 |
| LATTE Professors: Natán, Lorenzo, Philip, & Larry (Director) |
The LATTE
program was organized in 2002 and went into effect in 2003. LATTE stands for
Latin American Traveling Theological Educators. Latin American because they
work in all of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) mission fields
in Latin America - Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Haiti,
Mexico, the Caribbean. Traveling because they are available to visit each field
as needed. Theological Educators because they serve as seminary professors to
train men who desire to be pastors in their national churches.
Using the
Internet, LATTE offers online theological education to teach students in the
United States and other countries in addition to the ones mentioned above.
Their purpose remains to serve the national churches of each country, teaching
theology to their ministerial candidates and church leaders.
This
strategy of traveling seminary professors had already been in use for a number
of years and in various fields within Latin American missions before LATTE was
formed. The men who desire to be pastors are very active members of their
congregations. It would be a major challenge for their respective
congregations, most of which are still quite small, to pull them out to a
"central seminary" for three or four years in order to complete their
seminary training. So instead, LATTE travels to them. This allows them to keep
their secular jobs to provide for their families; it allows them to continue to
serve their local congregation, gaining valuable experience and already serving
their brothers and sisters; and it allows them to receive seminary training--all
at the same time.
LATTE
firmly believes that pastors need a thorough education so they offer a complete
curriculum of seminary studies to instruct the candidates for all the challenges
that laborers in the Lord's vineyard face. They teach the Biblical languages,
Hebrew and Greek. They include instruction in Biblical interpretation so that
the pastors can teach any part of the Bible with authority. There are practical
studies in preaching, education and all aspects of pastoral work. They review
the history of God's people from creation until the present. Bible doctrine
receives special attention in dogmatics courses.
God’s Word tells us that a pastor must be “able to teach” (1 Timothy 3:2), and able “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:12). We request your prayers for God’s blessings on our team and our work.
