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Welcome to Word and Work an Intersection.

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I'm Dale Mayer.

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When I was the speaker of the Lutheran Hour, I would travel almost

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every week and preach and speak to various crowds.

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And I noticed that after my sermon or speech was over people would

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come up and talk to me.

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Okay fine.

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The people who were most expressive about their faith were of two kind.

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One group that talked very vocally about their faith was converts they have

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discovered the joy of Jesus.

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The other group interestingly enough

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was the children of pastors and teachers.

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Which told me the importance of the family in passing on the faith of

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our Lord Jesus from one generation to another.

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Today, I am very pleased to welcome to Word and Work the Reverend

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Osmar Lehenbauer who not only in his family, but in his extended family

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the Lehenbauer clan has a lot to share with us about the importance of

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families in the great mission of the church.

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Welcome Pastor Lehenbauer or may I say Pastor Oz. Sure you may

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Pastor Dale. Yeah, you know I have to do a full disclosure for the

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audience.

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You were the pastor of my home congregation and no.

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How did that turn out?

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Well, I was there for 17 years.

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That was at St.

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Paul's Lutheran in Chicago Heights, Illinois. Right.

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And in one of the things that that I may be tease you about is that

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that you did three very important pastoral things in in our family's

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life.

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You married me?

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You ordained me and you buried my father, Art. Two of those three

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I'm thankful for but I've never identified which two.

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But I do remember that that your ministry they're touched our family

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our extended family as well.

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And and you are deeply loved by the Meyers and the Bauers, Braumstedts

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and all that you served at St.

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Paul Chicago Heights, and honestly, I can see you're one of my heroes.

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You're one of my heroes.

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Thank you.

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Before we get into the the clan tell us about your own personal

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history if you would?

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Well, I was born in Brazil.

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And stayed there, only for a year probably because I couldn't speak all three

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languages

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so I tried to cry and all 3 to see if that would work.

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Anyway, then we came back, I didn't, but my parents came back to this country the United States and my father

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was on furlough for Springfield.

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And then after that he got a call to a small country congregation Nokomis, Illinois where I grew up.

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So I lived out in the country and had six brothers or sisters and we had a lot

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of things to do and playing basketball, softball my dad pitched horseshoes just about every sport

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I grew up with . And my brothers were very good to me in teaching me a lot of those things.

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I went through parochial school there went through high school. And then I took for granted I was going to be a missionary but then after high

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school, I was not old enough to go to the Springfield Seminary.

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So I worked in St.

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Louis for a year and went on to Saint Paul's College Concordia,

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Missouri, and then it went on the Springfield and graduated from there

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in 1954.

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I was assigned a vicarage at St.

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Paul's Lutheran Church in Chicago Heights, in Fort Wayne, Indiana and I was vicar there

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went back to the Seminary and behold after Seminary

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they assigned me back to the same congregation. After I got there the

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Pastor Clouste died after rest of the year.

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We had to call another pastor and for some reason or other the congregation decided to call me as the pastor of this 1.500 soul congrgration.

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I didn't know exactly if that was exactly what the Lord wanted me to do, but I talked to Pastor Shultz from Bethlehem and said Ozzie you've got broad shoulders

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so I took him at his word so through all those 12 and half years.

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I guess we got through that built a new school and I probably made a lot of

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mistakes, but we got through it and then went on to a Old Trinity in

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St.

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Louis for a couple of years and then on to Saint Paul in Chicago

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Heights for 17 then Bristol Connecticut, Immanuel Bristol, for 5 years. I was going to retire being there pastor.

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But in the process somebody got the bright idea that I should run

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for president of the district. I didn't even give that a thought but anyway when it came down to the convention

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I was in a little workroom with one of the guys. Some one came over and said Ozzie let me put your name on the list I said well, I don't know I better talk to my wife.

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So I talked to her.

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She said well to see what happens. I thought well they don't really know me I've only been here for five years.

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Haven't been that active in district meetings because I didn't want to have any office.

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Anyway, then the vote came out and by a miracle I guess they called me.

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As president I served 2 terms there and they were sorry

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they wanted me to serve another term, but I was still only 68 and I

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thought what am I going to do in retirement?

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And so anyway, I did retire and now I'm 91 years old. Well you rehearsed your

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history and I thank you for that a couple touch points.

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I've been to Nokomis where you grew up and I remember your your

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brother Bruno and had memory of a Bruno was two things first of all

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and very dedicated Layman and that's part of how the larger family

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passes on the faith.

