Under the Fig Tree

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt sit down with fourth-year Master of Divinity student Dillon Weber, who also serves as the Student Association president. Weber grew up in Washington and describes his nontraditional path to the Seminary. “I didn’t grow up Christian,” he says. “My parents were Christian growing up but after Confirmation they kind of fel...

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt chat with Rev. Lawton Thompson, associate pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Des Peres, Mo. A former firefighter, he completed both the Specific Ministry Pastor Program (SMP) and the Master of Divinity (M.Div.) programs at Concordia Seminary. The SMP Program is a four-year pastoral distance education program that...

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt bring Allen Dass, a fourth-year Master of Divinity student, into the studio. Allen, who immigrated to the United States from India with his family when he was 1 month old, shares highlights from his journey to Lutheranism and to the Seminary. His advice for prospective students? “The one thing I would say is just do,”...

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt chat with Sam Aizenberg, a fourth-year Master of Divinity student. Raised by a Jewish father and Southern Baptist mother, Sam took a long and winding road to Lutheranism. After being raised in the Conservative Jewish faith, he attended Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas, where he was first exposed to Lutheran doct...

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt sit down with Jacob Rhodes, a Master of Divinity graduate and Master of Sacred Theology student at Concordia Seminary. Hear what Jacob found so surprising about his historical theology courses at the Seminary and his thoughts on being single in the church. “The church can often tend to be, I think in our circles, a fam...

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt chat with Lucas “Luke” Frauenhoff, a second-year Master of Divinity student at Concordia Seminary. He shares his journey to ministry after majoring in finance and marketing as an undergraduate. It took him a while to feel the time was right to come to the Seminary. As a child and young adult, seeing the church being a...

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt chat with Jessica Thompson, a residential Deaconess Studies student and a new admissions officer at Concordia Seminary. Thompson, whose husband is a pastor, previously served as a Lutheran teacher before she started the deaconess program. “It’s been everything that I hoped it would be and even better,” she says of the...

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt chat with the Dr. James “Jim” Baneck, executive director of pastoral education for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). Baneck shares his own journey to ministry and explains a big focus of his current work — the LCMS’ church-wide church worker recruitment initiative, Set Apart to Serve. He also delves into some...

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt chat with the Seminary’s new Recruitment Coordinator Kati Gaschler. Growing up a PK (preacher’s kid) and now a preacher’s wife, Kati shares some bits of her life from St. Louis to Fort Wayne, Ind., to Indianapolis. She also shares a bit about her love of photography, the stained glass windows in chapel and the architec...

In this second episode of the 2023-24 academic year, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt are joined by Professor of Systematic Theology Dr. Joel Okamoto. Okamoto shares why he is often seen wearing shoes and how he became a pastor after studying engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Theology. The trio also dive a discussion about the Augsburg Confession. Okamoto says he is sometimes a...

In this first episode of the 2023-24 academic year, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt return for a new season of “Under the Fig Tree.” Glenn and Haupt share what they did over the summer and reflect on the history and purpose of the podcast, tease a few topics that will be tackled in upcoming episodes and share appreciation for all the listeners’ feedback they have received. “It’s a blessin...

In this episode, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt chat with Deaconess Sarah Rusche, who just received a call to Luther Home of Mercy in Williston, Ohio. Rusche recently received a Master of Arts with Deaconess Certification from Concordia Seminary in 2023. She shares how she started her Seminary studies during the COVID-19 pandemic and began her deaconess internship during the difficulties...

In this episode, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt talk through the importance of rest, vacation and time with family as church workers. Ben and Micah will be taking a break from the podcast (“but not each other”!) for the rest of the summer and will return this fall. “We pour ourselves into our work and then we rest when we can,” Haupt says. “Thank you for taking time to listen to us talk...

In this episode, host Rev. Micah Glenn is joined by Admissions Officer Rev. Thomas Schlund for an in-depth discussion on the three ecumenical creeds in The Book of Concord with Dr. Charles “Chuck” Arand, professor of Systematic Theology, director of the Center for the Care of Creation and the Eugene E. and Nell S. Fincke Graduate Professor of Theology at Concordia Seminary. Arand also shares some...

In this episode, host Rev. Micah Glenn is joined by Admissions Officer Rev. Thomas Schlund for a wide-ranging discussion with Dr. Charles “Chuck” Arand, professor of Systematic Theology, director of the Center for the Care of Creation and the Eugene E. and Nell S. Fincke Graduate Professor of Theology at Concordia Seminary, in the ongoing series about The Book of Concord. What exactly is The Book...

In this episode of “Under the Fig Tree,” hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt begin the first of many episodes that will delve into The Book of Concord. In today’s episode, they discuss the origin and basic contents of The Book of Concord and why it’s the cornerstone of what we believe, teach and confess -- normed by Scripture – in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). Haupt and Glenn dis...

In this episode, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt bring Ben’s wife, Celina, “Under the Fig Tree” to discuss her journey from Catholicism to Lutheranism, her perspective on being a Seminary wife and pastor’s wife, and her thoughts on the importance of community in the life of the Seminary. She also shares a few thoughts about the expectations of being a pastor’s wife. “The good thing for me...

Join hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt as they talk with Lutheran hip-hop artist FLAME, Marcus Gray, who earned a Master of Arts from Concordia Seminary in 2018. Listen in as FLAME shares his journey to the Seminary, his conversion to Lutheranism from Calvinism and why he thinks future church workers should remember their own human experiences and the “regular concerns” of others before com...

In this episode, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt bring Deaconess Dorothy Glenn ‘Under the Fig Tree’ to discuss her journey to deaconess ministry. She talks about her undergraduate studies and her love of theology, the value of studying other fields that pair well with deaconess ministry, her current studies in the Seminary’s Master of Arts program and what it means to be the body of Chris...

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt talk with … each other! Join them as they reflect and focus on the purpose of the podcast and share some exciting updates about student enrollment in the Seminary’s ministerial formation programs. And of course, there’s the “ripe for the picking, leave it on the tree” segment where they cover everything from frosted fl...

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt talk with Associate Professor of Practical Theology Dr. Abjar Bakhou. Listen as he shares his journey from growing up in Syria, to studying in Rome and meeting the Pope, to moving to the United States and now teaching at Concordia Seminary. He also shares about his work in Christian education of youth in the Middle Eas...

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt talk admissions officers Rev. Tom Schlund and Rev. Jesse Kueker. Both Schlund and Kueker spent seven years as parish pastors before joining the Seminary’s Enrollment team. Listen as they share their journeys to the ministry, some of their pastoral ministry experiences and advice for those thinking about coming to the S...

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt talk with Dr. Gerhard Bode, associate professor and chairman of the Department of Historical Theology, and the Seminary archivist. Bode shares his journey to becoming a pastor including the encouragement he received growing up and the encouragement he received during his time at Seminary itself. He also dives into the...

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt talk with two residential Deaconess Studies students, Lara McComack and Alyssa Choate. During the episode, McComack and Choate share tidbits about their journey to the Seminary, their favorite classes, their love for the campus community, what life is like living on campus and more. How do they feel about carrot cake,...

In this episode of Under the Fig Tree, hosts Rev. Micah Glenn and Dr. Ben Haupt talk with Dr. Mart Thompson, associate professor of Practical Theology and director of the Specific Ministry Pastor Program (SMP). During the episode, Thompson talks about his pathway into ministry, his pastoral experience serving in a college campus ministry and as a pastor of a rural congregation; what pastoral minis...