Thomas Krahling

My name is Thomas Krahling. I am 26 years old and currently completing my pastoral studies for ordination in Lutheran Mission – Australia. I will be studying in St Catharines, Ontario, from August 2026 until January 2027, before returning to Australia, God-willing, to be ordained in Lutheran Mission – Australia.

I was raised in a Lutheran home, where my parents taught me to pray and brought me to church. I have fond memories from when I was little of singing the hymns with Dad under the booming pipe organ and enjoying bikkies with the oldies after the service. In that respect, I haven’t really grown up! But when I was young, I remember being struck by the words, ‘I ask you in the presence of God who searches the heart…’ This taught me not to merely recite the words of the liturgy, but, in the fear of the Lord, to make them my own confession of faith.

In high school I struggled socially, and that is where I found comfort in the psalms and in Lutheran theology. There I found the voice of a man who knew what it meant to suffer, but who trusted in the mercy of God and never lost hope. I was amazed to discover that this man was also the true Son of God, who bore my guilt and suffered for me, and who cried out to his Father for my forgiveness and salvation. It was around this time that I first felt the desire to become a pastor, but I was advised to pursue a secular career first. When I graduated from high school in 2018, I enrolled in mechanical engineering at the University of Adelaide. But during the pandemic, I changed my mind and enrolled at Australian Lutheran College.

I studied at Australian Lutheran College from 2020 until 2024. These five years were a challenging time for ALC and for the Lutheran Church in general, and as I progressed through my studies, I had the added pressure of not knowing whether I could be ordained at the end of it all. But through this time, my lecturers were extremely supportive and mentored me through these challenges. These years were a crucible which God used to refine my silver and gold. I was tested theologically, vocationally, and personally, and through many mistakes and uncertainties, I had to learn to live by faith in the grace of Christ alone. I thank God for those difficult years. The world changed massively, but in those years I saw the Church cling more tightly to her Saviour, and she grew stronger for it.

As I finished my vicarage at Lobethal at the end of 2024, the LCA adopted a change in teaching which I could no longer uphold. While some people urged me to serve the ‘faithful remnant’ within the LCA, I knew that I could not honestly vow in the presence of God to ‘uphold the public doctrine of the church and submit to the doctrinal and pastoral oversight of my bishop’. If I had taken that vow, I would have been lying my way into the office of ministry. Although I didn’t know what God had planned for my future, I knew that breaking the second and eighth commandments were not a part of his plan for me.

I stepped away from pastoral studies and got work at the local pub. I needed to figure out where I stood in this new and splintered church. I knew that I was theologically aligned with Lutheran Mission – Australia, but I didn’t want to break fellowship with my beloved congregation in the Lutheran Church of Australia, unless I knew that this is what the Word of God required of me. It was a very difficult decision, but after a full year of talking to pastors and studying the Bible closely, I knew I that I had to enter into the fellowship (and the pastoral care) of a church which desired to defend and confess the doctrine of Christ. Around this time, I was also encouraged to reembark on my pastoral studies, and I was given the opportunity to study at Concordia Theological Seminary, St Catharines, Ontario. I saved up what I could from the pub and in August 2026, I will be heading off for my final semester of study.