Alumni/ae Stories
Read about where a Luther Seminary education has taken these alumni/ae.
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Beverly Self
Associate Pastor
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
Springfield, Ohio
“Going to St. Paul was like going to Mecca,n’t explains Beverly Self, describing her feelings about coming to a place so rich with Lutheran culture. To listen to Self speak of her background, her family and her views of Lutheranism is to listen to a poet.
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Beverly Self
Associate Pastor
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
Springfield, Ohio
“Going to St. Paul was like going to Mecca,” explains Beverly Self, describing her feelings about coming to a place so rich with Lutheran culture. To listen to Self speak of her background, her family and her views of Lutheranism is to listen to a poet.
Considering her doctoral degree in English literature and master of arts in English composition and rhetoric, it”s no wonder that Self”s eloquence is equal to her passion. “We have borne out the truth,” says Self. “The Lutheran church has the most pure interpretation of the gospel of any church I know.”
Self is not making a hollow comparison. She was raised in a deeply religious family that includes Roman Catholics, Methodists, Nazarenes and Episcopalians. In fact, prior to entering seminary, Self was a licensed pastor with the Church of the Nazarene. “But I wasn’t sure God had called me to be a pastor,” she admits.
While enrolled in Ashland Theological Seminary, Ashland, Ohio, and still searching, Self, with her husband and son, started attending a Lutheran church. It was then that her path revealed itself to her. In her words, “I
finally felt the call.”
A deeply committed scholar, Self immersed herself in the writings of Luther. “I became a Lutheran because of Luther”s articulation of doctrine. I became a 16th century Lutheran!”
Today, Self is associate pastor at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Springfield, Ohio. Much of her work involves faith formation. “The Lutheran church is awakening to the fact that there are people who know nothing
about God,” explains Self. She considers that extremely exciting, as well as a challenge. “It calls you to examine your theology and how you express what evangelism means.
“When you say to people 'God loves you, just as you are” that”s such an incredible, revolutionary truth. My experience is that people are dying to hear that and dying to see someone who believes that.”
Five years ago, before she had even considered entering Luther Seminary, Self wrote a single page on the call she heard from God. “It describes my call to Grace exactly.”
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Christian Holleck
Pastor, Mount Hope Lutheran Church
Pontiac, Michigan
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Christian Holleck
Pastor, Mount Hope Lutheran Church
Pontiac, Michigan
“Studying another belief system has enabled me to come to a deeper understanding of Christianity”s unique claims,” said Christian Holleck, '99, a graduate of Luther Seminary”s Islamic Studies program and pastor at Mount Hope Lutheran Church in Pontiac, Michigan. He added, faithful Christians are called to love their neighbors and “understanding our neighbor is the first step to love.”
Holleck points out that the Islamic world encompasses one-fifth of the human race, and in the U.S., Muslims are the second largest religious group. One of the largest Arabic communities outside the Middle East is located in Dearborn, just 45 minutes south of Pontiac where Holleck is pastor of Mount Hope Lutheran Church.
He gives presentations on Islam and Christianity at various Lutheran Churches and senior living residences, has taken confirmation students to a mosque, and helped organize an interfaith walk against domestic violence.
Holleck served on his synod”s task force for the Ministry to People of Middle Eastern Origin. The task force worked to dispel negative stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims in particular. “Here in the U.S., we have a unique opportunity to build bridges between Christians and Muslims,” he said.
Holleck was inspired by the example of his professors at Luther Seminary. “They have extensive experience living in Islamic countries and are attuned to Christian and Muslim relationships in different parts of the world,” he said. “They believe that an often tense relationship can be transformed into one of friendship and understanding.”
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Alicia Lee
Assistant professor of pastoral care and counseling, China Lutheran Seminary
Taiwan
“To be a teacher and a counselor has been my passion for the ministry. I am called to be His servant to fulfill His mission in the fields of teaching and counseling.”
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Alicia Lee
Assistant professor of pastoral care and counseling, China Lutheran Seminary
Taiwan
Alicia Lee graduated with a Ph.D. from Luther Seminary in 2001. She is assistant professor of pastoral care and counseling at China Lutheran Seminary in Taiwan. She also serves as dean of students, which involves counseling students and supervising their weekend church internships.