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But secondly, he had the biggest fattest of cigar that I always remember

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being in his mouth OK and so I have memories of Bruno. Another

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touchpoint

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is your sainted wife Shirley whom you mentioned.

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You're one of the models of my Ministry when I was first assigned

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to a dual congregation in Southern Illinois.

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I didn't know what I was doing.

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You know, I had the head stuff but what is a pastor really do? And there

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was more than a few times when I would be confronted with a situation.

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What would Pastor Oz do in a case like this? And Diane has often said that

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Shirley was her model for being a pastor's wife.

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So yeah, you're recounting your history has a lot of touch points for

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us.

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Let's go through some old family photos and have you describe

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what those photos are about. And the the first one that we have is a

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picture of this your father Conrad tell us about him?

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Well he

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left at Springfield Seminary after he married my mother and decided to become a missionary in Brazil and stayed

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there for 17 years and he became a president of a district in the end. But going there he had many many different

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people coming from miles and miles around to come to church and that rally impressed me. And when I became a pastor I was a little chagrined that people lived

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a block away from the church weren't able to make it. Where my dad's ministry they would walk miles and miles, so he was very

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dedicated. He had numerous family members who were also pastors. So they had a large amount of just my father's family there were 26 pastors

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and 36 with marriages and everything. And there are also teachers

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that have come out of the family correct?

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Absolutely. Yes, Steve here is one of them my daughter, Katherine,  is another one of them

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and so many many teachers

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so. Well that gets at the heart of what we want to share with our

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audience is that in passing down the faith from generation to

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generation.

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A lot of times the way to do it is right in front of us at the dining

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room table and watching TV.

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It's it's the the family .Was your father, Conrad, the first of the Lehenbauer's

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to go to Brazil.

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Yes, his older brother stayed in the United States and went to Kansas and was president of the Kansas District when he retired.

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And then two other brothers went to Brazil. Uncle George and Uncle Albert. Uncle George had to come back after 2 years because of his wife's health. Uncle Albert stayed there the rest of his

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ministry and eventually became the president of Concordia College in Argentina.

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Let's move onto another photo and this is your father and mother tell

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us about her?

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Well, she grew up on a farm in Chatham, Illinois not far from Springfield IL. A large family of girls and one boy and

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I never got to know her parents.

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I was too young and they died before I was born. So they raised this good family of many girls. Another one of them married a pastor maybe another one too. As it turned out

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my wife's

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stepson is Pastor is a pastor in Colorado.

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And the pastor who is the daughter of one of my wife's sister's is now a

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member of my son-in-law's church.

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Well, this is getting complicated.

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As you know, the Meyer clan back in Chicagoland is big and I could

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never figure out how they all fit together.

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Now

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we do have a photo of of your parents family and we're putting that up

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now. And

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these are some of the people that you were just describing correct?

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Right.

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We also have a photo of your father's congregation in front of the

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church.

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Can you say a few words about that.

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Well, I didn't realize

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when I was younger how large a congregation it was because when my father first went down there he had a number of preaching stations that he had to go to. And I think he had to ride a horse to get there. And ended up at this church in Aroe Damayo where are my brother then became pastor, Willis' dad. And so unfortunately I never got back to Brazil.

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I sometimes wish I had but I really didn't know as much about it as my older brothers and

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sisters did.

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I have one brother, Paul, who also went to Brazil as did my brother Victor. Herman was a pastor too but stayed in the states

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and Paul was a pastor who stayed in the states too as well. Earlier in the interview

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You had mentioned that as a baby you were able to cry in three

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languages, but you couldn't speak in three languages.

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So tell our audience with the three languages are? Okay. They went down there speaking English and they also knew

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German, but the other language which came along later in there life was Portuguese. And that's why I was not trilingual

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even in my crying so I came back to the States. And grew up speaking English and so

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when they had a secret my parents would talk in German. So we didn't know what was going on, unless they interpreted for us.

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I had the privilege of going to Brazil several years ago and I

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and I taught at the Seminary and there were a couple things that

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struck me. One is that in the old Seminary where the church offices now

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are was a photo of a Lehenbauer who was the president of the district

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at that time.

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It was a district not a Synod unto itself. And the other memory that I

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have was how German the church still is. The students in my class had

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you might have Portuguese names with their last names were very German.

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And

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in fact, there's a place in Brazil.

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that is Brazil's version of Frankenmuth.

