Missourians and Californians have an opportunity to experience the dramatic presentation by Concordia Seminary, St. Louis known as The Gospel of Mark.

Upcoming presentations include:

• 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30, at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Raymore, Mo.
• 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13, at Town and Country Lutheran Church in Sacramento, Calif.
• 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, at Zion Lutheran Church in Piedmont, Calif.

The presentations — part of Concordia Seminary’s The Gospel of Mark’s 2017 tour — principally uses the English translation of the New Testament’s second Gospel by Dr. James W. Voelz, the Seminary’s Dr. Jack Dean Kingsbury Professor of New Testament Theology.

“Allow yourself to hear the Gospel of Mark and to be confronted by it orally,” Voelz said. “It is not that silent reading is wrong, but such a reading will not reveal to you the depth of beauty and drama of this outstanding Gospel.”

Scholars have increasingly placed the Gospel of Mark in an oral context, believing it to be a written document intended to be read aloud to a gathered audience. Concordia Seminary’s presentation reenacts the Gospel in the way in which it might have impacted those who first received it in the first century.

The presenters include four Seminary faculty: Dr. Dale A. Meyer, president of Concordia Seminary; Dr. Kent J. Burreson, the Louis A. Fincke and Anna B. Shine Professor of Systematic Theology and Dean of Chapel; Dr. David R. Schmitt, the Gregg H. Benidt Memorial Professor of Homiletics and Literature; and Voelz. Other presenters include Dr. Ron Rall, pastor of St. Timothy Lutheran Church, St. Louis, and Dr. Michael Zeigler, pastor of Epiphany Lutheran Church, St. Louis.

Come and be enthralled by Mark’s words, his images and his message of the rule and reign of God!

Additional performances of The Gospel of Mark are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. April 13, 2018, at St. John Lutheran Church in Dublin, Ohio; and 6:30 p.m. April 14, 2018, in The Federation of Lutheran Churches in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Director of Ministerial Recruitment and Admissions Rev. Bill Wrede will be available at each performance to talk with prospective students and anyone interested in church work opportunities and answer questions about the Seminary.

The Gospel of Mark runs around 2 hours, 30 minutes, including intermission. Presentations are free and open to the public. Free will offerings may be made to support future presentations. To learn more, visit www.csl.edu/thegospelofmark/.

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.