Every year the Seminary Chorus at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, Wis., tours a portion of the United States, presenting God’s Word in song. This April they will travel south to Texas. Cameron Schroeder, a vicar at Faith, Sharpsburg, Ga., this year, shares how the group’s message of hope on its 2024 tour affected one woman:

Charlotte had been driving buses for years but had never crossed paths with a group quite like this one. She was the bus driver for the 2024 tour of the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Chorus—50 or more young men, all studying to be pastors. It would be an interesting ten days.

The tenors, baritones, and basses all boarded the bus, and soon their journey had begun. The tour would take Charlotte and the Seminary Chorus through much of Nevada and California, but God had some other places to take them too. The wheels were turning.

After a long day behind the wheel, most people would want to put up their feet and relax, maybe sit in some much-deserved silence after the bus has gone empty for the evening. But something made Charlotte curious to see what these men were doing out West. So instead, she took her seat in the pews and listened as the Chorus sang about promises. And the wheels were turning.

Charlotte had learned a thing or two about how God keeps his promises. She had experienced firsthand that God never abandons his children, even as she fought breast cancer and won. She witnessed how he works all things for the good of those who love him as he used her weakest moments to prepare her for greater things. As she sat in the pews night after night, as the songs of the Seminary Chorus became her songs, the Spirit stirred in her heart. Wheels that had turned slowly for years began to quicken their pace. Scripture and melody joined hands and snuck into her heart the way only music can. The wheels turned and turned.

The Seminary Chorus doesn’t perform magic tricks. Aaron Christie, the Chorus’ director, doesn’t try to manipulate people when he arranges the program. He selects songs and arranges them in an order to accomplish one simple task—to tell again the best story ever written. As Charlotte listened to her new friends lift their voices, she was invited into a centuries-old narrative about a fallen people, about a God who loved them anyway, and about how that love took on flesh and proved himself through the shedding of his blood. As she began to sing along, she sang of redemption that called her a child of the Most High, of peace that comes from knowing the one who banished the darkness. The wheels turned and turned, and it wasn’t just melodies that she took hold of. She clutched the promises—promises that God had made to her.

Since 2024, Charlotte has attended WELS churches all over the country while transporting other groups. Charlotte has noticed a miracle during her church exploration: The wheels that turned in her heart while listening to the Seminary Chorus turn whenever the Word is preached and the truth is presented in song. Now, as she transitions into retirement, she hopes to plant more permanent roots. The wheels are still turning.

Note: Schroeder, who will start his final year at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary next fall, shares another way the Seminary Chorus is reaping blessings—this one more personal. He first considered the full-time ministry after singing “The Church’s One Foundation” with the Seminary Chorus when it visited his high school, Luther High School, Onalaska, Wis., in 2017.

Featured image at top was taken by Charlotte of the Seminary Chorus at Shepherd of the Hills, Las Vegas, Nev., during its tour in 2024.

Author: Cameron Schroeder
Volume 113, Number 04
Issue: April 2026