After earning his master of divinity degree from Christ Seminary-Seminex, St. Louis, Mo., in 1981, Rick Bliese accepted his first call as an ordained pastor at St. Stephanus Lutheran Church in Herne, Germany. After serving four years, he accepted a position with the United Evangelists Missions in Germany as director of continuing education program for pastors and evangelists in Zaire and Rwanda. From 1986 to 1990, he ministered to a small urban congregation in Bukavu, Zaire and focused on directing continuing education programs at the Centre D'Accueil Protestante Ecumenical Center (C.A.P.), School for Evangelists in Zaire and Rwanda. He established C.A.P. schools of music, evangelism and language and co-founded a regional development office for research and technical assistance.

After ten years overseas, he returned to the U.S. and earned a master of theology in 19th and 20th century theology (1992) and a Ph.D. in confessional theology (1995) from LSTC.

Rick joined the Luther Seminary faculty as academic dean and associate professor of mission in July 2003. He was elected president of Luther Seminary in 2005.

Previously, he served as the director of graduate studies and Augustana Heritage associate professor of global mission and evangelism at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC).