothers and sisters in Christ. CTS forms servants of God, and the servant of God begins to set himself toward his godly work only at the point when God has forgiven him in Christ. We exist in our brother’s presence for the sake of his consolation. Community exists that God’s forgiveness may be forgiveness for our
Rev. Andrew T. Yeager serves as an Admission Counselor for Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. You may contact him at Andrew.Yeager@ctsfw.edu or 260-452-2178.