Bible Studies

  • Additional Resources for We the Church: The Priesthood of All Believers

  • Use these additional resources to supplement your study on this topic. Because of the Internet’s changing nature, a link may modify or get deleted. If you discover a bad link in the list below, please contact us!

  • Study Resources:

    • The Saxon Immigration Video Series

      The Founding of the LCMS

      This video series discusses various aspects of the Saxon immigration and the founding of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

    • Lutheranism on the American Frontier

    • How Was Lutheran Ministry Conducted on the American Frontier?

    • The Impact of Wyneken's Writings

    • Perry County, MO

    • The Removal of Martin Stephan

    • The Saxons after the Removal of Stephan

    • From Perry County to Missouri Synod

    • Articles on the Saxon Immigration

      The Voyage of the Saxons (by P. E. Kretzmann-traces the Saxon immigration from Saxony, through the ocean voyage, up the Mississippi River to Saint Louis)

      "The various events of the ocean voyage were preserved in note-books and diaries, especially by a Mr. G. Guenther, whose accounts were embodied in a small volume, which appeared in Dresden in 1839, entitled Die Schicksale und Abenteuerder aus Sachsen ausgewanderten Stephanianer. These accounts are here drawn upon; they refer to the voyage of the Olbers."

    • The Arrival of the Saxons in St. Louis
      "Even before Stephan's arrival, articles had appeared in the German newspapers of St. Louis ... in which the immigrants were attacked and ridiculed as deluded people ... Dr. Vehse and a candidate were publicly insulted and stoned on the street. Stones were thrown through the windows into Stephan's quarters."

    • The Saxons Move to Perry County
      (After Stephan's departure) "Even the pastors suffered the severest qualms of conscience, for they likewise were no longer sure whether they could perform the work of their ministry according to God's ordinance. It really seemed that Satan might succeed in disrupting the colony completely and in plunging all its members into destruction and perdition."

    • Altenburg Debate
      "One shudders to think what course Lutheran church history in America might have taken if Walther had not carried the day in Altenburg."

    • Martin Stephan
      Rev. Dr. David P. Scaer of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, revisits the events surrounding Stephan's deposal and discusses some of the failings of the clergy who opposed him.

    • Martin Stephan Collection
      Additional Stephan-related material from the Concordia Historical Institute

    • Perry County Sites
      Lutheran Heritage Center & Museum, Altenburg, MO

    • Saxon Lutheran Memorial - Frohna, MO

    • "Hill of Peace" Lutheran Church - Friedenberg, MO

    • A Man for the Ages (C.F.W. Walther)

    • Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther Churchman
      "In order to understand fully what kind of a churchman Dr. C. F. W. Walther was, we should have to discuss several episodes out of his life. However, the one we shall primarily consider is the Altenburg Debate."

    • Personal Reminiscences of Walther and Wyneken
      "Now that I am on the home stretch of my pilgrimage on earth, my thoughts often revert to the past. In these memories of my childhood and youth are included many interesting reminiscences of my dear, unforgettable teacher and friend Prof. Dr. C. F. W. Walther .... Altogether different we felt towards another noted man, who also, especially as long as he was president, was a standing guest in the home of my parents. I refer to President Friedrich Wyneken ...."

    • Walther's Editorial in the First Issue of Der Lutheraner
      "It is our duty to give an account to our fellow citizens about what our church believes and teaches and about the principles according to which we operate."

    • Friedrich Wyneken
      "If C.F.W. Walther was the mind of first-generation Missouri Synod Lutheranism, Friederich Conrad Dietrich Wyneken was its heart and soul."

    • F. C. D. Wyneken: Motivator for the Mission
      "Wyneken avidly read mission periodicals ... (which) alerted him to the great need for pastors in America to gather the scattered German immigrants into congregations. Moved by the desperate conditions depicted in these mission reports about scattered Germans in North America, Wyneken decided to volunteer his energies to being a missionary-pastor on the American frontier."

    • Ministry on the American Frontier
      "As (Wyneken) moved through the woods, he would come across small groups, sometimes one settlement, one household, one hut of German immigrants who had carved out for themselves a small place to live. Upon finding these groups, he would ask, 'Are you German? If you're German, what's your background? Catholic? Lutheran? Reformed? Nothing?' ... He was repeatedly told by these folks that they hadn't heard a sermon in seven years, eight years, ten years, that their children had not been baptized. And when he asked why, they simply answered with the same response over and over. 'We have no pastors.'"

    • The More Things Change: Capturing Wyneken's Vision for Today
      "An economy in collapse due to market speculation; bank failure; record unemployment; the housing market in a downward spiral-these all too human realities can make ministry challenging, to say the least! But I'm not talking about 2010. The Panic of 1837 challenged the youthful United States in ways it had never before experienced .... This was the context into which Friedrich Wyneken stepped."

    • The Missionary Who Never Left Home
      Wilhelm Loehe never left his native Germany, yet his untiring work for the Kingdom helped the young LCMS-and Lutheran churches around the world.

  • Read More