Concordia Seminary celebrates 100 years in Clayton

Opening Remarks

100^th Anniversary Video Tribute

In anniversary years like this it is good to give thanks and praise to God for his gracious love and for his many gifts. Give God glory for what he has done in this place for the past 100 years! We also thank him for the people of our church and of Concordia Seminary, and for what God has accomplished through them over the past century.

When construction of this campus began, the Missouri Synod was about 75 years old. Just a few years earlier, the Synod had translated its name from German into English. It was becoming an American church. It continued to grow and over time people started to come into Missouri Synod congregations who did not have German last names. Concordia Seminary continued to grow especially here in this new place. This campus was built by forward-thinking people, by people who were concerned about the church and its mission, and the future.

In 1920, the Missouri Synod in convention dedicated $1,000,000 to the building of a new seminary campus. In 1923 it dedicated another $1,500,000. The old campus, on South Jefferson Avenue in St. Louis, had served well, but the seminary was growing and simply ran out of space. Synod purchased this De Mun Estate property as the site for the new seminary, but many of the funds towards that purchase came from congregations in the St. Louis area. It was Synod and its congregations that dedicated their gifts towards the building of this place, but it was also individuals and families that sacrificed to help make this new campus possible. It is worth remembering their gifts and their love for the church.

When I was serving as a pastor at Salem, in Affton (South St. Louis County) I got to know well a couple in the congregation: Walter and Ellen Wildermuth. Walter died at age 97, but I visited him regularly in the years before that. I remember the time Walter told me that he was here for the dedication of the new campus of Concordia Seminary in 1926. He came with his family from southern Illinois. He was a boy then, about 12 years old. He didn’t remember much about the speeches and sermons and the ceremony of the day, but he remembered running all over the campus, going through the new buildings and exploring. It was a memorable day for him.

Walter then told me about another day, several years before the dedication day; it must have been about 1923. On a Sunday afternoon, the Wildermuth family had a visitor to their home out on the farm in southern Illinois. It was Professor Theodore Graebner from Concordia Seminary. He was on the building committee for the new campus. Mr. Wildermuth told me that Professor Graebner sat down at the kitchen table with his parents and told them about the new Seminary campus. Graebner went into some detail about the plans for the new buildings, what it would look like, what it would cost, but also about the need for a new place to train pastors and missionaries. Young Walter must have been watching this whole conversation because, at one point, he said, “Professor Graebner told my Mom and Dad that $500 would be a wonderful gift to help build this new campus.” ($500 was a lot of money for a farm family in southern Illinois in 1923; in today’s dollars it would be close to $10,000.) Walter told me, “Professor Graebner was really good, and he went away that day with a check for $500 in his pocket.”

It was the Synod, it was congregations, but it was also families like the Wildermuths and countless others that made this place possible. It’s important to remember them, and to give thanks to God for them. Their gifts, their sacrifices, their love that by the grace of God built this place of which we are the heirs.

Why would the people of this church make Concordia Seminary such a priority in 1926? Because they wanted to train and form pastors. They were forward-looking and they knew that in the future they would need pastors for their congregations, and missionaries to bring the Gospel of Christ to the world. Concordia Seminary was a place for forming those servants for the church. And so, they got to work…

The work has continued over the years, and it still continues to this very day.

Thanks be to God, the people of this church continue to make Concordia Seminary a priority still today in 2026. They do so because the need for servants in the church is as great, if not greater, than it has ever been. Concordia Seminary is dedicated to the formation of faithful pastors for the Office of the Holy Ministry. It is dedicated to training teachers, deaconesses, and missionaries for faithful service to the church and to the world.

The people of the Missouri Synod are Lutherans and have never forgotten Martin Luther’s emphasis on central message of the Scriptures: Human beings are lost in sin, and it is God who justifies. After that, Luther says, everything else is hollow by comparison. The most important thing in the whole world is the Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Concordia Seminary remains dedicated to preparing people to bring that message to the world. We never forget that the Lord is the one who builds his house. It’s his church, created and sustained by his Word. And His Word remains, now and forever. Thank you.

Recognition of Civic Proclamations and Resolutions

Description of Commemorative Medallion and Booklet

As part of the planning for our 100^th Anniversary of the Clayton Campus, we spent some time looking to the past to see how the seminary has observed its anniversary milestones over the years. And one of the projects that emerged from that study was the design and production of a commemorative coin or medallion.

Well, wouldn’t you know that we just happen to have a world-class numismatist on our campus. Now what, you might ask, is a numismatist? (I imagine Leo Sánchez is already trying to connect this to “pneumatology” or something.) (Ha!) But seriously, a numismatist is “a person who studies, researches, and collects coins, tokens, and medals.” And so we are extremely blessed to have been able to collaborate with a world-class numismatist, Dr. Daniel Harmelink, and to partner Concordia Historical Institute in producing a commemorative coin for this anniversary.

