Amanda Range

Amanda Range had her path planned. An undergraduate majoring in biology, she was preparing to move on to medical school or another graduate program in the medical field. But one Sunday, God spoke to her very clearly. "It was a Sunday service when the pastor threw out his prepared sermon and focused on a different message. I heard very clearly what was a change from my current path... a clear voice that said, ‘I want you to be a pastor.'" This began her discernment process. Where would she go? How would this change her circumstances and plans? How would this effect her current ministry within her church, working with youth, as well as her work in the medical field?

Amanda's pastor encouraged her to read a devotional about hearing God's voice and the call to ministry, and after reading, and prayer, she spoke to a number of people who affirmed that they saw in her the gifts for ministry. From there, Amanda began to look at seminaries.

"I was attracted to LTSP because there was an emphasis - a real intentionality - placed on preparing leaders in our current context in the 21^st century. I felt not only was God saying ‘You're going to be a pastor,' but ... a pastor for people living in reality" - the reality of living in the multicultural, pluralistic society, drastically changing over a very short period of time, that is the United States.  "I felt that LTSP was really going to prepare me for ministry in that context," with a focus on God's word, on worship, together as a community, and really focused on academics.

"I'm excited to be here to begin preparation to be a minister and servant of God."

Ian Hartner

The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP) is about more than training future pastors. Nobody knows that better than Ian Hartner, 25, in his second year of graduate studies leading to a Master of Arts in Religion. Ian, who earned a degree in music industry from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, doesn't plan on Sunday preaching. His Gospel witness takes on a different dimension.

Ian works in the world of advocacy, helping Christians make the connection between social policy and charity. He is a grassroots organizer, interning in his home state legislature in Trenton, assisting the New Jersey Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in areas of housing, hunger, and combating injustice. In a similar role in Washington last year, he worked for Jubilee USA on issues of debt relief for developing nations.

While organizing letter-writing campaigns to legislators, among other projects, Ian found that he needed to learn more about the faith connection to his work. That's where LTSP came in. LTSP, he says, "is a springboard for me. I needed to learn more about religion and theology to make this career happen, to find out about the biblical origins of social justice."

He had made the faith/social justice connection early on, while engaging in youth activities in his home church, Prince of Peace Lutheran in Marlton, New Jersey, where he and his older sister, now a pastor, were both inspired by an active youth ministry program.

Ian has a special interest in reaching youth with the importance of social justice concerns, and organized a World Vision sponsored 30-hour famine in one church. "I find that young people are interested," he says. The famine project, in which participants engaged in a prolonged fast while learning about social justice issues, "educated about people in different parts of the world. The young people were getting the bigger picture."

Ray Ranker

Ray Ranker has been thinking about a church career for a long time. "But sometimes people would see I was involved in the church, and conclude quickly that I should be a pastor without knowing much about my gifts, and that turned me off." It helped that Ray had a good campus minister to converse with during his college days. Then came the opportunity to go to Argentina to serve the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his denomination, as a volunteer for several years. "When I experienced God through the support of the religious community in Argentina it completely reinforced my understanding of a call to ministry," Ray says. After experiencing a World Council of Churches Assembly in South America, he concluded that "now is the time" to go to seminary.

Many LTSP features encouraged him to apply to the school when he visited. "It's a place with a strong academic tradition, and after my international experience I was excited to get back into a strong academic setting to gain the background I needed to serve in the church," Ray says. "I quickly saw the school had opportunities to get involved in social justice and that it is a diverse place racially and ecumenically. I've really enjoyed studying alongside Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal, Mennonite and Quaker seminarians. I'm really concerned about the direction we take in terms of global ecumenism." He adds he believes LTSP is "a great place to learn how to use our practical skills in the world, how to engage in the community as citizens of the world." He also appreciated LTSP's green, quiet campus in the midst of an urban setting.

After arriving on campus he says he enjoyed the opportunities to engage in interfaith dialog as well, and he quickly discovered another piece of LTSP history that drew him in immediately. "I learned about the work of the late LTSP faculty member O. Frederick Nolde, how in the middle of the last century he worked ecumenically with the World Council of Churches in the areas of religious liberty and human rights." Nolde taught Christian education and directed the Graduate School at LTSP for 40 years. He was influential in the founding of the United nations and establishing its human rights platform in the 1940s. Nolde also framed the religious freedom section of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60 years ago. "Fred Nolde's vision of the collaboration between church and state is exactly how I believe the church should be engaged in the world," Ray says. He enrolled in the Nolde human rights seminar when he arrived on campus.

