Back row, from left: SMP Director Dr. Andrew Bartelt, Jarrett Jones, Michael Phillips, Matthew Hauser, Ramón Cabrales, Dean of Ministerial Formation Dr. Timothy Saleska, CHS Director Dr. Leopoldo A. Sánchez M. and Seminary President Dr. Dale A. Meyer
Front row, from left: Anthony Celia, Nicholas Cordt, Charles Fenton, Curtiss Lanham, SMP Assistant Director Dr. Wallace Becker, Associate Dean for Urban and Cross-Cultural Ministry Rev. Kou Seying and CHS Assistant to the Director Marcos Kempff

Students in the Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) program at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis received their first calls as pastors of congregations and ministries for The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) in chapel Friday, Oct. 7.

The students, who are the fall 2014 SMP cohort, receiving calls include:

Anthony Celia – Water’s Edge, Frisco, Texas
Nicholas Cordt – Risen Savior Lutheran Church, Wichita, Kan.
Charles Fenton – Eastern Heights Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minn.
Matthew Hauser – Peace Lutheran Church, Saginaw, Mich.
Jarrett Jones – St. John Lutheran Church, Mansfield, Texas
Curtiss Lanham – CrossPoint Community Church, Katy, Texas
Michael Phillips – Grace Lutheran Fellowship, Romeo, Mich.

Concordia Seminary's SMP program is a four-year program in which men receive theological education in the setting in which they will continue to serve following certification, call and ordination. Local pastor-mentors work with SMP students to provide day-to-day guidance, encouragement and prayer. The assignment of calls comes at the conclusion of the second residential seminar, coordinated with their current coursework on the Lutheran Confessions.

Also Friday, one student from the Seminary’s Center for Hispanic Studies (CHS) received his first call to pastoral ministry:

Ramón Cabrales – Apostles Lutheran Church, Peoria, Ariz.

The Center for Hispanic Studies offers theological education and leadership in the Lutheran tradition from and for the U.S. Hispanic and Latino communities through ministry formation programs, research and publication initiatives, and various education and advanced studies options.

“Again we rejoice with the church, these candidates and their families, and especially the congregations and ministries that they serve, in sending out more laborers into the harvest as rightly called and soon to be ordained servants of the Word,” said SMP Director Dr. Andrew Bartelt.

About Concordia Seminary
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis provides Gospel-centered graduate-level theological education for pastors, missionaries, deaconesses, scholars and other leaders in the name of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). To learn more, visit www.csl.edu.