“To be a teacher and a counselor has been my passion for the ministry,” Lee said. “I am called to be His servant to fulfill His mission in the fields of teaching and counseling.”
She sees both these aspects of her work as important areas to equip students to be good church workers. “Pastoral care courses teach students to know how to take care of their own souls, so they would know how to take care of others,” she said. “The church internship shapes students to be a good servant for their future service in the church or in Christian institutes.”
Along with her teaching and counseling duties, Lee finds herself in demand as a preacher. “I am usually invited to different churches to preach either on Sundays or on the special occasions,” she said.
Most of the courses Lee took at Luther were closely related to her ministry in Taiwan, such as pastoral care, youth and family ministry, death and dying, and theology of the cross.
“The models of all the professors have touched my life through their marvelous teachings and loving hearts for me,” she said. “Their personal instruction on my counseling ideas, skills, strengths and interests has affected my ministry positively.”
Lee also appreciated Professor Emeritus Bill Smith, who allowed her to observe his marriage care and enrichment group for seminary couples. She has brought the Marriage Care concept to Taiwan and is putting it into practice within a Taiwanese context.
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Todd Buegler
Director of Youth and Family Ministry at Lord of Life Lutheran Church
Maple Grove, Minn.
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Todd Buegler
Director of Youth and Family Ministry at Lord of Life Lutheran Church
Maple Grove, Minn.
Todd loves what he does every day, calling ministry to junior and senior high youth “the greatest work of the church.”
“You”re affecting people”s lives at a point when they really need the message of the Gospel,” said Buegler, director of youth and family ministry at Lord of Life Lutheran Church, a 6,000-plus-member ELCA congregation in Maple Grove, Minn. The Luther Seminary graduate earned a master”s degree in Youth and Family Ministry in 1995.
Now in his 16th year at Lord of Life, Buegler recalls that upon graduating from Gustavus Adolphus College, he intended to do youth work for “a couple of years” before becoming ordained. But soon after enrolling in Luther”s Master of Divinity program, Buegler says he went through “the closest thing I ever had to a crisis in faith. I discovered my call was really to youth and family ministry.”
At Lord of Life, Buegler works with other staff on a multi-faceted youth program serving some 400 high school students and 500 junior high students from suburban Maple Grove and surrounding communities. There”s something going on just about every day of the week — senior high programs on Mondays and small groups throughout the week, confirmation classes on Wednesday and junior high programs on Thursdays. Retreats, service projects, and summer mission trips round out the extensive offerings.
Ministering to adolescents is “very demanding and exhausting emotionally. You have to be willing to give yourself to the community and the congregation and the kids,” Buegler said. “It”s like shooting at a moving target while riding a bucking bronco. The target keeps moving, the culture keeps changing, the kids change, and I”m changing, too.”
He credits his longevity to his Luther education and an extensive support network that has helped him evolve his ministry over time.
“Luther taught me how to think, to write and to create — for example, to create a confirmation curriculum that is theologically sound. You need that foundation.” Luther is also where Buegler experienced the importance of peer support, something he has nurtured throughout his career. He is currently president of the ELCA Youth Ministries Network and is active in Youth Leadership continuing education and support programs. He shares his expertise in youth ministry by teaching courses at Luther on an adjunct basis.
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Jeff Rohr
Director of Outlaw Ranch and Atlantic Mountain Ranch
Custer, South Dakota
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Jeff Rohr
Director of Outlaw Ranch and Atlantic Mountain Ranch
Custer, South Dakota
Jeff Rohr”s very first job was as a ranch hand at Outlaw Ranch. He spent 10 summers working at camps as a young person. “It was during these summers that my own personal faith in God was formed, and I decided to become a pastor.”
As director of Outlaw Ranch and Atlantic Mountain Ranch, Jeff supervises a year-round staff of seven, and up to 70 seasonal staff (camp counselors, wranglers, life guards, food service workers, etc.). While summer is the busiest time, the camps are busy year round with weekend retreat groups and running the Black Hills Outdoor School in the spring and fall. “I also spend many Sundays visiting churches, preaching or doing adult forums, telling people about the ministry of Lutherans Outdoors in South Dakota. It is a very exciting and dynamic ministry with people of all ages.”