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And and I was taking there and wow and the wow for me is is

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just how Mission stimulates us and

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I'll never be quite the same after my trip to Brazil and other places

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that we know we've all gone and seen how the gospel is spreading.

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We got two more photos and we want to look at and and this is one of a

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contemporary church.

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Tell us about this new church. That was the church that replaced the first church. And my

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father wasn't around and that was built but my brother may have been there during the building of that church.

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Just amazing, what you know how that church grew and prospered. So it definitely was the kind of mission field that our Synod was looking for  and these people

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came from Germany and there was no pastor for them. So our church sent pastors and our church grew and now it quit a number of pastors in Brazil.

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Have to tell you though when my brother went down there he had to learn Portuguese and they didn't want him to use German. And he was often was called to the police station and once they came to his home and he had to

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show them that the book he was reading said Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Missouri. So he got away with it. But it was not easy

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I guess in those days

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to use German. Were those the days of World War II? I guess so yeah I think. And our audience, at least the younger members of the

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audience may not know it was tough for for German Americans here in

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the United States. And there are there are some ghastly stories that

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are told about misunderstanding of where are German American

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forefathers loyalty lied.

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So this is real and it brings up the last photo we want to show is the cover of a

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book the title of the book is "Roughing It".

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Would you talk about that please? Yes, my Uncle Albert wrote that.

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I am glad that it was the most

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exciting books I guess about Brazil that I read how he too you know, he had preaching

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places that he would go to. And he would ride a horse and sometimes he would be in a forest at night not knowing where it was Going.

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And one story

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he fell off the horse and the horse fell in the water too.

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And so there were just so many things, you know that he had to go

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through and they are all in all this book describes many of those

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things. It was not a big thing to go down to Brazil and be a missionary and do what he did. The homes had no glass windows and even I think in my father's

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day they drank the water that came off the tile roofs

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because they have no other water supply.

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Did you know that leads me to ask this question.

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We have relatively comfortable Christianity here in the United States

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and the first blush reaction of anybody hearing about roughing it in

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the wilds would be

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Oh no

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I don't want I don't want any part of that.

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And yet I suspect with that rough time was really a great stimulus to

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the faith of the Lehenbauers in Brazil and to you in the United States to

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know that this is what mission is really about and it increases the

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importance of the scriptures and and faith in your lives.

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Is is that true or am I reading it wrong? Oh absolutely I am I

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suppose that might have been

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one reason that I

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eventually decided not to go to Brazil.

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I wanted to because there were Mission Festivals and missionaries that my dad brought in at these times and I was really enthused about Ministry because

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of that yet when I grew a little older, I thought of some of the things you know that I would have to

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do like learn a foreign language and such. But I really admire people like Lois and her husband Cliff who went to Taiwan. And one of my

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father sisters married a missionary to Australia and there maybe a few others that

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different places that I just have a great admiration for

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them all.

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Now that that's encouraging to me and then I think it's an incentive

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for us to break out of our cocooned congregations into whatever the

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needs of the community we live in happened happened to be.

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Is there a story about soybeans in Brazil?

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Yes, that's my Uncle Albert. He introduced soybeans to either Brazil or Argentina or both. And it became such a profitable crop that they put up a statue of Uncle Albert in whatever place he was living in at he time.

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And wanted to show them how grateful he was.

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They wanted to show him how grateful they were for his bringing soybeans to Brazil. Farmers here didn't like it very much when they found out.

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I'm told at that statue is in Santa Rosa, Brazil and and there is a

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museum there.

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So those of us who have any farm experience in the United States

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realize the importance of the soybean.

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I mean, you can make anything out of soybeans. Maybe a good

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baseball player you know and so that's an amazing thing.

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And part of the moral there is missionaries are not just about

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telling people about Jesus, but it's also about Jesus in their daily

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lives helping their lives.

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This is fascinating.

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Do you remember

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a Arnold Schneider from

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Brazil?

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No if my

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older brothers and sisters would be around they would do that, but

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the only one I remember is Reverend Otto Bauer who became my godfather, my sponsor. Arnold Schneider was a missionary in Brazil and then came back

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to the United States and then became the the district president in the

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eastern district.

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Well, I met him when he was older and he came to our little town of

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Benity to officiate a wedding with me the wedding of his niece or

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great-niece and there again, the same theme emerges that Schneider

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family has been very influential in passing the faith from generation

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to generation and in Missions. So the nice that was married with a

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longtime Lutheran School teacher.

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So this is the theme of today's Word and Work that we are interested in

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Mission and that we want to pass it on from generation to generation.

