Tag Archive for: PSI

Pastoral Studies Institute: Winterim 2024

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Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous WELS member, the Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI) was able to bring five of our East Asian PSI students to Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary for an intensive one week of instruction. They were able to attend classes that were specifically focused on their course requirements but also upon their cultural background. One of the PSI courses is “History of Christianity in the Student’s Context.” Our students were able reap the blessings of being taught by Professor Emeritus Glen Thompson who served at Asia Lutheran Seminary teaching Historical Theology and New Testament. Professor Thompson shared his class “History of Christianity in East Asia.” Much of his course was new information for our students since most East Asian history is rewritten to coincide with the current government’s policies.

While on campus our PSI students were able to attend daily chapel and meet and interact with our traditional students who were also on campus for their intensive Winterim courses. Our PSI men made the most of their time on campus in a second course, “Engaging the Spirit World.” This was a very practical addition to their training as future pastors, given the high rate of spiritism in East Asian culture.

This is just one more way that the Pastoral Studies Institute attempts to be flexible in our training methods, but consistent and academically rigorous in delivering our Confessional Lutheran content. This is another fine example of our WELS members partnering with us to be able to provide these kinds of exceptional learning opportunities. For more information about the Pastoral Studies Institute, please visit wels.net/psi.

Written by Harland Goetzinger, Pastoral Studies Institute director

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Another path to pastoring

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Dear Friend,

Imagine that you’re part of a group of people who are not widely represented in North America or our church body. You and others from your culture are members of a WELS congregation where you are blessed to hear of the salvation won for us by Jesus Christ. You would like to be a pastor to your people. How could that happen? You need to keep working at your regular job in order to support your family. You can’t afford to move your family to Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minn., and enroll in the pre-seminary program. How is your desire to be a Lutheran pastor going to be possible?

The Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI) of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary exists to walk with kingdom-committed spiritual leaders worldwide. Our privilege and joy is to train men from non-traditional backgrounds to serve as confessional Lutheran pastors to the people of their culture. These men can remain in their home congregations while their local pastor serves as their supervising pastor and instructor for much of their theological instruction.

Trung Le and Tao Nguyen are wonderful examples of how PSI serves our students. These men were able to remain at their homes in Boise, Idaho, and continue serving as members of Peace in Jesus Vietnamese Lutheran Church. Pastor Dan Kramer served as Trung and Tao’s primary PSI instructor for seven years. During those seven years, Trung and Tao were able to continue working at their full-time jobs in order to pay their bills. Slowly and steadily they worked through their courses, on Saturdays or evening hours, in person with their pastor and also via Zoom with a professor from the PSI team.

All of their hard work was realized when this past May, they joined the 2023 graduating class from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary at the graduation and assignment services. Trung Le now serves as the Vietnamese outreach pastor at King of Kings Lutheran Church in Garden Grove, Calif. Tao Nguyen serves as the pastor of his home congregation where he trained, Peace in Jesus Vietnamese Lutheran Church in Boise, Idaho. Praise be to God!

Your gifts to the Pastoral Studies Institute make placing men like Pastor Trung and Pastor Tao in congregations throughout the world possible by assisting with the cost of textbooks as needed and covering the travel expenses when the students gather at the seminary for winter and summer classes. Such face-to-face gatherings are invaluable as they allow our students to learn and to fellowship not with just one another, but with future and current pastors with whom they will serve in the public ministry.

Thank you for partnering with us in this important mission work with your prayers and gifts.

In the joy of serving him who saved us,
Prof. Harland H. Goetzinger
Director, Pastoral Studies Institute

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Prayer: Lord of the Church, we thank you for our synod’s strong ministerial education program that provides extensive training to our future pastors. We also thank you for the flexibility of the Pastoral Studies Institute, which trains men from other cultures to become pastors without leaving their communities. We praise you for providing a diversity of well-trained pastors proclaiming the gospel throughout the world. We pray that many more people hear your good news of salvation, repent of their sins, and trust in Jesus. Amen.

Faces of Faith – David and Guili

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It’s an enormous blessing for a congregation to have a PSI student in their midst, but two? Hope in Toronto, Ont., has been blessed with just that. In February 2021, Dr. David Shang was accepted as a Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI) student. He has been advancing quickly through his studies and gaining a large following through his monthly YouTube lectures. He currently has over 3,000 viewers in five countries which has led to approximately 19 baptisms (with 18 more on the way) in three countries.

In January 2023, Guili and Dujie Chi were received into membership at Hope. Guili also wants to reach more of his fellow Chinese with the gospel of Jesus. With some encouragement, Guili became the second PSI student at Hope.

David and Guili’s dream is to create a Chinese church within Hope’s congregation in Toronto. It’s beginning with David’s online lectures and carrying over to in person bible studies in Guili and Dujie’s home every Sunday night where they regularly have 10-15 in attendance. Guili recently shared, “Many Chinese immigrants come to Canada for a better life or better future for their children. It’s a country that God has blessed. People should come to know the true God, to know that only through Christ we can live in peace and preserve the future of our children. Live in his grace, share the gospel, live a godly life, keep the faith, and blessings from generation to generation will come.”