Camps provide a place for people of all ages to experience the church in community -- to live for a week with worship, Bible study, and reflection on the life of faith integrated into the rhythms of each day, says Jeff. “Outdoor ministry is essentially relational ministry. At camp, strong bonds of friendship take shape and faith is shared in a way that renews and re-energizes campers as they return home to live it out in daily lives.”
Camp also has an impact on the summer staff, most of them college students who are still forming their own faith and wrestling with what to do with their lives. “Camp gives them an opportunity to do ministry -- to be leaders who plan and lead worship services, lead Bible studies and faith discussions, lead cabin devotions and prayer with their campers. None of them return home at the end of the summer the same person. Many of them go on to become pastors or lay leaders in the church. I am convinced that our Bible camps are the most effective training programs we have for youth leadership in the church.”
Jeff feels his years at Luther Seminary provided him with “a strong theological foundation that has helped guide the decisions I make, the kind of programs I develop, the way I relate to other people, and the underlying purpose and direction for ministry. I had so many professors whom I admired and who helped shape me theologically and spiritually. They challenged me intellectually, cared about me personally, and helped me to know more fully what it means to be a Lutheran and serve the church of Christ as a pastor.”
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Kevin Mabry
When Kevin Mabry graduated from the Children, Youth and Family distributed learning program in the summer of 2008, he knew he had earned it. The road was a long and sometimes difficult one, but Mabry continued to pursue his call.
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Kevin Mabry
When Kevin Mabry graduated from the Children, Youth and Family distributed learning program in the summer of 2008, he knew he had earned it. The road was a long and sometimes difficult one, but Mabry continued to pursue his call.
Mabry was on a completely different professional path when he experienced a devastating loss.
“I thought God was calling me to work with souls, but now I know I misspelled it. I became a podiatrist instead,” he says. “I was in practice about five years when my wife and I lost our first child on Easter morning in 1990.” He turned to his congregation in Oklahoma for comfort.
Soon after, he moved to Colorado, and his new church started experiencing turmoil. He was ready to walk away. But while on a camping trip, he turned a corner.
“I said, 'God, use me for whatever,”” he recalls. Soon after that, his interim pastor sent him a note, asking him to work with the church”s youth, whose leader had just left. “I said I would be the interim. And that”s where I was for quite a long time.”
One year after accepting what was supposed to be a temporary position, in 2001, Mabry enrolled as part of the first CYF distributed learning cohort.
“I call myself the longest-running DL student,” says Mabry, acknowledging the seven years it took him to complete a program that typically runs a four-year course.
In 2004, in the midst of his coursework, Mabry was going around a steep corner on his road bike. He lost control, and went head-first into the rocks. He spent 11 days in the hospital, unconscious. “I lost that 11 days, but I knew I was a changed person when I walked out those doors.”
After nine months of emotional ups and downs, Mabry decided he was mentally and physically strong enough to return to the CYF DL program. He credits his wife and daughters with giving him the encouragement and support to continue. His two teenage daughters created flash cards to help him memorize Scripture, and made signs to cheer him on through his most difficult coursework.
Now, with Mabry recently graduated, his entire family and congregation are feeling the effects of his work and the unique benefits of the program.
“Everything I”ve learned here could be taken and used in a congregation,” he says. “I took Genesis to Revelation, and did it in a format for my junior high confirmation class. It was a full walk-through-the-Bible experience for them. Then the parents wanted us to do that with them.”
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Todd Buegler
director of youth and family ministry at Lord of Life Lutheran Church
Maple Grove, Minn.
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Todd Buegler
director of youth and family ministry at Lord of Life Lutheran Church
Maple Grove, Minn.
Todd Buegler loves what he does every day, calling ministry to junior and senior high youth “the greatest work of the Church.”
“You”re affecting people”s lives at a point when they really need the message of the Gospel,” said Buegler, director of youth and family ministry at Lord of Life Lutheran Church, a 6,000-plus-member ELCA congregation in Maple Grove, Minn. The Luther Seminary graduate earned a master”s degree in Youth and Family Ministry in 1995.
