ROUGHLY EDITED COPY CH3-000 PROFESSOR LAWRENCE REST PROFESSOR WILL SCHUMACHER Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. P.O. Box 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 ***** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communications Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***** >> DR. LAWRENCE REST: Greetings. I'm Dr. Lawrence Rest. I teach historical theology at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne. And I'd like to welcome you to this course in modern church history. My partner in this course is Dr. Will Schumacher of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis who is also in the field of church history as well as missions. And Will, if you will for my sake, but also for the sake of our students, give us a brief introduction to you, your family, your work, your overall perspective. >> DR. WILL SCHUMACHER: Thanks. I'd be happy to. I am a 1985 graduate of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, and my first call right out of the seminary was to be an evangelistic missionary to Botswana in southern Africa where I served for about nine years. After that service, I returned to the seminary for graduate study and have actually been on the faculty here ever since. In a very real sense, I know more about parish life in an African village than I do about being a pastor in the United States. But we'll try to compensate for that handicap on my part. I am married. My wife and I have a son and two daughters. They're all out of high school right now. We just celebrated our anniversary. This week while we're taping I've been celebrating. So Larry, now it's your turn. Tell us a little bit about yourself. >> SPEAKER: Sure. Happy to do so. I'm a 1990 graduate of Concordia Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Following my time there, I actually moved down south to Nashville, Tennessee. And while living in Nashville between 1991 and 1996, I served both as a pastor of Ascension Lutheran Church in Madison, Tennessee, as well as working on my PhD at Vanderbilt University. It was a stressful time, but very fulfilling as well. I had a great congregation, one that grew very rapidly and just a wonderful time, one that I experienced with my family as well. My wife, Amy, and I have three children, two boys and a daughter, as it turns out. We celebrated our anniversary not too long ago. Our anniversary happens to be on April 26th which you know is the anniversary of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and it just so happens that 139 years to the day, after the founding of Missouri, my wife and I were married. She has always accused me of choosing that date specifically and intentionally which I will neither confirm nor deny. Nevertheless, you can see that history is a part of life for the Rest family and I know it is for you, Dr. Schumacher. With that in mind, it seems to me we should open the floor up and see if there are any questions from our students. ***** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communications Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *****