As a young man I was given many opportunities to try out the ministry. My home church let me preach my first sermon at age 14. During college I was given the chance to preach for Sunday evening services at Bethel Lutheran Brethren Church (LBC) in Bellingham, Washington. After college I served as pastor in several different Lutheran Brethren congregations.

With all of that experience I began to think that I didn't really need a seminary education. I suggested that idea to Rev. Edwin Overland, my father-in-law. He answered concisely, "Pastors need lots of seminary education." End of discussion.

But why? It costs a lot of money-$30,000 in tuition paid by each student and another $70,000 in expenses that must be met by contributions to the school. It means hard work and often hardships financially. Unless the school is close by or it can provide distance learning options, it means moving one's family. So why invest the time and money in a seminary education?

1. To correctly interpret the Scriptures.
Even the brilliant preacher Apollos needed a teacher's instruction in order to "correctly handle the word of truth." Luke describes him as "...a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures." Then he writes, "When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately" (Acts 18:26).

To correctly handle the word of truth, students at Lutheran Brethren Seminary (LBS) learn that Jesus Christ and his redemption is the core message of the Old Testament and the key to its interpretation. Three years ago middler seminarian, Rud Wasson, was speaking at a Lenten service. He read his text from John 19:28, "Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.'"

Rud began his message by telling about the woolen mill in Faribault. He described this large metal rack which was wide enough to drive a small car through, and it was about 50 feet long. "On this rack are hundreds of spools of yarn. The yarn from each spool attaches to a knitting machine about the size of a small piano at the end of the rack. Those strands of yarn attached to that knitting machine are a picture of this verse. All of the prophecies of the Old Testament come together and are fulfilled in this moment when Jesus said, ‘I thirst.'"

I thought, "That's a great illustration. But where did he get that understanding?" He told me, "That's what Professor Soenksen teaches in his Old Testament classes."

To correctly interpret the scriptures students at LBS learn Greek, an agonizing process which Professor Kilde handed over last summer to Mark Erickson. The agony of learning Greek forges life-long friendships for those who endure the crucible experience together. Following are just a couple of examples why such hard work is invaluable.

We learned in beginning Greek that the perfect tense means "a past completed action with results in the present." When Jesus cried from the cross, "It is finished," the apostle John used the Greek perfect tense to record the words of Christ. From this we learn that Jesus' words mean, "The work of salvation has been completed, and the results continue into this present moment." That bit of extra clarity gets students excited about learning the Greek perfect tense!

Then there are Greek word studies. Certain Greek words contain rich imagery which don't always translate well into English. For example, Paul uses the word logizomai in Romans 6:11. The New International Version translates the verse, "Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." The King James translates it reckon. The New American Standard comes closest with the word consider.

Logizomai is an accounting term. In this verse it means to take something out of one side of the ledger and put it on the other. Paul is saying, "As you experience your sin nature, you know that you are very much alive to sin. But do the accounting. Take yourself out of the side of the ledger that is labeled, ‘Alive to sin,' and put yourself on the side that says, ‘Dead to sin and alive to God.' After all, that's how God sees you. Since you're now on that side of the ledger which is in Christ, don't offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life." As we say around the water cooler, "That'll preach!"

If the hard work in learning Greek is important for preaching, it is even more important for Bible translation. In the last century Lutheran Brethren missionaries translated the New Testament into 16 African languages. They first had to understand the text with precision before they could choose words to do a correct translation. Many used Greek to better understand the text they were translating.

2. To develop ministry skills.
Providing spiritual care; leading and serving; developing a personal prayer life, a pastor's heart, and personal wholeness; learning to resolve conflict, effectively preaching Law and Gospel; teaching the Scriptures.

3. To learn right theology.
We need well trained pastors and missionaries who know their theology and who can warn us about any false teaching and point us to the truth. Today as always truth gets perverted. Any one of us can be deceived by a partial truth.

I know that from personal experience. I attended an evangelical seminary for a year before I came to the Lutheran Brethren Seminary. That school had nationally recognized scholars. Classes were tough. Academic standards were very high. However, while I was learning to interpret the scriptures, I was imperceptibly putting myself over the Word.

The next year I came to LBS and was enrolled in Dr. Boe's course in hermeneutics (interpretation of the scripture). He began by saying, "We are here to learn how to interpret the scriptures accurately. We will be examining the text using the best methods we know for determining its meaning. But this will be our attitude." Then he got down on his knees and put his forehead on the floor before the Holy Scriptures. "We are not over the scripture. Rather, the scripture will be over us examining us."

As Professor Mathiesen examined what the scriptures teach about missions, he became convinced that mission is at the heart of God. "Our God is a God who sends. He sent his one and only Son into the world to redeem the world. Now he sends us into the world with the message of salvation. We are not merely the sending church, i.e., the church which only sends missionaries to faraway places. We are also the church which is sent." He teaches this theology of mission in his courses.

One of our graduates, Rev. Phil Heiser, invited him to teach this theology at Berea Lutheran Brethren Church in Alexandria, Minnesota. An Elder from that congregation, Allen Larson, recently described for me how the congregation was affected by that teaching. "It changed the way we pray... not so much ‘bring them to us' but more ‘show us where you want us to go and help us be faithful wherever we are.' Even as we have prayed that way, they have come to us!" Many new people are now coming to the church.

And what theology do they need to hear when we go to them and they come to church? Dr. Boe summarized that theology in the course Introduction to Lutheran Thought which he last taught in the Pacific Northwest District last fall. When asked how the course was helpful, youth pastor David Pierce of Peace LBC in Olympia, WA responded, "Of all of the valuable teaching points in the course, the one I put at the top of the list is this: All of our life is in Christ. He is our salvation and our sanctification. Christ is everything."

David summarized his learning by writing the following hymn:

The Mighty Gospel by David Pierce

The Mighty Gospel of Law and Grace, the message of God's desire to save.
The standards given reveal our sin, But grace extends and enters in.
Righteousness, has been revealed. Sin and Death no more concealed.
Salvation, now made known, to our hearts the truth is shown.

For we are captives to serve our flesh, we're born into death and selfishness.
And by our nature oppose his will, refuse to let our hearts be filled.
Holiness, we despised, choosing darkness o'er the light
Lost in sin, fallen short, objects for a wrath outpoured.

But demonstrating his perfect Love, the Savior has died and rose for us.
Though we were sinful, his enemies, it's by his Grace we stand redeemed.
Praise the name, Jesus Christ! by his power we have new life!
Justified, now made right, reconciled us to his side.

And by that power by which we're saved, we boldly will live, in Jesus' name.
We serve our maker, our God and King, our heart's desire his Glory bring.
Shout and sing, magnify, Christ the Lord be glorified.
Precious Law, wondrous Grace, made complete our sins erased.

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Not every graduate will write hymns. But LBS exists so pastors and missionaries are prepared to take the message in this hymn to the ends of the earth.

Dr. David Veum is President of Lutheran Brethren Seminary in Fergus Falls, Minnesota