The Need for Pastors
The Lutheran church faced enormous challenges in mid-nineteenth century America. Existing Lutheran church bodies and seminaries had abandoned the historic Lutheran faith and compromised the Lutheran Confessions. Further, there were few pastors and congregations, especially on the frontier. People went without fundamental spiritual care and nurture, and, as a result, many were drawn away from the Church and its ministry.
The Rev. F. C. D. Wyneken, a Lutheran missionary in Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan, observed that “in large measure, the German Lutherans in America are completely without the blessings of the Church.” Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne (CTSFW), was founded to address these two needs: a clear Lutheran confession coupled with a vigorous missionary effort.
Answering the Call
In 1844, Wyneken assumed responsibility for training two missionaries in his Fort Wayne, Indiana, parsonage. In 1846, he combined his efforts with those of the Reverend Wilhelm Löhe of Neuendettelsau, Bavaria, Germany, and Concordia Theological Seminary began formal operations under the presidency of Dr. Wilhelm Sihler. When the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States was organized in Chicago on April 26, 1847, it requested that the seminary at Fort Wayne be deeded to the new synod. On September 7, 1847, the seminary passed into the control of the Missouri Synod.
A Seminary on the Move
At the 1860 synod convention, it was resolved that the “practical seminary” at Fort Wayne should be moved to St. Louis, where it would function as an independent institution while sharing quarters with the existing “theoretical seminary” there. In 1875, just fifteen years later, the synod moved Concordia Theological Seminary from St. Louis to Springfield, Illinois, where it operated for 100 years. After a fruitful century in Springfield, the synod resolved at its 1975 convention to move the seminary again, this time back to Fort Wayne and onto a campus designed and built for Concordia Senior High School.
In Fort Wayne, St. Louis, Springfield, and again in Fort Wayne, CTSFW has played a critical role in making the blessings of the Church available to a world in need of Christ’s salvation. The seminary has been privileged to provide the Church with thousands of servants of Christ—pastors, missionaries, and deaconesses—who have served the Lord of the Church throughout the United States and the world, sharing the precious Gospel as biblically and historically confessed by the Lutheran church.