Dr. James (Jim) Voelz was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wis., and has been a lifelong member of the LCMS. He attended parochial grade school and public high school in Milwaukee, and prepared for the office of the ministry through the educational “system” of the LCMS, including two of her colleges and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. After seminary, he studied for a year with Martin H. Franzmann at Westfield House in Cambridge, England, after which he commenced formal doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge, writing his dissertation, entitled “The Use of the Present and Aorist Imperatives and Prohibitions in the New Testament,” under Geoffrey Lampe, Regius Professor of Divinity in the university.