The Seminary Committee

The Seminary Committee of the Australian Evangelical
Lutheran Church

The Subjects that to be Studied in the
Preparation of a Pastor for Service in the
AELC

We must keep before our Lord in prayer the need of our congregations to have men in future to serve them with the Gospel and the Sacraments. We need to encourage both younger men and older men to consider putting themselves forward as candidates to be prepared for the public ministry of the Gospel and for the office of deacon. The apostles did not operate a seminary. When Paul Barnabas revisited congregations on their mission journey in Asia Minor, they “appointed elders for them in each church through a show of hands” (Acts 14:23). When Paul and Barnabas left, they did not leave mission congregations that were dependent on the sending church at Antioch, but congregations that had the Gospel, the Sacraments, and the ministry in their own hands. This was remarkable, in that the New Testament canon was still far from complete. They had no teaching tools similar to our Small Catechism. Their “elders” were probably not all younger men like Timothy, but, as the name implies, older men. Age and experience were important factors. Coming from their own local areas, they were familiar through long experience with the culture of their people.

In our context, men who have served their congregations for years as “elders,” office-bearers, lay-readers, and Sunday-school teachers already have the great advantages that such experience gives them. If a person is advanced in age, it is doubtful that he should be required to spend the same time doing the same subjects, because of his fewer projected years of service, as a younger man, who after graduation would be able to serve the church for a long time. Among the other requirements for every Christian lay person, the essential requirement that differentiates a pastor from a lay person is that he should be “skilful in teaching” (1 Tin 3:2). He should be able to teach the truths of the Gospel clearly and refute those who teach it wrongly (Tt 1:9).

With such thoughts before them, the members of the Seminary Committee submit to the members of the AELC the course of study that has been used in the past to prepare our pastors, and adds the prayer that the Lord will prompt men to consider dedicating themselves to service as pastors in the public ministry of the Word or as deacons.

1. LANGUAGES (GREEK AND HEBREW)

NT GREEK I Completion of the text by J W Wenham, The Elements of NT Greek, with supplementary worksheets, with regular assignments; 2 semesters (C Priebbenow).

NT GREEK II Assignments on selected NT passages, involving detailed work in language, grammar, and the principles of translation into modern English. This subject includes an introduction to language-work with a computer; 1 semester (C Priebbenow).

HEBREW I Completion of J Weingreen, A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew, with regular written assignments; 2 semesters (C Priebbenow).

HEBREW II Assignments on selected OT passages, with attention to parsing and the principles of translation into modern English. This subject includes an introduction to language-work with a computer; 1 semester (C Priebbenow).

2. EXEGETICAL SUBJECTS

BIBLE INTRODUCTION A survey of the books of the Bible, with the completion of II written assignments. This is an introductory study is on the basis of the Bible in English; 1 semester ((C Priebbenow).

GENESIS OR OTHER OT BOOK A detailed study of selected portions, on the basis of the Hebrew text; 1 semester (C Priebbenow).

DANIEL OR OTHER OT BOOK A detailed study of the whole; 1 semester (C Priebbenow).

SYNOPTIC GOSPELS Study of manuscript tradition, selected passages of Synoptic Gospels, and investigation of the principles of form criticism, with written assignments; 1 semester (C Priebbenow).

ROMANS OR OTHER NT BOOK A detailed study of the whole on the basis of the Greek text; 1 semester (C Priebbenow).

3. HISTORICAL SUBJECTS

EARLY CHURCH Study of the history of the church from the close of the NT to AD 461, on the basis of J Stevenson, A New Eusebius, and Creeds, Councils and Controversies, with detailed commentary on the sources, and the completion of assignments on the basis of assigned primary and secondary reading. Study of history of dogma, especially Baptism, the Trinity and Christology will be included; 1semester (C Priebbenow).