Not only is Dr. Harmelink an esteemed collector and scholar of Reformation coins and medals, but he is also a skilled artist and designer as a result of his early training as an architect. And so we asked him to propose a design for our commemorative medal.

[1st slide—seminary blueprints]

Dr. Harmelink’s first thought was to see whether the original line drawings and blueprints of the Clayton Campus might provide an artistic possibility.

[2^nd slide—Wartburg bird’s-eye view]

That led to his recollection of a design that was used by East Berlin medalist and illustrator Heinz Rodewald, which was used in Germany for the Luther 500 anniversary in 1983 for a commemorative 5 Mark coin. It depicted a bird’s-eye view of the Wartburg in Eisenach, Germany.

[3^rd slide—black-and-white drone photo]

From there, Dr. Harmelink sought out how to capture a bird’s-eye view of our campus Quadrangle, with the top of Luther Tower placed squarely in the middle. With the assistance of young August Nafzger and his drone in early 2026, a color photo acquired and converted to a high-resolution, black-and-white image, which Dr. Harmelink then used to develop a comprehensive design for medal.

[4^th slide—initial design, both sides of coin]

The committee approved this design by Dr. Harmelink. It includes the high-res photo on one side surrounded by a description of the commemorative occasion. And then on the reverse side, it includes a simplified graphic of the seminary’s historic seal with lettering in the historic Copperplate font, which was popular in the 1920s.

5^th slide—computer-generated digital proof

And here you see a final, computer-generated proof of the coin. “But where,” you might ask, “can I acquire one of these beautiful commemorative coins?” I am pleased to announce that for each faculty member here there is one waiting for you on the table [at the back of Koburg], with your name on it. In fact, each commemorative coin comes in an attractive box, along with a certificate of authenticity, signed by Dr. Harmelink. There were only 250 of these coins created, so each certificate is uniquely numbered to reflect that.

And now, would you please join me in acknowledging Dr. Harmelink’s beautiful and magnificent work.

In closing, I would also draw your attention to this very fine “History of Concordia Seminary’s Iconic Clayton Campus,” which was developed by our seminary communications team.

Closing Remarks

Looking ahead to the future of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis: the next 100 years.

Thanks to each one of you for being here today. And before I make further remarks, let’s express our appreciation for two groups of people. First, thanks to the planning committee for this anniversary celebration, to our campus events and hospitality staff, our food service workers, and all who served to make the celebration back in April and today’s gathering wonderful occasions for our seminary community and our guests. [Applause.] And second, thanks to those who so lovingly and skillfully care for this campus: Chad Cattoor, Martin Hague, Ray Allen, Gayle Zollmann, our C & W employees, and our student workers.

Without God’s people who serve here, without all of you, all these grand buildings don’t do much good. But over the last 100 years here in this place, and seated all around you here today, God has blessed this Seminary with such wonderful people with such diverse gifts and personalities, serving our students, serving the church, serving in the name of His beloved Son, serving to His glory, serving not themselves but others, and one another.

When this Seminary campus was built 100 years ago, Theodore Laetsch, pastor of historic Trinity in downtown St. Louis, secretary of the Synod at the time, and a member of the building committee, described the new campus with these words:

“The [buildings are] constructed of stone laid up in the very best grade of cement mortar. St. Louis limestone is used for the backing, while the facing is a combination of different kinds of stone from various parts of the country. From Perry County, where stood the cradle of our Alma Mater, comes the golden-brown Wittenberg stone, which lends some of its warmth, its concentrated sunshine, to the rather cold gray of the local limestone, while blended into almost perfect harmony with these two kinds of stone are the soft pink of the Lyons stone, the bluish-gray of the Zell stone, and the rich red of the Boulder stone. Bedford stone is used for the cut-stone trim. Each kind of stone serves to bring out the beauty of all other varieties, and, in turn, has its own beauty enhanced by all the other kinds. Even the heavy slate roof is not lacking in beauty. Especially when the sun strikes it, it shows a veritable gamut of beautiful hues and tints…. Like the living temple of God, the Church of Christ on earth, these stones and slates, every one of them, serve not themselves, but others, blending together into one harmonious group, helping to make it a thing of beauty, and a joy to behold.” [Walther League Messenger, Vol. 35 (1926): 616]

When I was a student here, back in the 1990s, Tori and I would sometimes go the Galleria Mall. Remember when people used to go to malls? We would often stop at a coffee store there called Gloria Jean’s Beans. Man, that place smelled so good—the fresh ground coffee beans. One of my favorite smells in the world. I would always think, it would be so great to work here and to smell that all day long. One time I asked the girl behind the counter whether she kept noticing the coffee aroma through a whole shift or whether she just got used to it and couldn’t really smell it after a while. And she said, “Yeah, you don’t really smell it when you work here.”

