Guided by the mission of Concordia University Irvine and in partnership with Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, the CMC is faithful to Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions without compromise. It is a biblically-based, Christ-centered, and confessionally Lutheran master’s level seminary program that leads to full certification for ordination as a pastor in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS).
Joel Rockemann (CMC ‘22) understands what it feels like to be living in a country where the language is unfamiliar. While he and his family served as missionaries in Haiti, they discovered this firsthand.
They experienced difficulty doing daily tasks like effective workplace communication or shopping without confidence in their foreign language skills.
Learning the local language eased many of those stressors. Upon returning to his home church, St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Tracy, CA, Joel recognized immigrant families struggling in similar ways as they sought to advocate for themselves in a predominantly English-speaking culture.
Moved by a heart for mission and desire to help immigrant families, Joel launched a free ESL program as his CMC capstone vicarage project. Through this program, church members and immigrant families gather for language learning, eating together, and serving and praying together in Jesus' name.
Joel graduated in 2022 and was ordained as Mission Pastor at St. Paul's in Tracy. Now in its third year, the English program serves over 75 students every week.
