The fall Adult Faith Formation class will be “Exploring the Lutheran Confessions,” led by the Rev. Chris Repp (Grace, Champaign). Classes will be held from 9:00 a.m. to noon via Zoom on September 14 and 28, October 12 and 26, and November 16 and 30.
Registration is open now at CSIS-ELCA.org/aff24fall. The cost is $25 for a general course audit and $50 for Synod-Authorized Ministry students. If cost is a hardship, please contact the synod office about a scholarship. The synod thanks Immanuel Lutheran Church, Colfax, for the generous donation of funds to help keep costs low.
What we believe about God affects how we talk about God. How we talk about God determines whether we proclaim the gospel or some other message that is not faithful to who God is and what God is up to in Jesus Christ. This realization is what set Martin Luther and his colleagues down the path of reform 500 years ago. It is the enduring legacy of the Lutheran movement and a gift to the ecumenical church. This course is a study of the Lutheran Confessions to see how these texts continue to be vitally important to the mission of the church today.
Pastor Chris Repp received his undergraduate degree in Russian language and literature from Purdue University, an M.Div. from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Russian history from the University of Illinois at Chicago. From 1999 to 2003 he served as an ELCA missionary in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he taught church history and systematic and confessional theology at a Russian Lutheran seminary. He then served as pastor of Epiphany Lutheran Church in Carbondale for 12 years before accepting his current call to Grace Lutheran Church, Champaign in 2015. A former member and chair of the ELCA’s Global Mission Program Committee, he chaired the synod’s Candidacy Committee from 2018-2023.