From Harland Goetzinger, Pastoral Studies Institute director

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Faces of Faith – Semson Lor

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I remember being in high school 10 years ago and people would ask me if I wanted to become a pastor, just like my father (Daniel Lor – Trinity Hmong, Manitowoc, Wis.). I would automatically answer “No” without giving it a second thought. This all changed when I left home and lived by myself. Suddenly everything I had learned growing up in the Lutheran church became something of the past. But as I fell into sin and personal struggles, the Holy Spirit kept tugging at my heart. I knew this wasn’t how God wanted me to live my life. As a child and a teen, I did not think much about my faith. But when struggles came, the foundations of my faith were what I could fall back on for hope and comfort. Even though I tried so hard to run away from the Lord, he was always pursuing me and being true to his promises that he had given to me in my baptism. I moved back home and became obsessed with reading scripture and studying theology and our Lutheran doctrine. I also started helping my father out at church, and I fell in love with ministry. It’s been a great blessing be able study in the PSI program. I’ve been able to learn from great teachers who are equipping me to proclaim this message of forgiveness to a world that is hurting, depressed, scared, and have no hope. They need to know that they have a Savior that lived perfectly for us so God could wash away all their guilt and sin. Though we may hurt, though we may suffer depression, though we may still be scared, we now have hope.

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Faces of Faith – Luke

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By God’s grace, Luke was born into a Christian family in East Asia. His grandparents were Christian missionaries, and both his parents were involved in gospel ministry. Luke looks back at the church of his youth and says, “God blessed me so richly there!”

After college and four years of work, Luke came to the United States in 2009 and entered a seminary training program on the east coast. In 2011 he married Wenjing, a WELS Lutheran from Minnesota. They moved to North Carolina where Luke learned two things: the importance of sound doctrine and the need for faithful pastors for Chinese churches. Luke and Wenjing and their two children moved to the Des Moines, Iowa, area in 2016 and joined Lincoln Heights Lutheran Church. A year later Luke began studying with the Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI). Throughout his studies, Luke has continued to grow in his love of sound doctrine and gospel-centered ministry. And the family has grown to five.

At the beginning of 2021, Luke accepted a part-time call to serve in a WELS-affiliated organization that is equipping ministry leaders in East Asia. Luke is scheduled to graduate from the PSI program in May of 2022. Anticipating full-time ministry, Luke says, “I feel compelled to preach the gospel. God has prepared me for serving in his glorious church.”

From Bradley Wordell, Pastoral Studies Institute professor

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What to do when they’re knocking at your door

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Nearly every day, somewhere in the world, a pastor from another denomination contacts a WELS pastor. Usually the pastors from other denominations are looking for some kind of collaboration. You might think that WELS pastors patiently explain to them what the Scriptures say about unity in doctrine before collaboration in fellowship—and they do! But some WELS pastors have added an invitation to their explanation. They have asked, “Would you like more instruction?” When the pastors of other denominations have answered, “yes,” great blessings have resulted.

The WELS Joint Mission Council (JMC) has examined the cases where the Lord has blessed contacts like this and have noticed a pattern. In the most successful cases, the WELS pastor enrolls the other pastor in his WELS Bible Information Class. That way the man finds out how everything we teach comes from the Bible. He is often exposed to clear law and gospel for the first time, with Jesus at the center of everything we teach in the power of the Word and sacraments. The Holy Spirit does his work, and the pastor from the other denomination begins to teach the truths of Scripture to his own flock. At a certain point, that pastor usually becomes a member of a WELS congregation.

A PSI training visit

At that point, the Joint Mission Council recommends that the WELS pastor enlist the aid of the Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI) of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. A member of the PSI Team interviews the pastor who was formerly a member of another denomination and determines the best course of studies so that the man can become a fully trained WELS pastor. The PSI team member also arranges appropriate contact with local district officials, Home Mission counselors, or members of World Mission Teams, depending on the background of the new man and his flock. Sometimes the PSI team member helps the WELS pastor see that the relationship should develop in a different way than planned. With their many experiences and contacts, the PSI Team members can be very helpful in planning the best use of our resources.

Because many of the pastors who contact us have networks inside and outside of the United States, the Joint Mission Council takes great interest in new opportunities for outreach that they provide. Because the world is a complicated place, the patterns often diverge here, but one similarity remains: love for the truths of Scripture, as taught by Lutherans, leads men from many diverse places to bring people to Jesus.

Written by Rev. Paul Prange, Joint Mission Council chairman

 

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Faces of Faith – Andre

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Our world missionaries work hard for a day when they can pass the pastoral baton to a national leader. This ultimate dream and daily prayer will soon be accomplished in Iskitim, Russia. Missionary Luke Wolfgramm has served this congregation for ten years and is now working with Andre Gydkov in the seminary training program. Andre is not just taking classes to learn how to be a pastor. He is already serving the congregation in Iskitim in many ways that are giving him experience in the tasks and functions of a pastor. The PSI is working closely with the Russian Lutheran synod to provide curriculum, consultation, and instructors to assist them in Andre’s training. The relationship between Andre and Luke goes beyond that of student and teacher or even co-workers in a congregation. They are close friends. Andre was introduced to his Savior through the WELS mission in Russia, where Luke has been his pastor and counselor for three years. Since Andre has committed to preparing for the pastoral ministry, his relationship with Luke has grown even stronger. Andre’s life before he became a Christian was difficult in many respects. Through daily support and encouragement from Luke and the other Russian pastors (Pastor Alexei and Pastor Arkady), the congregation in Iskitim will soon receive a strong Lutheran shepherd who is eager to proclaim Christ to his community.

