wfn.org | [LCMSNews] Johnson takes call to River Forest

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	October 5, 2004 .................... LCMSNews -- No. 69

	Seminary's Johnson takes call to River Forest

	Dr. John F. Johnson, president and professor of systematic
theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, has accepted a call to serve
as the 10th president of Concordia University, River Forest, Ill.

	Johnson plans to serve as the seminary's president through Nov.
2. He will be installed in his new position during a Nov. 7 worship
service at the Chapel of Our Lord, on the Concordia University campus,
with Synod President Gerald Kieschnick officiating. The academic
inauguration is scheduled for Nov. 12 in the university's gymnasium.

	"We are very pleased that Dr. Johnson accepted the call to lead
Concordia University," said Rev. William Ameiss, chairman of the
university's board of regents. "He brings more than 20 years of seasoned
leadership experience in many capacities, including pastoral ministry in
the LCMS, scholarship, teaching, and administration in higher
education."

	Concordia University was established as Concordia Teachers
Seminary in 1864 in Addison, Ill., and has been located in River Forest
since 1913. Today it is a liberal arts university with 1,200
undergraduate and more than 700 graduate students.

	Johnson announced his acceptance of the call at a Sept. 27
meeting of seminary faculty and staff, and he shared his thoughts about
the opportunity to serve as a Lutheran university president.

	"The purpose of Concordia Seminary is to prepare men for the
vocation of pastor. Also, as Lutherans, there is another dimension to
the concept of vocation, and that is to prepare laypeople and other
church workers for dedicated service in society," Johnson said. "We are
at a critical point in our church, I think, in defining what it is to
have liberal arts universities in the Lutheran tradition."

	He continued, "Could it not be exciting and interesting to call
to the church's mind the importance of the broader dimension of vocation
and what it might mean for this church to have a true liberal arts
university dedicated to the highest qualities of scholarship?" So, he
has decided, he said, "that the call to Concordia University, River
Forest, is what I would like to do."

	Johnson, who first joined the seminary faculty in 1977, has more
than 25 years of experience at Concordia Seminary and is in his 15th
year as president. Prior to his installation as seminary president,
Johnson served from 1989 to 1990 as president of Concordia College (now
University) in St. Paul, Minn. At the St. Louis seminary, he has served
as academic dean (1986-89), chairman of the systematic theology
department (1981-86) and professor of systematic theology.

	Rev. Glen Thomas, vice president for seminary relations, said
the seminary community is "experiencing a wide range of feelings" about
Johnson's decision. "There is a sense of gratitude to God for the many
blessings which have been received during Dr. Johnson's presidency,"
Thomas said. "There is also the sense of deep sadness that accompanies
any pending goodbye of this type."

	The seminary's board of regents plans to meet Oct. 18 to name an
interim president and to elect a search committee that will oversee the
process of securing the institution's next president.

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	If you have questions or comments about this LCMSNews release,
contact Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org or (314) 996-1231,
or Paula Schlueter Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org or (314) 996-1230.

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