MEDIEVAL CHURCH Study of the history of the church in east and west from AD 61 to 1500, on the basis of photocopied primary sources with detailed commentary, and the completion of assignments on the basis of assigned readings. Study of history of dogma, especially of the Lord’s Supper, is included; 1 semester (C Priebbenow).

REFORMATION Study of the history of the Reformation period in Europe on the basis of reading printed primary and secondary sources and the completion of assignments on the basis of assigned readings. Aspects of the history of dogma are included; 1 semester (C Priebbenow).

MODERN CHURCH Study of the history of the church from the Reformation to the present day on the basis of reading printed primary and secondary sources and the completion of assignments on the basis of assigned readings. Considerable emphasis is placed on theological trends; 1 semester (C Priebbenow).

4. SYSTEMATIC

DOGMATICS Close reading on F Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Vol 1-3, with discussion. The completion of regular assignments covering the three volumes is also required; 4 semesters (V Grieger).

APOLOGETICS Reading printed material and listening to cassette tapes of current antitheses to the true Christian faith. An introduction to logic is included; 2 semesters (V Grieger).

LUTHERAN CONFESSIONS I Reading with commentary on the Augsburg Confession and Apology of the Augsburg Confession, with regular assignments based on the text; 1 semester (C Priebbenow).

LUTHERAN CONFESSIONS II Reading with commentary of the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration and Epitome with regular assignments based on the text; 1 semester (C Priebbenow).

LAW AND GOSPEL Study of Ethics and the proper distinction between Law and Gospel; 1 semester (V Grieger).

5. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY

HOMILETICS Theory of preaching and practice of preaching; 2 semesters (V Grieger).

PASTORAL THEOLOGY Detailed study of practical aspects of the Public Ministry; 1 semester (V Grieger).

OTHER CHURCHES A comparative study of the major Christian denominations on the basis of prescribed reading list; 1 semester (C Priebbenow).

The Subjects to be Studied in Preparation
for a Work as a Deacon

In the New Testament a “deacon” was essentially an assistant to the bishop (elder, or pastor). The pastoral letters give a separate list of requirements for a deacon (1 Tim 3:8-13). It is remarkable that the work of both Stephen and Philip, who were first appointed with five others to serve the needs of Greek-speaking widows in the church at Jerusalem, quickly moved on to teaching the Gospel and evangelism (Acts 6).

In the preparation of a deacon in the AELC there will be an agreed list of subjects that is selected from the above list by the Seminary Committee for each applicant. The depth of study will not be as great as that required for a pastor. The number of the subjects prescribed will also depend on the age and experience of the candidate when he begins his study.

INFORMATION ON THE LECTURERS IN THIS COURSE OF STUDY

Pastor Vernon Grieger graduated from the pre-seminary course at Concordia College, Highgate, tertiary study for two years after matriculation in 1954, and afer three further years of study at Concordia College, in 1957, was graduated and entered the public ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia, early in 1958, and served continuously in the ELCA, the LCA, and then in the AELC.

Pastor C Priebbenow graduated from the pre-seminary course at Concordia College, Highgate, tertiary study for two years after matriculation in 1956, and after three further years of study at Concordia College, in 1957, was graduated and entered the ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia, early in 1959, and served continuously in the ELCA, the LCA, and then in the AELC. For seven years he taught at Concordia College, Toowoomba up to matriculation level in Religion, English, Greek and Latin, and for 191/2 years lectured at Luther Seminary Adelaide in Hebrew, Greek. and Latin, Church History, and elective subjects, history of the Dogma of the Trinity, History of Dogma of Christology, History of Dogma of the Lord’s Supper, and History of Dogma of Baptism. In the first half of 1989 he was academic dean of Luther Seminary, Adelaide. In mid-1989 he accepted a call back to the public ministry. He completed the Bachelor of Arts at the University of Adelaide in 1958, a post-graduate Bachelor of Education in the University of Queensland in 1971, and a Master of Arts Tripos III in theological subjects at Cambridge University, UK, in 1975.

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