1880–1920 marked the heyday of foreign mission interest and activity among American Protestants. At the center of this crusade, one mission society alone sent 20,000 missionaries abroad between 1880 and 1950. The 1904 edition of The Encyclopedia of Missions states that there were 13,371 Christian missionaries worldwide; 2,708 were in China.
In 1905 my great-grandfather was sent as the first Augustana Swedish Synod missionary to China. He was one of those multitudes sent out with the gospel to lands that were not Christianized. This was a missionary era when men and women said goodbye to their extended families and set off for far away and exotic, and sometimes dangerous, lands in order to carry out our Lord’s Great Commission.
Times have changed. We aren’t sending out as many missionaries into world mission fields as we once did. However, world mission work is not decreasing. It’s actually increasing as we employ new strategies. The Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI) of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary plays a vital role in this global gospel outreach.
In 1980, WELS had about 80 missionaries worldwide. By 2000, we had 63 missionaries worldwide. In 2010, the number had decreased to 34. Today we have 46 missionaries (a slight increase) in 19 countries, and yet we have mission partners in 45 countries. What changed? What is going on here? Did financial constraints cause the missionary reductions in the early 2000s? Partly. There is a reason why our worldwide missionary force has stayed relatively small, even though our synod still has a relatively large mission footprint worldwide. The reason is that we’ve changed the way we carry out our Lord’s Great Commission. Rather than trying to teach our Anglo missionaries another language, which can take years, we are more intentional about training leaders from within the various people groups with whom we are working. These leaders, working in their native language, then partner with us to spread the gospel. We still send missionaries abroad to carry out our Lord’s Great Commission, but in many ways the world is now coming to us as diverse people groups move into our communities and neighborhoods.
PSI is currently training 32 students from 11 different people groups in 21 locations throughout North America. The Joshua Urban Ministry Program (JUMP) is a PSI initiative that currently trains seven men who grew up in urban environments to minister in urban environments. Five Chinese men spent one week at the seminary for intensive study in January 2024. Three more Chinese men are instructed via Zoom by one of our Chinese instructors. Three men from Calgary, Alberta, from three different people groups, have been accepted into the PSI program. The world has and continues to come to North America.
PSI’s charter is to “walk with kingdom-committed spiritual leaders worldwide,” working with them and nurturing them as they and their groups join and continue in the fellowship of the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference (CELC). The term “walk with” is used deliberately; the PSI values an ongoing mutual relationship. This relationship continues beyond the completion of a program, especially as leaders develop their own training programs for their own people in their countries of origin.
PSI’s privilege is to work with men who are literally dual citizens. We are responsible for the theological training of non-traditional, non-Anglo men to serve as pastors to their people group. They are almost always immigrants to the US and Canada and are bilingual, so teaching and communicating with them in English is generally not an obstacle. In turn then, the student can easily communicate the truths of the gospel with his own community in their native language. In more ways than we can often understand, a PSI student is a dual citizen, a citizen of two worlds.
Once a strong theological foundation has been laid with the local flock (assisted by WELS Home Missions), we look for ways to help the PSI graduate reach back to his home country (assisted by WELS World Missions). The goal is to establish an outpost for the gospel there in the target community’s first language. This partnership between Home and World Missions is the focus of the work of the Joint Mission Council (JMC). PSI is responsible for training the local North American based leader, and then we assist in reaching out to the leader’s community in his home country. One way of thinking about it might be to say that the JMC and PSI are constantly working in a world of people with dual citizenship.
One example of the support that our church body places behind our PSI students is the ministry of David Shang. Since David started his PSI studies in February of 2021, through his online lectures he has made contact with, and arranged for the baptisms of, 78 souls worldwide. Pastor Neil Birkholz, our WELS North American Asian Ministry Coordinator, offers David valuable guidance as he continues reaching and building up souls.
Another of our students, Mark Jiang, came to the United States in the fall of 2019. His intent was to complete a couple more years of law school. He met a man that encouraged him to attend seminary, but before enrolling he met one of our WELS pastors, who encouraged Mark to consider our Pastoral Studies Institute as his seminary option. Today,Mark is on-track to graduate the PSI program in May 2025. Mark serves his local congregation and a group of 20–35 Chinese speakers about 8hours north, while also providing commentaries and devotions online for use by a wider Mandarin speaking audience.
Still another example is Daniel, a university student in Maine studying computer science. A career in computer science, however, is only his plan “B.” His goal is to prepare himself to serve as a pastor in our church body. Along with his full load of university responsibilities, he studies every week with two other PSI students online with one of our Chinese PSI instructors.
What all of these PSI students have in common, along with all of our traditional seminary students, is that they are preparing themselves to proclaim a gospel of rich and overflowing forgiveness in Jesus. This gospel guarantees them, and their hearers, that disciples of Jesus are truly dual citizens; we serve God and man here, while our true home is in heaven. What nobler work could a person be entrusted with?
Harland “Skip” Goetzinger serves as director of the Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI).
.
.