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And one of the ways right before us is family. The Christian Life of

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the family and imparting the Christian faith in the zeal to bring

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Jesus to others to our children and our children's children.

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I hope you'll stay with us.

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We'll be right back.

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Concordia Seminary St.

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Louis provides continuing education resources for pastors and lay

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people to discover all the Concordia Seminary has for you visit us on

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the web at CSL.

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EDU.

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Welcome back to Word and Work an Intersection.

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We're talkin today with Reverend Osmar Lehenbauer. And we're talking

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about the role of family in passing the faith of our Lord Jesus on

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from generation to generation. And we're just not talking about his

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specific family, but we're talking about the extended Lehenbauer clan

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but Pastor Oz let's talk about your family. During our break

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we mentioned that your wife Shirley who is a model of being a pastor's

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wife to Diane.

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She was called to glory and and and Catherine is now your bride. I give credit to Shirley for the way in which my kids grew up. i had these large congregations and her brining up the family was something

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she took on and did a really good job with.  Because they

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have all turned out quite well and

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like Becky went to Ann Arbor

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and met her husband Bob there who became a Lutheran and a Lutheran Teacher and now principal. Let me stop there. You said Becky went to Ann Arbor and he became a Lutheran. Yes. Okay audience you see what

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happens you see how important the family is.

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So continue pastor oz. Okay. Well and then

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Joel went, he a number of appointments to West point and he decided that it would take too long to be a lawyer.

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So he went to Valparaiso where he had a scholarship and was there for a year and then decided to go

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to Ann Arbor and then he decided to become a pastor. And my next son, Dan, became a Dentist and lives in Chicago area. And my youngest son works for Humana Corporation in Louisville. But all three of those

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who weren't members of the clergy or teacherage they are very very active in congregational life and that

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makes me feel really good. As well it should. And your youngest and I think is

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Eric.

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You didn't mention Eric.

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You mentioned Joel Lehenbauer.

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Is that the Joel Lehenbauer of the Commission on Theology and Church

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Relations? Yes it is.

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I trained him well. Well, I know that you you did he was a candidate one of

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the finalists for the president of the St.

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Louis Seminary and and Dr.

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Egger was has assumed that office is going to do a very fine job, but that

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does not diminish the contributions of your son Joel to the life of

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the church.

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He's been at the CTCR for a long time and in and I think just off

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the top of my head the new Synodical catechisms, Luther's Small

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Catechism with explanation and then the dogmatics for the church

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confessing the gospel.

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Those are generational works.

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And and once again in line with the theme of today's program

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Lehenbauers were involved in this generational passing on of the Gospel.

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In your nuclear family as they call it

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you passed the gospel on in and and the

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children in church work and in lay vacations really active in in the

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life of the church.

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Have you seen that in the extended Lehenbauer clan a similar

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dynamic?

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Yes, I have.

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Just for an example my sister married a Pastor Renfer they have four children three boys and one girl. The three boys

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became pastors and the daughter married a pastor and now in that

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family they're having children who are going into the ministry.

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So that's just one example of how that happens within the family. So when we we get together as a family we can almost have a pastoral conference. That's one of the strengths of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. We get together and we

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all know some of the same people. And when it comes to clans, you know,

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that that has made our church strong through 100

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almost eighty years give or take for you to forgive my math

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historians.

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Now that's within the family one of the things that I treasure about

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you Pastor Oz you're one of my heroes.

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Is that whether you realized it or not

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you were mentoring me.

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I don't know that we ever sat down for an official session, but I

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watched you, you shared information and I learned so much from that.

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Would you talk about mentoring those who are outside of the

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Lehenbauer clan?

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Well.

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Are you meaning layman from other families so far forth. And other pastors and

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teachers. You know people who are not in your immediate family who who

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wouldn't come to supper with you or the family reunions, but you had a

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relationship with and and I would think in various ways you and

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the other clergy mentored them.

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Well, I think through having large congregations you got to know many

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people in lay Ministries. maybe they didn't hold the ministries themselves but they were very active in the roles of the congregation. One of the thing that impressed me the most when I was growing up was my father had a Bible class in

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that little country church. And I went to God when I was at the Seminary and there were farmers

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in that Bible class not unusual but they knew there Bible. I learned in the winter time they would sit around the fireplace and read the Bible. But they were almost theologians when you went to Bible class. So I know there are a lot of other people like that

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who are very helpful in the church. Without the lay people we wouldn't have gotten to far. And with the women. I love Lutheran Missionary women's group in the Synod because they were so powerful. And I had the occasion to be the first pastor advisor for the Deaconess group when they left Valparaiso and went to River Forest.

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Things like that really leave an impression on you. make you thankful to God. people often talk about Ephesians chapter 4 equipping the Saints and

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and that's what you're saying whether it was Bible class in the Nokomis

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or or working with the LWML which by the way now has its office on

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Seminary campus. Or the Deaconess programs that we have at both of

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our seminaries.

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I think we pastors are are sent to study so that we might equip the

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people in their Ministries and they get into a whale of a lot more

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places where they can shine the light of Christ, then they'll ever let

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pastors and you can teachers into. What would you say to encourage

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younger pastors and teachers and for that matter lay people to

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mentor the next generation?

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Well, just like with you

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I don't know how I could be given the title of being your mentor if I

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had really been your mentor think of what you could have done. You could have been the Speaker of the Lutheran Hour. You could have been President of the Seminary. Can you imagine that with any other people without my knowing about it.

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Those of you who get tired of Dale Meyer right over the Reverend Osmar

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Lehenbauer in Florida and complain to him.

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But yeah, you know that's and Diane

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I mean we think of you often and and I have students now who whom

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I had here at the Seminary who come back and and say well you said

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this or you said that. And I think wow. One of my mantras has

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been it's a great time to be the church and I really believe that. But

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some years ago of a vicar was in a tough situation in a congregation

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the vicar hadn't caused the problem but you know as often happens in

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the ministry, it gets dumped on us. And he wrote back and first he said

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it's a great time to be the church, but he understood what I meant

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because

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for such a time as this and in the end, that's the mentoring so, you

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know.

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I would I would say to our pastors

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our church workers

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our active lay people we don't always have to be on the go. Sometimes

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just sit and talk with somebody from a younger generation and show

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them show them the way.

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Shifting gears if I may in the last years we have seen a decline in in

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students entering the Seminary.

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And here at St.

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Louis, we did a number of things.

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We added a number of positions.

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We put money into it and and we've seen an uptick in our students and

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the Fort Wayne Seminary has seen its enrollment increase, but it's

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still not enough.

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Would you please talk about recruitment for the ministry Pastoral

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Ministry and the Teaching Ministry based on what you've seen over your

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long career change?

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Well I seen a change in the ages of pastors.

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I'm in a congregation now, we're three men have become or almost become fully pastors but going through that shorter course and

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I really admire them for doing this. Some have families which they're giving up

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there are going but I realize also the younger pastors are coming to the Seminary with wives and children. I give them a lot of credit for doing this.

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And I would do whatever I could to encourage people who are men who are even thinking of becoming pastors to go for it.

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Because I know many of just don't feel called to the Ministry until they are out in the work world.

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The program's you were talking about for the audience are the main

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program that we have used over the decades is the the residential

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Master of Divinity Degree program.

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And then there is a parallel residential route called the Residential

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Alternate Route. Well those require residents at one of our campuses

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Fort Wayne or here in St.

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Louis. But now we also have the SMP, Specific Ministry Program, route

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in the ministry and and that's contextual. A student stays

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let's say in Oviedo, Florida but takes intensive courses and prepares

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for for Ministry. And this just reflects the desire of the Synod to get

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pastors out with the word of God in this day and age recognizing that

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not everyone can come to the to the campus be that here or

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or in Fort Wayne.

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So I think that's what you're referring to.

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Correct? That's right.

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No looking back and I hope we will use this also for recruitment this

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video.

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Talk about

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the joys of the ministry.

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I mean we saw the the booklet "Roughing It".

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Okay, and and we can all tell horror stories about the ministry

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okay. But looking back at your own career, would you share some of the

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joys and the satisfaction and if I may be so presumptuous some of the

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reasons why I think you would get into it again.

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Well, I'd say first of all I found and that should be no surprise that

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the word works.

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You don't realize it until maybe for the end of a particular Ministry

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when people come to you and thank you for this sermon or that sermon or this motivation or that motivation and then

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you go to another church and you don't know whether you're really

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reaching people. But as long you are using the Word you know that is going to have its effect on people and that's always

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been a great pleasure of mine to see how God uses little me to take his powerful Word and to

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hearts and lives in people around.

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I've had the same experience in in in in so much of this depends upon

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us faithfully intelligibly speaking the Word because unlike some

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Christian Lutherans believe that that Word has a power in it.

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And I remember I'll give me an example.

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We joked about you ordained me, married me and bury my father.

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At least I joked about it, but I will never forget

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that funeral sermon when you quoted John 6 verse 37 37, I think it is

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whosoever cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.

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I was in the ministry then and and I'm kind of an academic type guy.

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I know a lot of bible stuff, but that passage hit me and I can still

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see myself sitting with family in the pew for that funeral.

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And you laid John 6:37 on on me

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I don't know that you knew that you were doing it.

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But that that made I've been in the ministry about 45-50 years with 40

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whatever and wow, I have use that often time and that goes back to you

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Pastor Oz.

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I appreciated your father as a member of my congregation.

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He and Kramer were my first two missionaries when I started the new program

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training two and then training two more and your father and Mr. Krammer were the very first ones. And he really did a fine job and a real helper in that

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regard.

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He was a Milkman

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yes, and then younger people don't know what a Milkman is, but but we

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won't get into that because I think a lot of our audience remember

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what milkmen were but you mentioned

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Mr.

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Kramer was a Bill Cramer?

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I think. Yes Bill and his son Richard was President of the Concordia College in Canada.

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Yes, exactly the point and then again the theme of today's program is

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families so Bill Cramer with my dad

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we're active LLLers.

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They were active in Saint Paul's congregation.

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And Richard Kramer, Dr.

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Richard Kramer, who graduated from Valparaiso

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I believe and then from the Seminary was the longtime president of

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Concordia College in Edmonton, Canada. Yes.

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I mean hey

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we talk about getting the church to grow.

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Which we need to start doing it again, you know maybe part of the

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00:44:55.100 --> 00:44:59.900
answer is sitting around the table or the TV with us when the family

453
00:44:59.900 --> 00:45:00.400
gets together.

454
00:45:01.700 --> 00:45:03.800
Now moving on from church vocations

455
00:45:06.100 --> 00:45:07.800
it cost money to go to the Seminary.

456
00:45:09.700 --> 00:45:15.200
And the Lehenbauer family has done something about that too.

457
00:45:15.200 --> 00:45:22.200
In fact, your niece likes to say it's Lehen power, Lehen power.

458
00:45:22.200 --> 00:45:29.200
So would you tell us about what would your extended clan is doing to

459
00:45:29.200 --> 00:45:34.500
help prepare pastors for Ministry, especially on the financial side? Well let's say from first of all from time to time we have adopted a student from the Seminary or from the Seminary.

460
00:45:34.500 --> 00:45:49.000
And the actually it was just recently that I heard

461
00:45:49.000 --> 00:45:58.600
what my niece has been doing and maybe helped by her father my brother Arnold.

462
00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:14.600
Because she started this Lehenbauer Scholarship Fund to assist students to go through the Seminary. And now I think there is a whole page of

463
00:46:14.600 --> 00:46:20.900
names of family members who are contributing and there will be more in

464
00:46:20.900 --> 00:46:24.700
the years to come so that we can help.

465
00:46:24.700 --> 00:46:41.200
I didn't need any help when I went to the Seminary. I was pastor's son and the district Southern Illinois District made it possible for me to go and the farmers provided

466
00:46:41.200 --> 00:46:41.800
food and the church didn't have to provide much other so that I needed a lot of money.

467
00:46:46.700 --> 00:46:59.300
So I got through that but then there are others like my wife's son-in-law  who had to

468
00:46:59.300 --> 00:47:06.900
borrow a lot of money and may still be paying off some of that  to get through the ministry. When

469
00:47:06.900 --> 00:47:13.100
you mention that I got a big smile on my face because when I went to

470
00:47:13.100 --> 00:47:19.600
the Seminary and I got here what 52 years ago the cost about $1.000

471
00:47:19.600 --> 00:47:24.600
for tuition, room and board the whole thing.

472
00:47:25.400 --> 00:47:28.900
And I could make most of that in the summers on the milk truck.

473
00:47:28.900 --> 00:47:31.800
Pastor Oz said my dad was a Milkman.

474
00:47:31.800 --> 00:47:36.700
I work my way through College and Seminary delivery milk in the same

475
00:47:36.700 --> 00:47:41.700
way. You know what it cost now to go to the Seminary just tuition

476
00:47:41.700 --> 00:47:44.700
$26.000.

477
00:47:46.200 --> 00:47:49.500
And they're there are reasons that's happened.

478
00:47:49.500 --> 00:47:52.700
You know people say why is the cost of education gone up?

479
00:47:52.700 --> 00:47:57.600
Well technology is one, government regulations are another and is a

480
00:47:57.600 --> 00:48:00.800
former administrator I can talk about this until the cows

481
00:48:00.800 --> 00:48:06.500
come home. The wonderful thing about the people of the church is that

482
00:48:06.500 --> 00:48:08.900
they know the value of the seminaries.

483
00:48:08.900 --> 00:48:13.900
They want their Church workers and today both Seminaries are able to

484
00:48:13.900 --> 00:48:14.500
offer

485
00:48:15.700 --> 00:48:20.300
free tuition. It's not free, but the student doesn't have to

486
00:48:20.300 --> 00:48:22.700
pay that and how does that happen?

487
00:48:22.700 --> 00:48:28.800
Well, it happens through donations like the Lehenbauer Scholarship

488
00:48:28.800 --> 00:48:31.200
endowment. Here in St.

489
00:48:31.200 --> 00:48:31.500
Louis.

490
00:48:31.500 --> 00:48:36.900
we I would say about 600 individual endowments in our in our

491
00:48:36.900 --> 00:48:43.000
big endowment pool about 95% give or take

492
00:48:44.100 --> 00:48:47.800
of those individual endowments are for scholarship.

493
00:48:49.000 --> 00:48:54.900
And so, you know, I'll set you up your pastor with a with a question

494
00:48:54.900 --> 00:48:56.600
you can talk to.

495
00:48:56.600 --> 00:49:03.500
What would you say to to our audience about setting up a scholarship

496
00:49:03.500 --> 00:49:09.400
whether that be that could be an endowment and that only starts

497
00:49:09.400 --> 00:49:11.000
with $25.000.

498
00:49:11.000 --> 00:49:15.800
I say only that's that's big-time money but a family can off and put

499
00:49:15.800 --> 00:49:20.300
that much together or just as you said he'll just supporting an

500
00:49:20.300 --> 00:49:24.600
individual students with both seminaries are able to facilitate.

501
00:49:24.600 --> 00:49:27.800
So I tried to tee that up. Could you speak to that Pastor Oz? Well I'm very happy the scholarship is available now and I thank

502
00:49:38.800 --> 00:49:46.100
Pam and her husband, I guess for following up on that because I know

503
00:49:46.100 --> 00:49:54.000
that if some of the people I know could hear about this and I can talk to them about it.

504
00:49:54.000 --> 00:49:59.600
I know that they would contribute to this and I intend to do that and yes,

505
00:49:59.600 --> 00:50:25.700
whoever is in a position to start a family scholarship or an no-family scholarship the church needs your help. And the students that go there often go not knowing how they are going to get through college without going deeply in debt.

506
00:50:25.700 --> 00:50:31.400
You made a number of important point s there first of all the problem of debt that is a heavy burden on on on a

507
00:50:31.400 --> 00:50:36.600
pastor or teacher and it weighs heavily on their souls when they get

508
00:50:36.600 --> 00:50:38.700
into the ministry where they're not making six figures.

509
00:50:38.800 --> 00:50:44.300
Okay, so that's something we will want to alleviate upstream a second

510
00:50:44.300 --> 00:50:44.600
thing

511
00:50:44.600 --> 00:50:49.000
is that the supporting come through donations here at St.

512
00:50:49.000 --> 00:50:54.700
Louis we call it the adapters to program. And our folks can

513
00:50:54.700 --> 00:50:56.100
help you in the audience

514
00:50:56.100 --> 00:51:01.100
if you want to participate in that. Endowments can be set up either

515
00:51:01.100 --> 00:51:06.300
individual endowments or family endowment and contributed to as the

516
00:51:06.300 --> 00:51:07.500
years go on.

517
00:51:07.500 --> 00:51:11.800
It's it's not like you have to give all the money at at one time.

518
00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:18.200
Here's a little background and maybe Pastor Oz you can reflect

519
00:51:18.200 --> 00:51:18.800
on this.

520
00:51:20.700 --> 00:51:22.600
Our projections at the St.

521
00:51:22.600 --> 00:51:27.000
Louis Seminary and I know the Fort Wayne Seminary, is same.

522
00:51:27.900 --> 00:51:34.100
That is that individual donations are probably going to decline in the

523
00:51:34.100 --> 00:51:34.700
years ahead.

524
00:51:34.700 --> 00:51:39.100
And that's because the aging demographics of the Lutheran

525
00:51:39.100 --> 00:51:40.100
Church-Missouri Synod.

526
00:51:41.200 --> 00:51:43.700
Well, how do we deal with that

527
00:51:43.700 --> 00:51:48.800
if donations are in decline? One of the great ways is through

528
00:51:48.800 --> 00:51:54.400
endowments because endowments serve until the Lord comes to generate

529
00:51:54.400 --> 00:51:59.700
the revenue to produce the pastors and the church workers and it's my

530
00:51:59.700 --> 00:52:04.400
prayer in and I hope that my tenure as President moved in this

531
00:52:04.400 --> 00:52:04.700
direction.

532
00:52:04.700 --> 00:52:08.700
Is that our graduates then will help the church

533
00:52:09.900 --> 00:52:15.500
stop its decline and start to grow again the way it did in the early

534
00:52:15.500 --> 00:52:16.800
years of your ministry

535
00:52:16.800 --> 00:52:22.200
I know that. So you might talk about the hope that that our

536
00:52:22.200 --> 00:52:26.200
pastors and also our teachers and other Church workers are for the

537
00:52:26.200 --> 00:52:28.600
future as we find ourselves

538
00:52:28.600 --> 00:52:31.600
the American church is unfortunately in decline.

539
00:52:34.200 --> 00:52:39.700
Yes, I know you're responsible for quite a bit of that money.

540
00:52:39.700 --> 00:52:49.400
In fact, when Joel was thinking years ago about taking your position away from you, kiddingly. i told him you know he spends so much of his time going around raising money.

541
00:52:49.400 --> 00:53:00.900
Is that what you want to do as president of the Seminary? So did you get out of that one?

542
00:53:05.400 --> 00:53:11.900
You know, you know one of those things is so that the people of the

543
00:53:11.900 --> 00:53:13.200
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

544
00:53:13.200 --> 00:53:14.400
we are a close-knit group

545
00:53:14.400 --> 00:53:16.200
sometimes that hurts us.

546
00:53:16.200 --> 00:53:20.700
But but that's one of the reasons why why we have provided the

547
00:53:20.700 --> 00:53:25.900
financial funds for for both of our Seminaries and our church workers.

548
00:53:25.900 --> 00:53:26.200
And

549
00:53:27.400 --> 00:53:30.600
Joel Joel could have well done that and

550
00:53:30.600 --> 00:53:31.000
Dr.

551
00:53:31.000 --> 00:53:31.300
Egger

552
00:53:31.300 --> 00:53:34.900
I know certainly will. So at this time of life.

553
00:53:34.900 --> 00:53:36.700
This is my last question.

554
00:53:37.300 --> 00:53:43.400
Are you optimistic and hopeful about the future and I'm not

555
00:53:43.400 --> 00:53:48.600
talking about heaven, but about passing the leadership of the church

556
00:53:48.600 --> 00:53:51.000
Earthly wise to the next generation.

557
00:53:53.200 --> 00:53:56.600
Yes, I am not because of anything with human

558
00:53:57.600 --> 00:53:58.800
again, because of the power of God's Word

559
00:54:01.000 --> 00:54:03.600
and the fact that I said earlier God's Word works.

560
00:54:05.700 --> 00:54:20.800
And more and more the future is bad people are going to seek after God. They are going to want to know him better and find out about his love and forgiveness. And that message will

561
00:54:20.800 --> 00:54:29.900
always be there and when there are people around that message will hit home. And I pray that many many will hear it.

562
00:54:29.900 --> 00:54:36.400
I pray every night that more and more citizens of our country will come

563
00:54:36.400 --> 00:54:45.900
to the Lord Jesus and have him as their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I am happy when I hear of people in our country who

564
00:54:45.900 --> 00:54:49.000
do believe and who are practicing there Christian faith.

565
00:54:51.000 --> 00:54:56.000
Thank you Pastor Oz Lehenbauer for being with us on this this

566
00:54:56.000 --> 00:54:57.900
awesome broadcast.

567
00:54:57.900 --> 00:55:03.700
I wow and thanks to your family to the extended Lehenbauer clan

568
00:55:03.700 --> 00:55:09.300
for being a real Lehen power in in the continuing mission of our Lord

569
00:55:09.300 --> 00:55:10.900
Jesus from generation to generation.

570
00:55:10.900 --> 00:55:15.300
And I thank you our audience for being with us today.

571
00:55:15.300 --> 00:55:23.100
I pray that the intersection of Word and Work will be busy a blessing

572
00:55:23.100 --> 00:55:27.700
and productive for generations to come on your corner.