About the DOXOLOGY Collegium

Recognizing the ongoing need to expand our teaching faculty and develop future leadership for our program, in 2013 the DOXOLOGY Board of Directors authorized the formation of a Collegium of DOXOLOGY graduates to serve the program in an advisory capacity through research, theological/pastoral reflection, and counsel.  The seven initial Fellows in the Collegium were formally inducted at the Grand Reunion in San Antonio, TX on August 2, 2014.  The eighth Fellow, Rev. Brady Finnern, was inducted at the 2017 Grand Reunion. Each of the Fellows is invited annually to prepare a major research paper in applied pastoral care for publication in the SEELSORGER Journal. (Access the current library of their work via the link below)  The Collegium convenes each year for mutual learning and collegial conversation regarding the faithful practice of the cure of souls in the 21st Century.

Papers by the Collegium Fellows

L to R First Row: Rev. Mark Barz, Dr. Harold L. Senkbeil, Rev. David Fleming, Dr. Lucas Woodford, Rev. Timothy Pauls. Second Row: Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller, Rev. Brady Finnern, Dr. Tyler Arnold, Rev. Matthew Wurm

The Rev. Dr. Tyler C. Arnold was born and raised in and around Alton, Illinois. He attended Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois and graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. He graduated from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO in 1999. He received the D. Min. from Concordia Theological Seminary in 2019. 

Arnold has served as a parish pastor since graduating from the seminary. He served from 1999 until 2004 as the assistant pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Platte Woods, MO. In 2004 he received a Divine Call to serve as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Millstadt, IL where he served for two and a half years. He then returned to Christ Lutheran, Platte Woods in 2006 to serve as Senior Pastor. In 2022 he accepted the Call to serve Village Lutheran Church, LaDue, Missouri, where he serves today.

Pr. Arnold served on the Board of Congregational Support for the Southern Illinois District and has served as a Circuit Counselor in the Missouri District since 2009. He has also served as the pastoral advisor on the Executive Council for the Northland Lutheran School Association in Kansas City, MO. He is a member of the Board of Regents of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.

Tyler is the husband of Andrea Arnold (nee Thur). They were married in Ste. Genevieve, MO in June of 1995. They are blessed with two sons, Jacob and Benjamin.


The Rev. Mark David Barz is the second son of Marvin and Marilyn Barz. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 21, 1955. Raised as the son of a Lutheran pastor, he enjoyed life in a family of three brothers and three sisters. Mark was educated at Concordia College, Ann Arbor and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (M.Div., 1982) His first call into the ministry was at Bethlehem Ev. Lutheran Church in Saginaw, Michigan, then he accepted a call to Crown of Life Ev. Lutheran Church, San Antonio, where he has served since 1987.

Mark is married to Connie Marie [nee Lehenbauer] and they have been blessed with four children and a growing family of grandchildren. He enrolled in DOXOLOGY in June 2011 and has served as chaplain/pastor in residence for training cycles since.

Mark has served District and Synod as a member and chair of the Texas District Continuing Education Task Force (1988-2001; chair from 1994-2001); part of the local planning team for River of Light(1995); Synod Convention Delegate (1995, 2010); Community Life Builder for Called To Be (1998) and Higher Ground (2001); Doctrinal Reviewer for Concordia Publishing House (2002-2009); PALS Facilitator (2005-present); volunteer for Live Love(d) (2013) and an occasional writer for The Lutheran Witness, LCMS Youth Ministry Resources, Lutherans For Life, and Concordia Pulpit Resources. He was elected Area C Vice President of the Texas District in June 2012 and served until 2021. Mark was also the varsity soccer coach at Lutheran High School– San Antonio from 1995 to 2009.

His personal interests are, above all, his family and friends. He also enjoys athletics (especially golf, bicycling, and soccer), reading (especially World War II history), music (from Bach to bluegrass), and collecting antiques (depression glass, wooden coat hangers, and soda bottles are some of his favorites).


The Rev. Brady L. Finnern was born and raised in Wadena, MN. He attended Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN, graduating in 2002 with a degree in Exercise Science. He graduated from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO in 2006.  Brady’s first call was to St. John Lutheran Church, North Prairie, WI and he served at Messiah Lutheran Church, Sartell, MN from 2010 until 2022 when he was elected as District President for the Minnesota North District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. He has been a circuit visitor in the Minnesota North District, LWML zone counselor, and Vice President of the District.  He serves on the Lutheran Church Extension Fund Board of Directors as the LCMS President’s Representative.

Brady and his wife, Amy, have been married since 2003 and are blessed with four children.


The Rev. David C. Fleming has served as pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church, Grand Rapids, MI since 1993. He remains an Associate Pastor at Our Savior LCMS. Previously he served in Warrenville, IL a Chicago suburb. He is a 1986 graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary. He co-wrote God’s Love at Christmas, the 2010 CPH Advent-Christmas resource.

He and his wife Jo Marie nee Wunderlich have three grown children who are married to delightful spouses and have been gifted with grandchildren. He has served on the Concordia University, Wisconsin/Ann Arbor Board of Regents since 2016. Since going through DOXOLOGY’s Classic Program in 2012, he was Chaplain/Pastor in Residence for DOXOLOGY at several events. In 2017 he was called as DOXOLOGY’s Associate Executive Director for Spiritual Care in 2017. In 2020 he was installed as Executive Director for Spiritual Care.


The Rev. Timothy J. Pauls was ordained in 1993 at Valley of Peace Lutheran Church in Hailey, Idaho; and accepted a call in 1998 to his current parish, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Boise. He has served in various capacities as school administrator, camp board director, and member of the editorial staff of Higher Things magazine. One who enjoys writing, he is the author of Going Out, Getting Dumped and Playing Mini-Golf on the First DateYou Ask about…LifeYou Ask about…Relationships; and You Ask about…Faith. He is also a contributor to Lutheranism 101 and Formation: Essays for Future Pastors, Lutheran Service Book: Companion to the Hymns; co-editor of Take Courage: Essays in Honor of Harold Senkbeil; as well as several synod Bible studies and assorted articles in Higher Things, Logia, Teachers Interaction and other publications.  Timothy holds a B.A. in Pre -Theology from Concordia College-Portland (1989) and an M.Div. from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis (1993). He and his wife Teresa have two sons, Nathan and Noah, daughters-in-law Rebekah and Cambria, and one granddaughter, Penelope. 


The Rev. Dr. Harold Senkbeil served in parish ministry for 31 years in various small town/rural, campus, suburban, central city and mission planting settings before moving to academia.

He was Associate Professor in the Pastoral Ministry and Missions Department of Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, Indiana from 2002 – 2008. In July, 2008, he accepted the call to serve DOXOLOGY, a Recognized Service Organization of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, as Executive Director for Spiritual Care. Senkbeil served as an elected member of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations of the LCMS (1998-2002) and an elected member of the Board of Regents of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (2010-2018).  In 2001 that institution awarded him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa. He is the author of a number of books, including Sanctification: Christ in Action (NPH, 1989) and Dying to Live: the power of forgiveness (CPH, 1994), plus contributions to many other books and professional theological and pastoral journals.  His friends and colleagues celebrated the 45th anniversary of his ordination into the office of the holy ministry with a festschrift entitled Take Courage (New Reformation Publications, 2016). His book on pastoral work, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart, was published by Lexham Press in 2019, together with a companion volume,Pastoral Leadership for the care of souls, co-authored with DOX Collegium Fellow Dr. Lucas Woodford. In 2020 Lexham published his Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley, and The Lord’s Prayer for All God’s Children in 2022 (a FatCat Book).

He and his late wife, Jane, are the parents of three children and four grandchildren, all of whom live near Waukesha, Wisconsin.  Since becoming DOXOLOGY’s Executive Director Emeritus in 2020, Pastor Senkbeil leads the Collegium Fellowship and serves as editor for SEELSORGER, A Journal for the Contemporary Care of Souls.


The Rev. C. Bryan Wolfmueller is pastor of St. Paul and Jesus Deaf Lutheran Churches in Austin, TX. He is the author of Take They Our Life: Martin Luther’s Theology of Martyrdom (2019), A Martyr’s Faith for a Faithless World (CPH, 2019), Has American Christianity Failed? (CPH, 2016) and Final Victory: Contemplating the Death and Funeral of a Christian (CPH, 2010). He is host of What-Not, The Podcast, the co-host of Table Talk Radio podcast, posts videos on YouTube at wolfmueller1, and has a number of other theological projects that all end up on his blog, www.wolfmueller.co. Bryan the pastor of St Paul and Jesus Deaf Lutheran Churches, both in Austin, Texas. He and his wife Keri live with their four children in Round Rock, TX.


The Rev. Dr. Lucas V. Woodford, MDiv, STM, DMin is President of the Minnesota South District of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod and the Associate Pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Farmington, MN. 

Pastor Woodford is the author of Great Commission, Great Confusion, or Great Confession? (Wipf & Stock, 2012).  He is co-author with Harold Senkbeil of Pastoral Leadership:  for the Care of Souls (2nd ed Lexham Press, 2021) and their book on contextual mission, Culture of the Word (Lexham Press, 2022).  He has written numerous articles published in The Lutheran Witness, Logia, and Seelsorger. 

Woodford is a member of the Board of Regents of Concordia University, St. Paul, MN. He has served as an adjunct instructor for Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN and the Institute of Lutheran Theology in Brookings, SD. 

Dr. Woodford is a Fellow in the Collegium of DOXOLOGY: The Lutheran Center for Spiritual Care and Counsel, charged with research, writing and speaking regarding the care of souls in the contemporary context. He is a frequently invited presenter on matters related to soul care, missiology, marriage, sex and gender issues, and critical race theory. He is a husband to Becca and father to their seven children (five girls and two boys).


The Rev. Matthew E. Wurm was born in August of 1981 to the Rev. William and Janice Wurm. Born and raised in Sheboygan county, Wisconsin, he attended Lutheran grade school and high school. In 2003 he received a B.A. from Concordia University, Wisconsin with majors in Pre-Seminary Studies and Biblical Languages. In 2004, he served as a short term volunteer missionary in Panama City, Panama for LCMS World Missions. In 2008 he received a M.Div. from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. His first Divine Call was to Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, Bemidji, Minnesota where he supervised three vicars, restarted a campus ministry to Bemidji State University, partnered with Lutheran Indian Missions (LIM formerly LAMP-U.S.) and served on the Lutheran Island Camp Board of Directors. In 2013, he accepted the Call to be Senior Pastor at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, Brookings, South Dakota. His wife, Kyra, is pursuing a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and they have been blessed with six children.

Resources

Doxology provides a safe environment for clergy to reflect on their own spiritual and emotional health and assists them to review and enhance their professional competencies and skills as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s sacred mysteries.

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