Meet the Professor: Rev. Joel Fritsche

Concordia Seminary Dean of Theological Research and Publication Dr. Kevin Golden takes some time to introduce new faculty member Rev. Joel Fritsche. Fritsche recently joined the Seminary as assistant professor of Exegetical Theology and director of Vicarage and Deaconess Internships. For more than two decades, Fritsche served The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) as a pastor, church planter, missionary and theological educator in the United States and in the Dominican Republic.

He succeeds Dr. Glenn Nielsen who concluded 33 years of service as director of Vicarage and Deaconess Internships at the end of the 2022-23 academic year. Since 2014, Fritsche has served as a missionary pastor and church planter in the Dominican Republic. From 201723, he also has served as the director and professor of biblical languages at Concordia Seminary the Reformer, where he helped form Lutheran pastors and deaconesses for partner churches and mission fields throughout Latin America. His areas of interest include Greek, Hebrew and Old Testament exegesis. “I moved around a lot in the church in the last 23 or so year,” he says. “In some ways I lamented that. In other ways, looking back, all of those experiences … seem to come together in my new role here on the faculty.” Learn more about Fritsche.