Interview with Dr Harold Ristau

Dr Harold Ristau, pastor and author, has served in ministry and mission in widely varied contexts, and taught in seminaries in Canada and Africa. He holds an MA in Political Science from the University of Waterloo (1996), and a PhD in Religious Studies from McGill University (2007). During Lent, we shared an article from Dr Ristau on Fasting and Feasting, based on one of his books, When You Fast: The Sacramental Character of Fasting. His other works include Spiritual Warfare: For the Care of Souls, At Peace with War, My First Exorcism - My First Exorcism: What the Devil Taught a Lutheran Pastor about Counter-Cultural Spirituality, a novel and a bilingual children’s book.

In this article we learn more about Dr Ristau’s journey, the new challenge he has embarked on, and his reflections on theological education.

Background

Dr Ristau was born and raised in Kitchener, Waterloo, in Ontario, Canada. His parents were refugees from German Communism, who settled in what is a large German Lutheran area in Canada. Dr Ristau recalls that they came from the pietistic tradition and describes his family as “more cultural Lutherans”. Once settled in Canada, over time he became involved in a more charismatic style of Lutheranism. While he now rejects the teachings of that group, he says he did learn a lot about outreach, gaining experience in evangelism, street ministry, handing out tracts and so on.

Dr Ristau became very involved in church as a young man. He ruefully recalls playing in the first worship band in the Lutheran Church Canada – complete with bass guitar and long hair! From his teenage years, he was always very involved in church life and many people encouraged him to consider going to seminary (i.e. the external call). Yet he had no interest in becoming a pastor. While obtaining a degree in political science, however, he had what he describes as a “Jonah experience’” – he tried to resist pursuing the pastoral office, denying his internal call, but the Holy Spirit “kept pestering” him.

Despite his church involvement, Dr Ristau arrived at seminary knowing little about confessional Lutheran teaching. In his first week he was handed the Book of Concord and read the Augsburg Confession – and thought, “Where have you been all my life?” After the first year at seminary he married Elise, who converted to Lutheranism from a Pentecostal background. They have five children and one grandchild.

Ministry

His first parish out of seminary was an inner-city parish in Montreal, Quebec. It was a very multicultural and low socio-economic area, and the young couple were able to minister to the Muslim and Asian communities. In addition, Dr Ristau engaged in prison ministry and worked with refugees. He and his wife ran English classes which were opportunities to share gospel. Dr Ristau remembers that many people in the neighbourhood wandered into the church because they were curious, sometimes looking for help, and often seeking the gospel.

This experience really focused his heart for mission, particularly working with refugees, with a special heart for persecuted Christians. He became involved in a successful campaign for the reform of the Canadian immigration system and the treatment of refugees.

Dr Ristau then became a military chaplain, serving with the Canadian Armed Forces, which he sees as another missionary role. Dr Ristau served four tours in the Middle East in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he received one of the highest national commendations for his work.  Over the 11 years of his service, Dr Ristau worked a lot with US and NATO forces, as well as Australians and New Zealanders. As part of this role, he was a first responder and crisis intervener and worked on packages to help those suffering from mental injury.

After his service, Harold returned to Canada, seeking more time with family and concerned by increasingly ‘woke’ influences in the military. He also had the dream of a nice, comfortable life in beautiful wine country in Ontario, with all his family living around him. His family had three years of ‘living the dream’, while Dr Ristau taught at St Catharine’s Seminary, leading accreditation and recruitment efforts and enjoying a less pressured, more comfortable life.

And then COVID struck. Dr Ristau was concerned about the way the Canadian government was handling the pandemic response. This led to him becoming known as the chaplain for the ‘trucker convoy’. He became a litigator against the Trudeau government for its abuse of martial law against the Canadian people. Before winning the suit in federal court, his activities placed him under government scrutiny and he and his family received a lot of negative backlash, including threats. Reflecting on this time, Dr Ristau says that just when he thought he had life all planned out, the things he had made into idols (comfort, security) were snatched away: “But this is as it should be – we need to repent when we realise we have placed our hope in idols instead of trusting in God.”

Seeking to remove his family from this heated situation, Dr Ristau accepted a position with Lutherans in Africa in Kenya as a missionary and Academic Dean at the Lutheran School of Theology.

A new challenge

Most recently, Dr Ristau accepted the call to become the President at a brand-new college in Wyoming. Luther Classical College opens for students in the Fall of this year. In its first year, it expects to have 40-50 students.

