Sometimes it is hard to remember that pastors are among the craziest people in the world. Thus observed Rev. Rolf Preus in his message to more than 200 guests in attendance, and especially to the six candidates for placement (including two of his sons), at the 2014 Call Service, held Saturday, 31 May, at Grace Lutheran Church, St. Catharines. Pastors are crazy people, he noted, because we believe in and preach about things we cannot see, and that most people may not even want to hear about. But God’s grace in Christ is real, redemptive, and absolutely the reason for ministry.
In addition to celebrating the service these graduates will soon begin, we also celebrated the faithful service of others. Rev. William Ney, now retired but not tired of serving, was awarded the Delta Chi medal, the seminary’s highest award. President Thomas Winger also thanked publically those members of the Board of Regents whose terms are coming to an end (Revs James Scholz and Brian Dunlop). The Nadine and Kent Schappert Award for pastoral care was presented to Paul Preus.
Special music for the day was provided by organist Michael Nieminen and the Lutheran Chamber Singers, under the direction of Claudia Nieminen, both from Kitchener.
The six CLTS candidates received the following placements:
- Basil Christorforidis – Peace/Duchess Lutheran, Taber/Duchess, AB
- Tyson Mastin – St. John’s Lutheran, Plato, MN
- John Nieminen – Zion/Trinity Lutheran, Melville/Neudorf, SK
- Andrew Preus – Trinity/St. Paul Lutheran, Guttenberg/McGregor, IA
- Paul Preus – Zion Lutheran, Ellendale, ND
- Jeremy Richert – St. John’s/St. Matthew’s Lutheran, Magrath/Milk River, AB
Following the service was a reception in their honour, where they were presented with individual Communion sets from FaithLife Financial and a gift bag of books from Concordia Publishing House. Special thanks to the Seminary Guild for hosting the reception.
For more pictures of the event, click here.
Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary 