Our Work

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.