Now in his 16th year at Lord of Life, Buegler recalls that upon graduating from Gustavus Adolphus College, he intended to do youth work for “a couple of years” before becoming ordained. But soon after enrolling in Luther”s Master of Divinity program, Buegler says he went through “the closest thing I ever had to a crisis in faith. I discovered my call was really to youth and family ministry.”
At Lord of Life, Buegler works with other staff on a multi-faceted youth program serving some 400 high school students and 500 junior high students from suburban Maple Grove and surrounding communities. There”s something going on just about every day of the week: senior high programs on Mondays and small groups throughout the week, confirmation classes on Wednesday and junior high programs on Thursdays. Retreats, service projects, and summer mission trips round out the extensive offerings.
Ministering to adolescents is “very demanding and exhausting emotionally. You have to be willing to give yourself to the community and the congregation and the kids,” Buegler said. “It”s like shooting at a moving target while riding a bucking bronco. The target keeps moving, the culture keeps changing, the kids change, and I”m changing, too.”
He credits his longevity to his Luther education and an extensive support network that has helped him evolve his ministry over time.
“Luther taught me how to think, to write and to create; for example, to create a confirmation curriculum that is theologically sound. You need that foundation.” Luther is also where Buegler experienced the importance of peer support, something he has nurtured throughout his career. He is currently president of the ELCA Youth Ministries Network and is active in Youth Leadership continuing education and support programs. He shares his expertise in youth ministry by teaching courses at Luther on an adjunct basis.
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Mark Brown
Regional Representative for Jerusalem and the Middle East, Lutheran World Federation
Jerusalem, Israel
The Rev. Mark Brown, '82, started April 2004 as Lutheran World Federation's regional representative for Jerusalem and the Middle East.
The Lord makes strange days for Palestinians and Israelis, locked in a struggle for the same Holy Land.
"It's easier to be a faithful Christian here," he says quietly. "You're prompted every day to wake up and reaffirm that today is the day that the Lord has made."
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Mark Brown
Regional Representative for Jerusalem and the Middle East, Lutheran World Federation
Jerusalem, Israel
The Rev. Mark Brown started April 2004 as Lutheran World Federation's regional representative for Jerusalem and the Middle East.
The Lord makes strange days for Palestinians and Israelis, locked in a struggle for the same Holy Land.
"It's easier to be a faithful Christian here," he says quietly. "You're prompted every day to wake up and reaffirm that today is the day that the Lord has made."
Brown's career issues are peace, justice and poverty. He first visited the Mideast as an undergraduate and returned as a Luther Seminary intern in Egypt. After graduation and ordination in 1982, he joined the ELCA's Division for Global Mission, moving to the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs in Washington, D.C., in 1991. He has organized initiatives to combat poverty, fight HIV, get rid of land mines and cancel poor nations' debt.
He has years of experience in the Mideast. In Ramallah, West Bank, he taught ethics and religion at a girls' school and was assistant pastor at Lutheran Church of Hope, a Palestinian Christian congregation. He also served as director of the Jerusalem office for the Middle East Council of Churches.
With LWF, Brown will go slowly. It may be the only way to go in the anguished Holy Land. Brown's mission is nothing less than peace and justice.
If that makes him a dreamer, he's not alone. "Jesus took sides," says Brown. "He was there for those who were oppressed and those who were suffering."
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Genelle Netland
Associate Pastor
Calvary Lutheran Church, Bemidji, Minnesota
“We need great leaders in the church, and I think that, as intimidating as seminary might sound, it”s a great experience and they do a great job of preparing us ... Come and check it out and see what God might be up to in your life!”
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Genelle Netland
Associate Pastor
Calvary Lutheran Church, Bemidji, Minnesota
As a young, single woman from southern Iowa, Genelle Netland, ”01, felt she might well be leaving for another country as she took her first call to far northern Minnesota. But, putting geography and winter worries aside, Netland boldly moved north to discover that her new home of Bemidji is “actually, quite a hub!” Today Netland is happily married and genuinely enjoys both her farm life and the vibrant congregation she helps lead. “But,” she adds, “when it snowed on Easter, I have to admit that I cried!”
