I am Pastor Paul Lauer – a pastor of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). I am the son of an LCMS pastor, raised in several communities of Southern Minnesota: rural Blue Earth, Glencoe, Rochester, and Hutchinson.
I attended Concordia University in St. Paul, MN (1983-1987) and was graduated in pre-seminary studies with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. I then attended Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO (1987-1991) and was granted the Master of Divinity degree with certification for ordination in the LCMS.
During my educational years, I served for six years (1982-1988) in the U.S. Army Reserve with specialties in personnel management, records, and administration attaining the rank of Sergeant (E5). Along with general soldiering skills, I learned to type, file, edit, and most importantly to understand the chain of command (each person has their role) and profound respect for our military veterans.
While at the seminary, my field work (1987-1989) was done at Holy Cross in Collinsville, IL under the Rev. Dr. Dale Meyer and my vicarage year was completed at Faith, Kirkville, MO under the Rev. Dr. Mark Appold. My vicarage was a town/gown ministry with the congregation and on the campus of Truman State University (then Northeast Missouri State University) where I served about 500 LCMS resident students.
I was ordained and installed at Immanuel in Bridgman, MI on July 14, 1991 first as the Assistant Pastor and then elevated 18 months later to Associate Pastor with direct responsibility for the Lutheran school, day care, and youth/young adult ministry as well as sharing in general pastoral duties such as worship, education, shut-ins, and so on. At that time, weekend attendance was about 425 in two Sunday and Monday evening services with a baptized membership of about 1,800.
From October 1994 through September of 2005, I served as the sole pastor at Emmanuel in Cadillac, Michigan with a membership of about 400 and average weekend attendance of about 125. During my tenure, the congregation undertook numerous organizational and ministry changes, including expansion to two Sunday services, a Monday evening service, constitutional changes, and relocation to a new, 15-acre facility on the outskirts of town. A day care serving about 40 children was added in the educational wing of the new facility and the staff was increased from one part-time secretary to two-part time administrators, a part-time visitation pastor, and a full time Director of Christian Education (DCE) first hosting three DCE interns and then calling a permanent DCE. At my departure, membership was 410 Baptized with 204 in average weekend attendance.
In September of 2005, I was installed as Pastor of Our Savior in Mankato, MN. At that time, the congregation intended to also fill an Assistant Pastor position. Instead, we focused on leading a Sudanese immigrant Vicar through the Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology (EIIT) to ordination as an LCMS Pastor and organization of the Sudanese Evangelical Lutheran Church of Southern Minnesota with a local membership of about 100 immigrant Sudanese. An emeritus pastor was added part-time and our congregation called a Director of Christian Education (DCE).
Later, the position of DCE for Youth and Young Adult Ministry was replaced with an Associate Pastor for Youth and Young Adult Ministry and the congregation called a Deaconess. In addition, the congregation planted River of Life Lutheran Church in St. Peter, MN which now exceeds 125 in average weekend attendance under the care and direction of Pastor Tom Baun.
On April 28, 2021, I was installed as Pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Waseca, MN. What a happy coincidence that the congregation and I are named for the same Apostle of the Lord! I look forward to being able to focus on the pastoral ministry by preaching and teaching, and serving this wonderful group of Christians for the remainder of my years of active ministry.
Having served in the pastoral ministry for nearly 30 years, my passion is bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to every-day, midwestern people in the midst of their joys, transitions, and trails of every-day life. This includes serving active Lutherans, lapsed Lutherans, and non-practicing Christians of all denominations who seek to meet and be blessed by Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the whole world. Above all, I am fulfilled by serving Christians who come to realize the great Treasure of the God’s Good News in Jesus which they have inherited. I respect and support those who are missionaries and evangelists, but I find my own calling most clearly in serving those, like me, who have been raised in the Mid-West to discover the depth and the breadth of the treasures of forgiveness and salvation which we have received from God the Holy Spirit at work through those who have gone before us.
I was married between graduation and ordination to Ann Hasenwinkel, from Moline, IL, whom I met on vicarage at Truman State University. She is the daughter of a wonderful LCMS family and a practicing Certified Public Accountant in Mankato. We have three children: Katherine (Katie) who is a graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and working in San Jose, CA., Thomas, a staff scientist and computer programmer at Gustavus Adolphus college in St. Peter, MN. as well as a student at Minnesota State University in Mankato, and Michael, a student at Mankato West High School.
As mentioned above, my father was a pastor of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. He served first as an LCMS missionary in South Korea (1960-1965) and then in several congregations of the Minnesota South District which I listed above. In 1984 he was certified as a long-term chemical dependency counselor and then served as an LCMS chaplain and eventually the deputy chief of chaplains of the Veterans Administration (VA) from 1985-1999. During all these years he also served as a Chaplain in the US Army Reserve, attaining the rank of Colonel and the position of Deputy Chief of Army Reserve Chaplains. He is buried at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery. My brothers are both retired US Army Aviation Officers (West Point classes of 1982 and 1984), the elder now lives in Hutchinson and serves as the McLeod County veterans service officer. My middle brother is fully retired and lives in rural Litchfield. My mother is retired from the Hutchinson, MN hospital mental health unit and lives in Hutchinson, MN.
Over my adult years I have had three dogs: Samantha, Zoe, and now Boji – all rescue labrador mixes. I do not golf or hunt as many pastors do, but I enjoy home landscaping and remodeling projects and cruising the country roads on my older motorcycle.
I am fulfilled in the life I have been given and only ask, though confidently, that He will make me able to do whatever He gives me to do.
“Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good and His mercies endure forever!”