James A. Scherer, Lutheran missionary, church historian, and specialist in Christian missions, who over several decades made notable contributions to the academic study of missiology, died on December 20, 2023 in North Riverside, IL. He was 97.

He was born on September 1, 1926, the third son of Arnold F. and Eleanor M. Scherer. Mr. Scherer grew up and attended Lutheran parochial schools in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Following graduation from Concordia High School in 1943, he was awarded a four year scholarship to attend Yale University, where he studied under accelerated wartime conditions, majoring in history, and graduating in 1946. He was a member of Timothy Dwight College and served briefly as president of Dwight Hall, the campus Christian association. While still at Yale he was chosen by the Yale-in-China Association as a "Yale Bachelor", the title given to short-term English teachers sent to teach at the Yali Middle School in Changsha, Hunan. After a term of intensive study of spoken Chinese at the Yale School for Far Eastern Languages, Scherer sailed (August 1946) for Shanghai, China on a merchant vessel that embarked from Galveston, Texas. Arriving at the interior city of Changsha, he began duties as English teacher at the newly reopened Yali Middle School, which had only then returned to Changsha from its wartime sojourn in "Free China". Severely damaged during the Japanese occupation of the campus, the school was in the midst of extensive renovation.

While in China, Scherer met Frances E. Schlosser, Yale-in-China nurse serving as Dean of the Xiang-Ya Nursing School. The two were married on Easter Day, 1948, and together completed their service in China under worsening conditions, which included severe inflation and the retreat of Chinese Nationalist government armies. Returning to the United States in 1949, Scherer enrolled at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, studying under such luminaries as Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich.  His son James David was born in 1950 in New York City.  Scherer received the Master of Divinity degree from Union Seminary in 1952. He also spent one year 1951-1952 at the Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary in Maywood, Illinois, simultaneously serving as intern pastor at Trinity English Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  His daughter Susan Marie was born in Fort Wayne in 1951.

Following Scherer's graduation and ordination, the couple were commissioned as Lutheran missionaries in 1952 and sent to Tokyo, Japan with their two small children. Japan was then emerging from occupation status and becoming a treaty ally of the United States. After two years of intensive Japanese language study in Tokyo, Scherer was appointed missionary at large to the North Kyushu District of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church, stationed in Fukuoka. Here he gained grass-roots experience in parish evangelism, and also worked in such areas as literature and radio outreach and student evangelism. In 1956 he was called to return to Chicago as Dean of the newly created Lutheran School of Missions on the Maywood campus of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, a position which he held for eleven years. In 1967, LSTC joined with several other seminaries and moved from Maywood IL to Hyde Park Chicago, near the campus of the University of Chicago.  He prepared for this position by returning to Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University for doctoral studies, taking his Th.D. in 1968.

As Professor of World Mission and Church History at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Scherer developed expertise in such related fields as ecumenism and world religions, and was a frequent participant in ecumenical missionary conferences. His doctoral dissertation was published in 1968 under the title Mission and Unity in Lutheranism. He wrote four books and co-edited or collaborated in a dozen more. His best-seller was Missionary, Go Home! (1964), a work which responded to many criticisms of foreign mission activity. From 1977-84 he was chair of the international Commission on Church Cooperation of the Lutheran World Federation, based in Geneva, Switzerland. He served on several U.S. Lutheran mission boards and on ecumenical committees for missionary training. He toured many overseas churches in depth and inspected third world development projects. At the seminary he became friend and mentor to dozens of international students and career missionaries pursuing doctoral studies in preparation for teaching in overseas seminaries or other leadership roles.

Scherer's reputation as a missiologist grew through his participation over more than four decades in professional organizations such as the Association of Professors of Missions, the American Society of Missiology, and the International Association for Mission Studies. He served as officer and president of several of these. For six years he was a member of a three-person editorial team which produced Missiology, a professional quarterly, and for twelve years he was chief editor of the publication series of the American Society of Missiology. Under his leadership more than twenty volumes dealing with missiological topics were published for the Society by Orbis Books of Maryknoll, New York.

Retiring in 1992, Scherer remained active, contributing articles and reviews. Four years after Frances' passing, he found love again and married Liene Sorenson in 2012. As avid music lovers they both enjoyed attending concerts, singing, and traveling together. He also enjoyed playing the flute with the Mills senior citizens orchestra.

Mr. Scherer is survived by his second wife, Liene Sorenson; his son, James D. Scherer, photographer, of Falmouth, Maine; his daughter, Dr. Susan M. Scherer (Mrs. Harry M. Richter), pediatric psychiatrist, of River Forest, Illinois, five grandchildren (David, Stephanie, Elisabeth, Charles and William) and six great grandchildren (Alexandra, Cecelia, Eva, Vera, Allegra, and Solomon). He was pre-deceased by his first wife of 60 years, Frances E. Scherer (1912 - 2008); and by two older brothers, Ray L. Scherer (1919 - 2000) of Washington, DC; and Ross P. Scherer (1922 - 1999) of Arlington Heights, Illinois. He will be remembered for his enduring contributions to Christian missions.

Funeral services will be held at Grace Lutheran Church, 7300 Division St., River Forest, Illinois, on Saturday, December 30, 2023. The funeral will be at 11:00 am. Please arrive by 10:30 am for specially chosen prelude music.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, 5416 S. Cornell Ave (4th FL), Chicago, IL 60615, https://lstc.edu/giving/make-a-gift/ . Funeral care provided by G.L. Hills Funeral Home. For information, please call 847-699-9003 or visit www.glhillsfuneralhome.com .