A Brief Report on the Trip to Concordia Seminary, by Pr. Rossow

As reported last week, the President of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, The Rev. Dr. Dale Meyer, invited me to the seminary this week to discuss the issues I have raised about small groups and contemporary worship at the seminary. He and I met for an hour and a half on Wednesday afternoon. We then met for over two hours with many of the faculty members I named in posts over the last few weeks and the Pastoral Formation Committee. Dr. Meyer, the provost and I had dinner on Wednesday night and then Thursday morning I had a two hour meeting with Dr. Burreson, the Dean of the Chapel, Dr. Meyer and a few other faculty members. There were several tense and serious moments but overall the meetings were characterized by a desire for mutual understanding.

It will be a few days before I post a detailed report on the visit. In a spirit of brotherly fraternity Dr. Meyer and I agreed that any reporting on this particular visit be agreed upon by us mutually. That will slow down the process a bit but for a good cause.

I will say this much about my time in St. Louis. Dr. Meyer and I have a long-standing friendship but we had not had a chance to nurture it for the last ten years or so. Despite the very serious and critical things we needed to speak to each other, it took all of about thirty seconds to renew our friendship. Our mutual enjoyment of each other’s company for the two days provided a comortable and safe environment in which we could get pretty straight-forward and blunt with each other, all for the good of our Lord’s Gospel.

More to come…

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