I have served as a pastor in the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod for 32 years.  I have served in West Bloomfield , Wisconsin; Thermopolis, Wyoming; Mustang, Oklahoma; Seward, Nebraska; Kalispell, Montana; and now here in Mayville, Wisconsin.  I graduated from Concordia University, Seward, Nebraska with a Bachelor of Science in Education in 1984, from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri with a Masters of Divinity in 1988, and Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California with a Doctor of Ministry in 2009. 

I was married to Joann (Schimmel) in 1985, and have been blessed with four children: Luke (1989), Benjamin (1991), Rachel (1992), and James (1994).  Luke, Ben, and Rachel have married, and I have been blessed with 2 grandchildren, Caleb and Grace. 

God has blessed me with the ability to probe parish processes so that more productive patterns for spreading the message of Jesus Christ can be instituted.  This all happens around the gifts that God has uniquely given to a specific church through the persons God has called into that specific community of believers.  The key is receiving the power of God through the Word and the Sacraments.  My major role is to deliver that Word in a relevant way so the Holy Spirit might achieve his purposes here at St. John’s. 

Linking it all together; the church, the school, the child care, and all the organizations, is the pioneering work for my calling here at St. John’s.  So many gifts have been given.  It is time to unite to see how God can use us “for such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14)