Netland is associate pastor at Calvary Lutheran, a growing congregation in Bemidji, where 490 people gather to worship every week at one of three worship services. Netland describes her work: “I help do all the ordained word and sacrament ministry; I lead worship, presiding at communion, baptisms and funerals.” She adds, “As associate pastor I also do relational ministry using a Stephens Ministry program called “ChristCare,” which I helped to vision and implement. It gathers people around either interests or needs, coupling Bible study and fellowship.” Netland also organizes Calvary”s confirmation program, teaches adult Bible studies and serves as a resource for the Sunday school and after school programs at Calvary.
Netland”s personal call to ministry is marked by love and hope. “I enjoy being a beacon in the midst of the chaos of life, coming to share God”s story, to help people hear and see what they have in common with it. But my love for the people”s energy and stories also drives me,” she says. When she first heard her call to seminary she was studying speech therapy, driven by the opportunity to give people hope that after a stroke they could regain their speech. “There is a similar and more powerful hope we deliver in faith, that even after a tragedy you can eventually thank and praise God again,” she says.
The variety of class offerings and faculty voices at Luther Seminary pleased Netland. “I loved and appreciated the variety of professors, expertise and opinions there.” Bible classes were especially helpful, as she discovered herself “using the insight and resources [gained at Luther] in my first call again and again.”
The contextual education program at Luther “got us out in congregations to experience ministry done different ways,” she says, adding, “All that hands-on experience shaped me and gave me confidence to do that in another place.” Of Luther”s faculty, Netland comments, “I would say that systematics professor Steven Paulson was very influential in pulling everything together for me, and I tried to take as many classes from New Testament professor Craig Koester as I could. He was awesome.”
Pastor Netland invites any who hear the call to Luther Seminary, “We need great leaders in the church, and I think that, as intimidating as seminary might sound, it”s a great experience and they do a great job of preparing us ... Come and check it out and see what God might be up to in your life!”
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Carol Pyeatt
Director of Children’s Ministry for Westwood Lutheran Church
St. Louis Park, Minn.
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Carol Pyeatt
Director of Children’s Ministry for Westwood Lutheran Church
St. Louis Park, Minn.
As Director of Children”s Ministry for Westwood Lutheran Church in St. Louis Park, Minn., Carol Pyeatt”s life is all about serving children. “I”m responsible for coordinating the educational and faith development programs for 3-year-olds through sixth graders.”
In addition to Sunday School, Pyeatt -— who is rostered as an Associate in Ministry in the ELCA -— coordinates a Wednesday evening Church School, training for 70 teachers and helpers, a full schedule of summer and school year holiday mini camps (10-12 camps), faith milestone events, and a number of annual events such as Breakfast with the Pastors, Celebrate Kids Banquet, and Dinner in Bethlehem. For her church she writes original Christmas programs and Advent and Lenten devotions. For Augsburg Fortress she writes Vacation Bible School and Sunday School material as well as devotions for children (Home Altar).
All of this takes a lot of effort, but for Carol, it”s worth it. “Children are not only the church of the future, but are the church now,” she said. “I want to be part of helping children in their faith journey.”
Carol found her studies at Luther Seminary to be well suited to her present calling. “Bible study and theology training have provided a most useful background when writing my devotional booklets and Bible studies, and when selecting appropriate materials for use with our children and families,” she said. “Church leadership classes have helped me not only to understand my role on a church staff, but also to better understand the interactive roles and overall functioning of a large, multi-staffed church.
But seminary education wasn’t her only preparation for this call. For a time, Carol was called by the Division for Global Mission to serve in Papua New Guinea as a teacher to the children of missionaries. “The experience of working in such an undeveloped country gave me an increased appreciation for the joy that comes from living a simpler life, a life of meager material possessions, but rich in the awareness and enjoyment of the basic good things in life,” she said. “This has helped me work with our children to instill values and awareness of other cultures.” Her children”s programs include significant mission projects.
For individuals considering a seminary education, Carol has this advice to give: “Seek counsel from one or more pastors, AIMs or diaconal ministers whom you respect and who is/are respected in the field. Look at your gifts. Look at your interests. Listen to God. Listen to your heart.”