About Jonathan

I have always been around pastors because my parents were professional church workers in the LCMS. They served congregations in California and Wisconsin as teachers. I remember the kindness that members of Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Milwaukee showed my family when my father died. He was serving them as principal of the parish school. My mother was left with three children. I was the oldest at three years old. The youngest was six months old. Along with the pastor, they showed extraordinary compassion to us at a very hard time. I still remember that. After we had moved to my mother’s hometown, the pastor there was her confidant and encourager as she strived to raise us on her own. I remember her crying uncontrollably when she discovered that the ceiling in the old house that she bought had fallen in on her prize piano in the den. She went immediately to tell her friend the pastor. Later that week 12 men from the church descended upon our house and completely remodeled the entire room and they would only take lunch and a few beers as payment. When I was confirmed it was the pastor who arranged for me to get a brand new suit for the occasion, again no charge. And as I reached driving age it was the pastor who sold me his 1961 Chevy Belair for $250.00. It was in cherry condition. It was my church youth group that first introduced me to Concordia College in Milwaukee where I first thought of serving God as a pastor myself. Then a Vicar, Peter Ave-Lallemant  opened my eyes to see how I really could serve in the public ministry. After I started Concordia it was again the pastor who gave me an opportunity to participate in the liturgy and even help communicate the message. After much prodding from God through the faculty and staff at Concordia and searching of my soul I found myself signing my Declaration of Intent to become a pastor. Later that year I was drafted to serve in the Vietnam war but because I was studying for the public ministry I discovered that I was deferred. I guess that if I didn’t follow His prodding and answer His summons God had it in mind for me to walk around in the rice paddies of Vietnam for a while to think about it.

During my studies at Concordia I took Greek. Well, really Greek took me! Although I was successful in my German language studies, it was obvious that I was not going to be so with Greek. I still felt an inner calling to serve in the church but Greek was the gateway and I could not get through so I explored serving as a teacher in the tradition of my parents. I have served for over 30 years as a teacher and later as a Director of Christian Education. During those years the inner calling to enter the public ministry has never left me. In Atchison, Kansas the pastor recognized it in me and taught me how to care for people by visiting in their homes and in the hospital when they were sick. He taught me how to counsel alcoholics and even got me pastoral training at the local treatment center. He also allowed me to preach and teach God’s Word under his supervision. As I moved on to other churches it seemed that the pastors I encountered all recognized this calling on my life. They allowed me to lead worship, counsel, marry and bury the saints. Finally Rev. Jan Case visited with me concerning the brand new DELTO program and I considered it but I was not ready. Later in Bartlesville Oklahoma when the pastor resigned the District President licensed me to serve the congregation in Word and Sacrament ministry as the church decided what to do to replace the pastor. They decided to make a pastor instead of taking a pastor from another congregation. They voted to pay all expenses for me to enroll in the DELTO program. I was accepted into the program but the seminary could not permit me to begin because the Synod stated that DELTO was only for small poor congregations who could not afford to call an ordained pastor. Our congregation was too well off for me to serve them as a DELTO participant. Again the door closed on the inner calling and I moved and served God at a large congregation in the Tulsa area. Finally my pastor asked me to take an online test for the district. I wasn’t sure what it was about but I took it. The last question was “Why do you want to become a church planter?” I answered that I wasn’t sure that I wanted to become a planter. The next thing I know the District Mission Executive is telling me that I has a high score and he wanted me to plant a church. I found myself resigning from my call at my church and starting a new mission plant. The calling continued. Finally the Synod adopted a program that would assist me in fulfilling the inner call to serve as pastor. The SMP track of our seminary in St. Louis has enabled me to serve God as an ordained pastor. It is interesting to note that the very first Bible study we were required to work through with our mentor was written by Pastor Peter Ave-Lallemant, the very same person who had encouraged me when he was a Vicar.