Professor preaches in Gettysburg
Robert Randolph, chairperson for Waynesburg University’s Department of English and Foreign Languages, was recently invited to serve as pastor-in-residence at Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary in Gettysburg.
Randolph spent the week of Oct. 12 at the oldest Lutheran seminary in the Americas, where he preached during three chapel services.
He also visited classes and had the opportunity to interact with the seminary community.
“I am honored to have been selected to be this year’s pastor-in-residence at such a distinguished seminary,” Randolph said. “In doing so, I am the latest in a list of invitees that dates back 33 years.”
In 1982, Dr. Oscar V. Carlson established an annual fund to invite a parish pastor to preach to the seminary community and visit classes. Reflecting the characteristics of Carlson, the pastors who are selected each year must be considered an effective parish pastor, a preacher of excellence and a life-long scholar.
Randolph was able to incorporate his work as a published poet into his sermons he preached to the seminary. This residency was especially important to him because it combined his lifelong love for poetry and pastoring into one impactful experience for both him and the seminary community.
“I am sincere about loving poetry and trusting in God, and that sincerity, along with telling true stories about my church work in the small congregation I serve, led people to see that my heart is pretty much where I say it is. With me, what you see is what you get,” Randolph said.
Gettysburg Seminary is a graduate and professional theological school of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.