“And [the Lord] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry…” (Ephesians 4:11-12). In Bible class recently, I asked our Iranian Lutherans what they think the top two tasks of us LCMS missionaries are. They answered correctly that we share Jesus Christ with Persian immigrants by baptizing and teaching them. But they didn’t realize that we have a second task: to plant Lutheran congregations—not only here in Germany, but someday hopefully even in Iran. “One day, your homeland will be free,” I stated. The room exploded with cheers and Amens. “But to do that, we need thousands of Lutheran pastors—who are Iranians. We non-natives will never understand your cultural context as well as you do. And so, I’m a bit like a “donut tire,” I said with a grin, “that you mount off the side of the road when you have a flat tire.” I showed them this picture and they laughed. “Your donut tire will get you to the next gas station or auto repair shop, albeit slowly. But at the tire shop, they’ll replace the donut with the same kind of tire as the other three.” We “donut tire missionaries” baptize and teach in more or less heavily accented Farsi. But at the seminary, we form men from a variety of ethnic communities to become Lutheran pastors. The seminary is a bit like that tire shop. Riga Luther Academy, where I teach, currently has three Iranians at various stages of their pastoral formation. I look forward to the day when our Iranian Lutheran congregation here in Hamburg will have its own Iranian pastor. God willing, the other two Iranian seminary students will plant their own Persian Lutheran congregations somewhere else—maybe even in Iran, where one third of the population is secretly Christian. In the meantime, though, with God’s help, this donut tire will slowly but joyfully continue to get Iranian saints to the tire shop, where the Lord is equipping them and many others for the work of the ministry.
The Tiews in Germany 