For those of us who work every day at Concordia Seminary—I hope that our senses never grow dull to what a beautiful place we’ve been blessed to enjoy here. In the busyness of our work, in the inevitable frustrations and weariness of our work, may an occasion like this anniversary serve to help us to smell the coffee, so to speak—to recognize anew the magnificent, beautiful place that our forefathers planted here for us that that so many supporters and workers have continued to maintain for us, and that we get to enjoy every day.

But most importantly, I pray that our hearts never grow dull to the magnificent, beautiful work the Lord has placed into the hands of Concordia Seminary. Teaching, learning, and proclaiming the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ, the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world.

Today, we have looked backwards. But we also look forward. Over the next decade, God willing, we will be making our own contributions to the ongoing beauty and usefulness of this physical campus. Our Campus Plan includes the renovation of Faculty Houses 13, 14, and 15, completed this summer, and the consideration of additional faculty housing construction. We will break ground on September 14 for the complete reconstruction of our Married Student Housing Apartments in the Woods, new and definitely improved. We will renovate three large wings of the historic campus core – the stone and slate buildings just across from the chapel, using them for office functions and for social and meeting space. We will demolish Loeber Hall, and on its footprint build new single student housing. We will update and further beautify the interior of the chapel and make needed repairs and upgrades to its organ.

We have received much. God grant us that we may pass along much—a campus in good condition, with a beauty that testifies to the goodness of God and the holiness and eternal significance of the work that He does here.

100 years ago, Professor Theodore Graebner authored a commemorative book describing the new campus, its history and construction and features and symbolism. Please indulge me as I close these remarks with this excerpt from Graebner’s first chapter, as he summarizes the history of our Synod and our Seminary up to 1926:

“We stood isolated among the denominations. We were travelers in a foreign land. The culture of the nineteenth century was in its very essence secular and antichristian; its tendencies such that we had to testify against it continually. There was much organized opposition. What prospect did our fathers have in their fight against such a league of hostile forces? What chance had a body of believers who upheld the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible in an age which regards the Scripture at best as a record of ancient religious experience? Knowing the age in which we live, how could we expect to be more than a minor body in the roster of denominations? Not as if there were reasons for discouragement if such had been the history of our Synod. Success in the kingdom of God is not a matter of numbers, but of faithfulness to revealed truth. The smallest body, loyal to the Lutheran Confessions, would still be the visible Church of Christ on earth. Its work would be as glorious if it counted its adherents by thousands instead of hundreds of thousands.

“Whenever the transactions of our synodical sessions are given to the printer, the last line is made to read: ‘Soli Deo Gloria—To God alone be glory!’ And in printing this concluding line in 1926, we are not merely in a formal way echoing the refrain of hundreds of District and General conventions in the past, but we confess that which is our heart’s conviction. To God alone, —not to power of organization, not to wise leadership, not to prudent expenditure of funds, not even to faithfulness of our workers in church and school, —but to God alone we give honor for the success which has been ours in the past. To Him alone all glory for the new, commodious Concordia Seminary! Praise be to God alone, who has so blessed the work of our public teachers in college and seminary that our dear Missouri Synod today stands not only strongly united in the apostolic faith, but has extended her tent-ropes and set far the bounds of her domicile, until the sun never sets on the territory where her Gospel is proclaimed. These colleges [and seminaries] of our Synod have been the power-houses from which ever new currents of living forces have issued into the organism of the Church. They have been the roots by which, out of the soil of the living Word of God, our Synod has drawn the vigor of her spiritual life. For who shall calculate the influence upon the life of a church exerted by those thousands of faithful workers in pulpit and school who have come forth from the halls of our Concordias in the past eighty-seven years?” (Concordia Seminary: Its History, Architecture and Symbolism)

And today, we can say, “the past 187 years!” Thanks be to God. To God alone be the glory.

Please join me in prayer:

Dear Father in heaven, Creator of all good things and Redeemer of the world, we give you thanks today

for this campus,
for those who have gone before us,
for their faithful, sacrificial labor,
for their testimony to Your goodness and Your Gospel,
for the blessing of one another and our shared work in this place,
for the beautiful truth of Your love for us in Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of our sins in
His blood, and the joyous certainty of life in your kingdom forever.

Watch over these buildings and grounds and all who live, work, or study here. Use this place and use us for Your gracious purposes, and to Your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.