He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Hello Everyone,

I greet you with the Easter greeting of great joy. I am excited to be with you, to live with you, get to know you, love you, and to be your pastor.

One thing you will quickly notice about me is that my sermons tend to center around the simple(hard) commands to love God, and love neighbor. This is how I try to live my life and what that means is I tend to accept you as you are. Now we may not agree on everything but I will accept that we do not agree and not let that be a barrier in how I treat you. This is how I view ministry, that as your pastor I am called to love you, to build a relationship with you, to walk with you in your life, and last but certainly not least to teach you God’s Word.

I am a second career pastor, coming to you from my first call in South Dakota. All this means is that I have went to school, graduating from UW-Madison in 2010…I finished most of my course work in 1986 but it took a while and new technology to go back and finish. In between these years I worked a couple of different jobs that last as a mechanic in a plastics factory in Manitowoc. I am a journeyman maintenance mechanic.

Both my wife and I are in our second marriages, we met and were married in seminary. Between us we have 5 children, Patience(Robbie) 30 with 2 grandchildren, Sylas and Scarlett and one on the way; Jasmine(Cody) 27 with two grandsons Rowen and Ryker, Marena 24, Cameron 21, and Carson 20. Our kids are scattered between Florida, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. I grew up in Kimberly, near Appleton, and my wife, Rhia, grew up in Williamsburg, IA near Iowa City. I come from a big family having 5 brothers and sisters, I am number two. Rhia has only one sister and she is the oldest.

My faith that I grew up with was Catholic and my whole family is still Catholic, I’m the only one who is Lutheran. My journey to the Lutheran faith started when my girls first came to us as foster children. At the time I wasn’t going to church on a regular basis but I knew the girls needed to be in a faith community and a friend invited us to their church. After going there a few times I found out I liked it and the people were friendly and welcoming so I stayed and became a Lutheran.

That is a brief history of my life and as we get to know each other more of my life and myself will be revealed to you through my sermons and in conversation with each other.

God’s peace be with you all,

Pastor Chris