‘Laborers for Your vineyard’: Servants of the church installed

By Mary Henrichs

“We give thanks that You send faithful laborers into Your vineyard,” prayed the Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison during the installation of officers and board members of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). “Grant that through the labors of these, Your servants, Your church may be nourished, enriched, guided and sustained in the Word of God and built up into Him who is the head of the church, even Jesus Christ, our Lord.”

The service, held Sept. 18 in the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (CSL), saw almost 60 servants installed into a myriad of positions, including:

• Harrison, installed to his sixth term as LCMS president;
• The Rev. Peter K. Lange, installed to his third term as first vice-president of the Synod;
• The five regional vice-presidents (Rev. Benjamin T. Ball, Rev. Dr. Alfonso O. Espinosa, Rev. Christopher Esget, Rev. Nabil S. Nour and Rev. Eric C. Skovgaard);
• Members of numerous Synod boards (the Board of Directors, Board for National Mission, Board for International Mission and Commission on Doctrinal Review); and
• Members of other affiliated boards (Concordia Historical Institute, Concordia Publishing House, Lutheran Church Extension Fund, the LCMS Foundation, Concordia Plans and the two LCMS seminaries).

While those elected and appointed to these positions are some of the most experienced and well-practiced laborers in the LCMS, the installation service — which followed the Office of Vespers — was led in part by those just beginning their ministry: seminarians.

“It’s a picture of the life of our church,” said the Rev. Dr. Thomas J. Egger, CSL president, of the seminarians’ participation in the service. “The Gospel is the same — generation after generation.”

Fourth-year CSL seminarians Nathan Bublitz and Noah Oloff, along with second-year CSL seminarian Nicholas Vukalovich, served as lectors. Matthew Martin Luther Harrison, President Harrison’s son and a fourth-year student at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne (CTSFW), preached the sermon.

The younger Harrison preached mainly on the third reading: “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43–45).

“The law demands what is right, but it does not give you the ability to do it,” preached Seminarian Harrison. “Christ alone fulfilled the law. He fulfilled it through His perfect act of obedience to His Father, through which He kept and still keeps the law for you. He fulfilled it through His passive obedience, by His suffering, dying, rising again, conquering sin, death, the devil, thereby freeing you from the demands of the law.”

Drawing from Martin Luther’s On the Freedom of a Christian, he reminded those gathered that “a Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none, and a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all. … No matter your place in this life, whether you are president of the Synod, district president, pastor, administrator, layperson … or simply a fourth-year seminary student in way over his head.”

The offering for the service was earmarked for the Joint Seminary Fund, which helps reduce the cost of tuition for seminarians attending either LCMS seminary.

Watch the service livestream.

Learn more about the Joint Seminary Fund at lcms.org/joint-seminary-fund.

Posted Oct. 2, 2026

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