The Foundation of Ministry: Word and Sacraments
God gives many gifts to his people on earth, but none are quite so precious as the gifts of His Word and the Sacraments. Through the reading, hearing, preaching, and receiving of His Word, we find forgiveness, grace, and eternal life. Through the sacramental gifts of the Lord’s Supper and Holy Baptism, the Word is given in tangible form and our faith is given a physical reality.
As a pastoral student at CTSFW, you will learn to proclaim the Word clearly and to rightly administer the Sacraments. Through courses with our professors, the worship life in Kramer Chapel and being a part of our campus community, you will come to understand and value these gifts God has given His people even more richly. As you complete your program, you will take that love and knowledge and use it to feed and serve God’s people faithfully for years to come.
“We believe, teach, and confess that the sole rule and standard according to which all dogmas together with [all] teachers should be estimated and judged are the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and of the New Testament alone, as it is written Ps. 119:105: Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And St. Paul: Though an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, let him be accursed, Gal. 1:8.”
“Now, what is the Sacrament of the Altar?
Answer: It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in and under the bread and wine which we Christians are commanded by the Word of Christ to eat and to drink. 9] And as we have said of Baptism that it is not simple water, so here also we say the Sacrament is bread and wine, but not mere bread and wine, such as are ordinarily served at the table, but bread and wine comprehended in, and connected with, the Word of God.”
“Here you see again how highly and precious we should esteem Baptism, because in it we obtain such an unspeakable treasure, which also indicates sufficiently that it cannot be ordinary mere water. For mere water could not do such a thing, but the Word does it, and (as said above) the fact that the name of God is comprehended therein. But where the name of God is, there must be also life and salvation, that it may indeed be called a divine, blessed, fruitful, and gracious water; for by the Word such power is imparted to Baptism that it is a laver of regeneration, as St. Paul also calls it in Titus 3:5.”