VOICE HIS
Volume 9 - Number 1
From Co-Director Arthur
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May 2014
A. Just Jr.
hen Dr. Dean Wenthe became President of Concordia Theological Seminary in April of 1996, one of his first priorities was to establish an institute of pastoral theology and sacred music. Kantor Richard Resch and I were honored to be asked by him and Dr. William Weinrich to begin this institute. The first official act of the institute was my inaugural lecture to the faculty in the third week of Easter 1998 on my appointment as full professor, a custom that Dr. Weinrich began with this appointment. The essay was entitled: “First Things: Teaching Primary Theology in the Next Twenty Years.” It was in that lecture that I shared the vision that Richard and I had for what would become “The Good Shepherd Institute of Pastoral Theology and Sacred Music for the Church.”
The lecture outlined for the faculty what we hoped an institute of pastoral theology and sacred music would do for the seminary and the church: to gather the church together at conferences for conversation on the integration of theology and sacred music into the pastoral life of our church, and to worship together as His saints. We believed that our seminary, with its rich exegetical, theological, liturgical, and musical traditions, was the place for such an institute and for conferences on pastoral theology and sacred music. Our first conference was in the fall of 2000 during the weekend of All Saints Day. We chose All Saints because it embodied what Richard and I wanted The Good Shepherd Institute to be and do: to celebrate our life in Christ, Who is present among us bodily with all the saints as we gather around His gifts. Richard’s hymn “The Gifts Christ Freely Gives” (LSB 602) says it best. For both Richard and me these gifts are clearest when we prepare people for death and celebrate their eternal life in Christ in our liturgical life—heaven on earth. For us there is no greater pastoral theology than the theology of taking care of the sick, the dying, and the grieving, the pastoral theology that is present in our funeral liturgies, hymns, and music. All Saints embodied all of this for us. Fourteen years later we hope that we have left behind a living legacy of pastoral theology and sacred music in our work together as Co-Directors of The Good Shepherd Institute, through the conferences, publications, and musical offerings of the GSI. continued on next page
Dr. Arthur Just Jr. and Kantor Richard Resch
THE GOOD SHEPHERD I
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Pastoral Theology and Sacred Music for the Church
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