The college offers two degrees – a full Bachelor of Arts and an Associate of Arts, which is a two-year program for those who will move directly into the workforce or who are training to enter a practical trade. Students enrolling in the Bachelor’s program can choose between General, Pre-Seminary/Biblical Languages, Teacher Certification or Parish Music tracks.

All students at the college will receive a thorough grounding in the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions. He acknowledges that students arrive at the college with a high degree of Biblical literacy, a passion for Christian education and love for historic worship, with the understanding that “iron sharpens iron.”

The classical approach to education trains students to read deeply and develop well-reasoned pedagogical approaches. Dr Ristau says that Luther Classical College is "Lutheran first and Classical second". It teaches people how to think and what to live – with an emphasis on the Christian virtues.

In accepting his role at Luther Classical College, Dr Ristau noted that it is probably the most conservative college in America, in the sense that it is being founded on the belief that the Bible is 100% true, and that all its students, staff and faculty are confessional Lutherans. Looking at the damage done in the educational sector and wider society by allowing false doctrine to creep in, Ristau sees his job as being the gatekeeper, the strong man at the door to ensure that the college remains theologically sound and confessional.

Defending this approach, he notes that students are not so much being kept ignorant of the world around them as protected and strengthened in their faith so they can work in their various vocations and engage in the world as Christian people. The founders of the college see the dangers of taking a more ‘missiological’ approach to education, where in seeking to open the doors to allow more people from outside the church to come in and be evangelised, some schools have instead seen the ungodly ways of the world take over. Dr Ristau sees the college as offering a respite from the ‘war zone’ of popular culture.

The importance of theological education and seminary training

Dr Ristau believes it is important for the laity to be well-versed in the Bible and Confessions. This enables people to not only work faithfully wherever God has placed them but also helps them fulfil their role as necessary checks and balances for the pastorate.

At all levels of education, through school, in colleges, seminaries and in congregational life, doctrine needs to be the foundation. Ristau believes that churches would benefit from taking a little more ‘monastic’ approach to church life, in the sense that they need to be strengthened from secular influence by deliberate Bible study and mid-week worship together, supporting each other as the spiritual family that they are, and meeting frequently outside of just Sunday mornings.

In his experience teaching at seminaries and working with seminary establishments, Dr Ristau confidently asserts that seminary education is “absolutely crucial, a non-negotiable.” Seminary education is an area where the church can’t compromise. Attempts to circumvent or abbreviate seminary training “arise from a low view of the pastoral office, and a low view of the Bible.”  While seminaries training pastors in some parts of the world might need to reduce the necessity of fluency in the Biblical languages, he says there should be no shortcuts when learning theology and knowing how to use the right tools for proper Biblical interpretation.

When asked about the challenges facing seminaries, Dr Ristau identified money and recruitment of candidates as the key issues. Seminary education is expensive. He sees the solution as frankly asking people for the money, noting that we have become reluctant to teach about stewardship, and the need to give to the kingdom of God. We should just be upfront with people about the costs involved and invite them to partner with us in the beautiful and amazing missions and projects that the Lord has entrusted to our care. Letting people know about your need helps them to ask questions they may not realize that they should be asking.

Finding the right people to go to seminary is also a challenge. In the West, we have lost much of the respect for the pastoral office that is still prevalent in other countries, where there is dignity attached to being a pastor. In our ‘post-Christian’ world, there is rather a stigma against clergy, and a focus on material reward over service. He encourages people to look around them in church and encourage young people to consider the ministry. Even if those young people have no biological blood relation to you, the blood of Christ that binds us in the Sacrament of the Altar, makes us the truest sense of family, in light of eternity. We shouldn't be ashamed but should rejoice in the responsibility and opportunities to get involved in the lives of our Christian brothers and sisters in Christ, by offering them input on how they live their lives, and decisions that they make, in all three estates.

Finally, Dr Ristau stressed that seminary education and pastoral formation should take years, not months. Jesus took years to teach his disciples. Those disciples (literally ‘students’) then became apostles (‘sent ones’). Pastoral education is expensive, but it needs to be a number one priority. He asks people who question in-depth pastor training,

“When you go to hospital, what do you expect of your surgeon?  You expect the surgeon to be thoroughly and properly trained. It takes years to train a surgeon to perform your half hour operation. When you are talking about the surgeon of your soul, who is conducting a surgery with not just temporal, but eternal consequences, why would you expect anything less?”