Visiting Professors
Since opening in May of 2005, Asia Lutheran Seminary (ALS) has used a variety of innovative ideas to meet the growing demand for sound confessional Lutheran theological education in Southeast Asia. The original plan of the WELS Board for World Missions was to call three full-time resident professors. However, as in every world mission field, things changed. Lawrenz notes, “These broad initial approaches have been altered by circumstances and also by experience.” Frustrating perhaps, but the psalmist reminds us that “the plans of the Lord stand firm forever” (Ps 33:11).
The current resident teaching staff now numbers “one and a half rather than three” and presents a challenge that has been met, in part, by the visiting professor program. Beginning in June 2005, a series of professors have visited ALS for varying amounts of time to teach a variety of subjects. Most visiting professors have been borrowed from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and include: E. Allen Sorum, Daniel Leyrer, Alan Siggelkow, James Korthals, and most recently Paul Zell. Professors Ken Cherney and John Brug are expected in 2008.
Other visiting professors have included Glen Thompson and Greg Schulz from Wisconsin Lutheran College, John Vogt between service at Biblicum in Sweden and St. Sophia, Ron Heins between his service to WELS parish assistance and the Charis Institute, and finally, Karl Gurgel after serving as WELS president.
With teaching terms ranging from three weeks to a full year, the impact of these visiting professors is great. While preparation and teaching experience is of great importance, Lawrenz has learned “without a doubt it is the competence, sincerity, and conviction of the visiting professors which make the greatest impact. The longer men are in Hong Kong the more these qualities open relationships that overcome the barriers of culture, language, and a different spiritual history.”
Working in any multi-language setting is a challenge, but at ALS this challenge is heightened by the thousands of Chinese characters required to be considered literate, and the fact that there are two sets of characters today, one called traditional (used in Hong Kong and Taiwan) and another called simplified (used on the mainland). Because the Chinese language is structured differently than English or other European languages, many theological concepts are not easily communicated. Despite all this, Lawrenz notes “the calm, friendly, earnest, competent demeanor of all our guest professors makes an impression. The Word of God works.”
Though each visiting professor is considered invaluable, experience has shown that courses offered over a longer period of time rather than in a very concentrated mini-semester have a greater appeal to ALS students who, for the most part, attend the seminary part-time.
Professor E. Allen Sorum
WLS professor E. Allen Sorum recently returned from a six-week teaching term at ALS. Included in his mini-term curriculum were: a study of the first eight chapters of Romans, a practical class on Christian leadership entitled “How to do Ministry,” and a concentrated Greek course. In addition to teaching the on-campus students in Hong Kong, Sorum was able, with the aid of Internet technology, to instruct eight other pastoral students in three different Taiwan locations.
Teaching (and learning) an introduction to Biblical Greek in six weeks is very intense, but Sorum says about his students, “We work hard to lay a foundation for the original languages. I was very proud of them.” In addition to his teaching duties, Sorum, with the aid of a translator, shared the gospel with members of some of the eight congregations of the South Asian Lutheran Evangelical Mission (SALEM). “I always had an interpreter though many of the people in Hong Kong have studied English. The translator is important but not as important as you might imagine. For this same reason, I was able to witness privately to people on a regular basis. They saw that I was a Westerner. This led people to start conversations with me just to practice their English. I often sat by myself in a restaurant for an evening meal…but only for a short while. Often someone would join me at my table to practice their English. This situation gave me the chance to practice my witnessing. It almost always was very comfortable and enjoyable for both of us.”
Technology and the Word
Technology is another way that ALS is meeting the challenges of sharing the Word with so many. The school is equipped to export instruction anywhere, anyplace, anytime using the Internet and Skype. Lawrenz explains some of the current technology in use. “Skype is a cost-free service that swaps sound and video worldwide wherever computers are hooked up to the internet. In Taiwan we have lately depended on VSee, a program that permits a split screen. We have had five sites knit together with the professor and interpreter sitting in Hong Kong. We see this only expanding. Other software and hardware provide lots of options for making a simultaneous connection.” Click here to see a sample lesson being taught by remote via VSee technology.
Travel schedules, class schedules, and visiting professors’ schedules can lead to some interesting course offerings. “Sometimes we have had half a class face to face in Taiwan and then finished the class in three hour bites over six or seven weeks. Recently we have had entire classes simultaneously served up to students in Hong Kong and in Taiwan.” Through technology, the day may come when classes will be scheduled with a teacher located in Europe or the U.S., a translator in Hong Kong, and students all over Southeast Asia.
Rev. Dan Koelpin, administrator of the Board for World Missions, reaffirms the importance of using innovative techniques to reach the lost of Southeast Asia. “Supporting the effort to train leaders to reach the Chinese-speaking people remains the foremost priority of the Board for World Missions. It is becoming increasingly apparent that technology and the use of visiting professors are ways to provide a first class seminary program in a cost-effective way. It leverages our theological resources so that more gets taught with fewer full-time people.”
On the limitless opportunities for gospel outreach to Chinese-speaking peoples and the innovative use of technology, Sorum notes, “It’s a great sea of opportunity, but not an opportunity we have ever worked before. It’s new and difficult. But it’s wide open. God give us courage and wisdom.”
