Friedrich Wyneken Comes to America

What Friedrich Wyneken learned about German Lutherans in America touched off a struggle in the heart of the young man. Friedrich would later describe that moment to Candidate A. Biewend, himself on the verge of a decision to volunteer to serve in America:

Sadly, I have to confess that, as far as I know, neither love of the Lord, nor love of orphaned brothers drove me to America. I wasn’t even driven by a natural desire to go. I went there against my will and fighting the decision. I went because it was my duty. My conscience compelled me. It grieved me so much then and still grieves me now that I didn’t — still don’t–love the Lord more than that and that He had to drive me out to work like a slave. Even today, dreadful challenges and temptations, doubts and griefs come over my soul when I’m serving in my once over there. It comforts me, that I can say: “I have to be over there. You know, Lord, how I’d like to stay here at home. But if I stayed, I wouldn’t be able to look up to you and pray to you. So, then, I surely must go of my free will.

At peace with God and sure of his decision, Friedrich Wyneken obtained release from his duties as a tutor. After a memorable candidate’s examination, he was ordained with fellow candidate, Christoph W. Wolf. Eighty-year-old General Superintendent Ruperti conducted the rite at St. Wilhadi Church of Stade on May 8th, 1837. With the help of Gottfried Treviranus, the Reformed pastor of St. Martin Church in Bremen, Wyneken and Wolf made the acquaintance of Captain Stuerje, who provided the pair of missionaries free passage to America on his ship, the Brig Apollo. Wyneken and Wolf arrived in Baltimore on June 28, 1838.

See Also: Send us a Faithful Shepherd | Meet Fritz Wyneken | Wyneken Wanders in Baltimore

©2018 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Meet Fritz Wyneken

Encore Post: The Young Fritz Wyneken was the tenth of eleven children, the sixth of six sons. He joined a family of dedicated and prominent servants of heavenly and earthly kingdoms. One uncle served as the Court Preacher of the King of Hanover, another the commander of the Queen of Denmark’s bodyguard and a brother the Rector of a seminary. Other Wynekens served as pastors and officers in a variety of occupations in Denmark and Germany.

When Friedrich was five years old, his father died, leaving his mother Louise to raise their eleven children. To accomplish this, she depended on a meager church pension, took in boarders and called on family and friends to make ends meet.

Friedrich attended Gymnasium in his home town of Verden. At age seventeen, he enrolled at the University of Göttingen, the traditional Wyneken alma mater. Yet the school’s strict atmosphere and its students’ vulgar behavior proved intolerable to the young man. After one semester, Friedrich enrolled in University of Halle’s Theological Faculty, where he remained until he graduated two and a half years later.

At Halle, Friedrich found a mentor in Augustus Tholuck, a leader of 19th Century German Awakening and supporter of the Prussian Union. During Friedrich’s years at Halle, Tholuck taught courses in New Testament, Dogmatics and the History of Doctrine.

Through his influence, Wyneken became an “awakened” and “believing” Christian. Upon graduation, Wyneken served as a private instructor in the home of Consistorial Counselor von Henfstengel at Leesum, a town near Bremen.The area was a stronghold for the Awakening and a place where Friedrich Wyneken would grow both in his faith in Christ and zeal for missions. No doubt his relatives played a part in this development, since many of them lived in the area. After four years in Leesum, he briefly served as the director of a Latin School in Bremervörde and then a private instructor of a boy, whose health required him to live in Italy and the South of France.

Wyneken’s education and experience had made him into a strong, convinced pietist, full of zeal for the Lord and “a fanatic full of fire to oppose strict churchhness.” Wyneken returned to Germany in 1837, fully groomed for a promising career in the church. Then he read accounts of the spiritual needs of German Lutherans on the American frontier in the journals of mission societies. Everything changed.

©2018 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Send us a Faithful Shepherd

180 years ago in late May, Pastor Jesse Hoover died. In the frontier town of Fort Wayne, Indiana, his congregations mourned. Along with them, the whole community missed him, too. Lutheran pastors were rare in the dark forest. Elder Adam Wesel of St. Paul’s congregation wrote to the Mission Committee of the Pennsylvania Ministerium for help. Among other things he pleaded:

“Have pity, honored fathers and brothers and send us a Pastor… If you canvas the northern part of Indiana you will soon see how important it is that you send us a faithful Shepherd. The harvest is great but unfortunately there are no workers. If it is not possible to send us a Pastor, dear brothers, then send us a circuit rider. We hunger and thirst for the Word of God.”
Adam Wesel
St. Paul Lutheran Church
Fort Wayne, Indiana
4 June 1838

The letter arrived in Pennsylvania at a perfect time. The committee had planned to send a survey missionary West in September. But their candidate could not go. They we’re without a man to send.

Yet as they pondered, a young pastor had just arrived in Baltimore. His name was Friedrich Wyneken. In late August they dispatched him to Indiana, to gather scattered Protestants into congregations. This he did — and more!

More about this story in later posts. For now, thank God for the prayer the people of Ft. Wayne prayed and add your prayer to theirs that God might send faithful shepherds to gather his people into the fold of their great Shepherd.

See also: Meet Fritz Wyneken 

©2018 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com