Where will seminary study take Ray in terms of his career path? "At this point I am unsure," he admits. He's thought about parish ministry, a global ministry career or maybe work in international relief. "At this point I just want to be open to God's call, available to whatever God wants me to do. Sometimes I'd like to know today just what that outcome will be, but I tell myself I don't have to have all those answers right now."

Rodney Smith

"I never wanted to preach, I was never that interested in a theological career" says Rodney Smith, "I was going to be a musician."  Rodney attended the Berklee School of Music, Boston, Massachusetts, and during the time he studied and performed, there were several moments where he experienced pure joy. 

"I had nights playing where it felt like I was in total harmony with everything around me, and it was just me and God, It was as if He was simultaneously feeding me creative spirit and the ability to act on it. After that, I began to seek God in a new way, wondering if I could experience God outside of music."

By combining his musical gifts with his spiritual journey, Rodney played drums and sang in the choir at Triumphant Cross Lutheran Church in Salem, New Hampshire, but something was missing.  "I was still looking for a way to serve the Lord when a door was opened," according to Rodney. In short order, the pastor asked him to read the lessons, which led to becoming the worship assistant, until finally Rodney was asked to lead worship and deliver the message while the pastor was on vacation. Being nervous and excited about the opportunity, Rodney recalled that the experience turned him around forever. "For the first time since I stopped playing music regularly," according to Rodney, "I experienced a sense of joy in doing something that perfectly satisfied my being."

A few years ago, a family friend passed away. The family wasn't particularly "church going" according to Rodney, so he offered to assist them in finding a funeral home, preparing a service, writing and delivering the Eulogy and presiding over the service. "I realized there was no place I would have rather been than to be of help to others in such a moment" said Rodney. "I knew then without question that my call had to be fulfilled."

After visiting the LTSP campus, sitting in on classes, and talking with friends who graduated from LTSP, Rodney knew he would attend seminary. "It was like meeting the woman I was going to marry," said Rodney. That opportunity came in 2008, and  Rodney and his family moved on campus. His two children, Jessica and Sarah attend a local school while he attends class full time. When asked if it was a difficult transition, Rodney said, "God has moved so many things in my life to get me here, my wife and I believe this where we should be." After graduation, Rodney hopes to be a parish pastor in a small community, "not quite rural, but I will go wherever the Lord takes me."

Rozella Poston

Rozella Poston  didn't have it all figured out when she first set foot on the campus of LTSP. For a long time she had thought she wanted to work in the public sector, perhaps as a lawyer. But as a young, talented adult, she continued to maintain a close connection with the church, and people there kept asking, "Have you thought about seminary, about a career in the church?" The questions kept tugging at her.

In the meantime, she had graduated cum laude from Texas Southern University with a BA degree in sociology and a minor in African Studies. She had served five years on the staff of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod as Ministry Coordinator for Youth & Family Ministry. So after graduating from college, she began to consider a seminary education. After looking around a bit she settled on LTSP.

"The location of LTSP really appealed to me," says Rozella. "I feel a strong connection with urban work in a diverse, Christian context. And at LTSP I am reminded daily that I am not the only one here who looks like me." (Rozella is African American.)

"I've also been concerned to discover how my faith connects me with the real needs of the world, and so here I can connect my interests in sociology - community organizing and systems change - with theology and how those combined interests can connect me to the world's deep hungers. I also appreciate that Philadelphia has an important historical place in our country."

Uncertain when she first arrived on campus about what God "had in store" for her, she says she felt immediately comfortable about the seminary. "I felt a real acceptance from the faculty and staff. It was a friendly, smooth transition," she says. "We eat together family style. Many of the faculty members live right on the campus. It felt right away like a family environment, and I was studying with seminarians of all ages who had many of the same questions I did about the future and their place in it."

Now, Rozella has continued her history of academic excellence, earning the Joseph Quinton Jackson Award for academic excellence, and her career goals are becoming clearer. Upon earning her Master of Arts in Religion degree, she hopes to pursue PhD studies in the area of pastoral care and counseling, eventually providing emotional and spiritual care to African American youth and families in an urban area. Some day she hopes to teach at a seminary in the area of pastoral or practical theology related to youth and family ministry.

"I'd encourage anyone who envisions a life of service in the church to consider studying here," Rozella says. "It is a great place to figure out what your role can become, to identify how theological education can equip you to intersect with the real world by connecting to the larger church - both within and beyond the walls of a church building." And she notes that while many people come to seminary to become pastors, not everyone does. "I've come to appreciate the wider role seminary study can play today. Some of our students come here hoping to work in a social ministry organization or to consider other options, such as the kind of work I am considering, as well as to seek ordination."