IN THE PIPELINE
Want to meet the person who may be your next pastor or Christian day school teacher?
This series profiles the men and women who are in their final year of preparation for the public teaching or
preaching ministry at Immanuel Lutheran College and Seminary in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Age: 25
Program: Seminary
Year in School: Senior
Where were you born?
Valentine, Nebraska
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Tacoma, Washington, about forty-five
minutes south of Seattle.
Married? Unmarried? Tell us about your family.
I’m not married. I have one brother and three sisters who all live in Eau Claire and lots of extended family. I try to get to Milwaukee to visit my cousin and out to Washington to visit my Grandma whenever I can.
What hobbies, sports or extracurriculars interest you?
I like golfing, but I’m not very good at it. I also like road trips, hiking, and board games.
Tell us one thing about yourself that most people don’t know.
I’ve flown an airplane. My eighth-grade math teacher taught me how to fly his Cessna 172. No one died, so I think that makes me a pretty good pilot.
Which academic subjects especially interest you?
I enjoy literature, sermon-writing, and language studies.
How did you first come to consider the public teaching or preaching ministry as a career?
My dad was pastor in Tacoma when I was growing up, so it was always in the back of my mind. By my senior year of high school, I’d determined not to be a pastor, and I took a year off from school after graduation. Nothing really jumped out at me as a particularly interesting career path during that year. So, when people started talking about the “called worker shortage,” I figured maybe that was a place that the Lord could use me. Suffice it to say, I’m much more excited about the public ministry now than when I first started studying for it!
What have you appreciated most about your time at ILC?
This might seem an inadequate answer, but I think it is easier to say that there isn’t really anything that I haven’t appreciated about my time at Immanuel, at least in retrospect. There were a lot of things that I didn’t appreciate at the time during my eleven years on this campus, but I think time gives a lot of perspective. If I had to pick one thing, I look back very fondly on worshiping at chapel with my friends in high school. I never really considered how rare and special it is to be able to worship with every one of your friends every day. I don’t anticipate getting to do that again in this life.
What qualities do you think will most be needed by the future leaders of the church?
Steadfastness and humility. It’s tough to balance the two. We should be confident in the doctrines that we have from the inspired Scriptures. But I think that it can be easy to let confidence get perverted into pride, and pride has no place in evangelism. At the same time, there isn’t any room for compromise when every word of God has been given by inspiration. We are right insofar as we agree with Scripture. It’s not to our credit when we are right, but it is definitely our fault when we are wrong. Paul summed it up in 1 Corinthians 9:16-19: “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel. For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more.”