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Be strong and courageous

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My name is Qiang Wang, a Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI) vicar of Saviour of the Nations Lutheran Church in Vancouver, Canada. I immigrated to Canada with my wife Susan and my son Ricky in 2013. At that time, Susan and I were Buddhists. Thanks be to the Lord that he sent Chinese Christians preaching the gospel to us almost immediately. At first I rejected their efforts. Later I decided to read the Bible on my own in order to argue with them. The Spirit created faith in my heart through the Word. On the Thanksgiving day in 2014, Susan and I were baptized into Jesus. Shortly after my baptism, I started to read the People’s Bible Commentaries which I borrowed from Pastor Geoff Cortright, who is the pastor of Saviour of the Nations. Since November 2015, after a 3-day trip to Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, I have been studying in the PSI program full-time almost 4 years. God willing, I will finish PSI training at the end of this year and graduate from the Seminary in May 2020.

With funding from WELS Joint Missions, WELS-Canada, and Saviour of the Nations, I moved to Coquitlam as a missionary on July 1, 2019, in order to start a new Chinese mission.

Why Coquitlam?

Right now, the population of the city of Coquitlam is about 170,000. Coquitlam is one of the fastest growing Chinese areas in North America. In 2016, the local Skytrain expanded to include Coquitlam. As a result, the city is projecting explosive growth as commuters can now live in a more affordable community and easily connect to the amenities of Vancouver. City planners estimate that by 2026 the population will reach 200,000, an increase of 60,000 people in a 10 year span. Of that 60,000, half are Chinese people. The city of Coquitlam has plans to build up a larger core centre, with high rise towers and dense urban living. In the neighborhoods surrounding Coquitlam Town Centre, 23% to 49% of the homes speak Chinese. An increasing number of Chinese businesses and restaurants have moved in, catering to first generation immigrants. Additionally, what makes Coquitlam potentially the best regional choice to plant a Chinese church—it is currently under-served by Chinese churches.

Vicar Qiang Wang, his wife Susan, and their friend Richard (standing) after a long day of moving

When I received the final decision from our congregation that I would start a new Chinese mission in Coquitlam, I was excited and a little bit intimidated. To start a mission from scratch is not a small task for anyone. Our Lord is good! The first date of our moving, July 1, is Canada Day. God blessed us almost immediately through different ways. After a whole day moving and cleaning, I was exhausted and hungry. All our stuff was unpacked. We didn’t know where to have our dinner. Richard Yu, my friend and schoolmate from back in China and who now lives in Coquitlam, brought food and drinks to our new apartment. We enjoyed the food and shared the gospel with Richard. Suddenly and unexpectedly, an excellent fireworks show started, which we enjoyed from our new balcony.

We kept giving thanks to the Lord. Through Richard, God told us that we are not alone! He uses everything around us to bless us. Through the fireworks, God gave us a warm welcome! He is with us!

“Be strong and courageous!” Three times the Lord encouraged Joshua to be confident to succeed Moses in leading God’s people into the Promised Land. I believe that God will lead us to a wonderful future in North American. We pray that God establish a vibrant Chinese Lutheran worshiping community of believers in Coquitlam through our ministry. It will be a blessing not only for Coquitlam, but also for North America, and perhaps even for as far away as China.

Written by Vicar Qiang Wang, Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI) student and Chinese missionary to Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada

The Chinese ministry in Coquitlam was approved to receive partial funding from WELS Joint Missions in May 2019 (with financial assistance also coming from WELS-Canada and Saviour of the Nations). To learn more about WELS Joint Missions, visit wels.net/jointmissions.

 

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Faces of Faith – Ron

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Ron Kelly’s passion is to serve the families and young people at his congregation, St. Marcus in Milwaukee, Wis. “The youth and children of my community have so few role models showing them what a Christian man looks like,” Ron told me the first time we met. Ron wants to be such a role model.

And he is. Supervising Pastor Dan Leyrer reports that Ron is friendly, helpful, outgoing, faithful, and always looking to give. Ron is involved with youth discipleship, chapel devotions at St. Marcus school, ministry to school families, Bible information classes, and assistance at the Lord’s Supper. Ron also serves the church at large. He is a member of the Urban Advisory Board in Milwaukee and will represent St. Marcus as a delegate to the 2019 WELS Convention in New Ulm, Minn.

In addition to his work as a realtor and his many hours of service at St. Marcus, Ron is working his way through the PSI curriculum, one class at a time. He and Pastor Leyrer set aside time every week for these studies. Already these classes are equipping Ron for ministry. Ron is a rare gift from our Risen and Ascended Savior!

From Rev. Brad Wordell, member of the Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI) team

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