Feature
Community and Catechesis
At an LCMS mission congregation in Kaiserslautern, Germany, attendees find a welcoming community, delve deeply into theology, and sometimes discover a calling to church work.
On a sunny morning in late April, first-year seminarian Stephen Guzik attended chapel at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and then headed to the seminary library to study. In June, Air Force Captain Mason Westphal was set to begin summer Greek at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne (CTSFW). Psychologist Cat Mobley recently enrolled in the distance deaconess program, and Jeff Peterson is looking forward to starting his Master of Divinity program when he finishes his contract with the U.S. government in two years.
These four individuals come from different places, but they all are connected to Kaiserslautern Evangelical Lutheran Church (KELC) in Kaiserslautern, Germany, where they found a solid Lutheran community and were encouraged to pursue a career in church work.
Establishing a Mission Congregation
KELC is a mission congregation of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) that was established in the mid-1980s as a civilian congregation for Lutheran military families stationed in the area. The congregation meets at St. Michaelis-Gemeinde of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK), the Synod’s partner church in Germany.
During its history, KELC has been served by both LCMS and SELK pastors. LCMS missionary Rev. Nathaniel Jensen has shepherded the congregation since 2021, although he was involved there even before that. Jensen met the congregation’s previous pastor, LCMS missionary Rev. Joe Asher, during an exchange year at the SELK seminary, which resulted in Jensen serving an international vicarage at KELC a short time later.
Despite living in Germany with wife Emma and their two young daughters, Jensen describes himself as “a regular parish pastor.”
“I preach and teach and administer the Sacraments. … I do Bible study, catechism instruction, Confessions study. Everything a normal pastor would do in the United States, that’s what I do here in English,” he says.
Many of those who attend KELC are connected to the military, which means that they move every few years. But the congregation also has a core group there for the long term, including a handful of expats, Americans married to Germans, English-speaking immigrants, and local Germans interested in attending a liturgical service in English.
Building a Church Community
It doesn’t take long for visitors to be drawn into KELC’s active and warm community.
Congregational president Jeff Peterson learned about KELC while on a previous deployment. When he returned to the area more than 10 years later, he and his wife, Christina, slipped in for church one Sunday. Afterward, “one of the members came running after us to introduce herself and to invite us to lunch,” he recalls. The Petersons have been there ever since, and now they are the ones who welcome newcomers.
“I think the first person that said hello to us was Jeff Peterson,” says Noelle Ervin, a German woman who recently married an American serviceman named Adam. “And then the pastor came over to us and immediately welcomed us and took us to coffee hour to meet a few people. A few weeks later, we were fully in the community and wanted to do catechism to actually be part of the church. We were confirmed three weeks ago.”
On a Saturday in early May, nearly half the congregation showed up to help a family move to a new house. When Jensen arrived after having officiated at the blessing of a civil marriage for the Ervins earlier that morning, members were already hard at work unloading bed frames and boxes from the moving van.
The next day, everyone was back again for Divine Service and Bible study at KELC. When Jensen extended an impromptu invitation to the congregation to join his family at a local biergarten for lunch, many eagerly accepted and spent the early afternoon eating and chatting while their children played on the playground.
After lunch, Jensen and two church members loaded a box of Lutheran Service Books into the van and headed to Spangdahlem Air Base for an evening Divine Service and Bible study. On the drive home that evening, despite the long day, no one objected when Jensen made an unplanned stop at a McDonald’s restaurant to meet with a new contact from the military who had texted Jensen saying he was feeling down and needed to talk.
Army Col. Paul Hester has been involved at KELC for a number of years and is a big proponent of developing KELC as “the place that you want to be when you’re not at home or work.” He says, “We’ve got closer friends from KELC at this point than anywhere else. … We share a common bond of military affiliation. We share a common bond of faith. We share a common bond of being outside of the United States together, learning about another culture together as a group.”
It’s no surprise that many members of the congregation call KELC a “home away from home.”
“Whenever there’s something wrong, when I’m feeling down, I talk to Nathaniel,” said Jeremiah, a young man from Iran who is completing a master’s degree in Germany. “I couldn’t go through all that I have without the help of the church and, of course, the amazing friends I found there.”
Raising Up Church Workers
Even though KELC is a relatively small congregation, with people constantly coming and going, a surprising number of its members are interested in pursuing a career in church work.
Jensen often walks alongside people who are going through a time of transition — whether facing a new deployment, a career change or another move. And he’s not shy about telling someone when he notices an aptitude for the pastoral ministry. Often, this idea had already been planted by another pastor or family member, and this confirmation comes at just the right moment.
“When [Mason Westphal] first arrived, I would not have expected him to ever go to seminary,” Jensen reflects, “but he started coming to everything. … The church offered community for him, and he was coming and engaging with the theology.”
Jensen also intentionally provides opportunities for men to get involved at different levels, from crucifer to vicar. LCMS missionary vicar Peter Williams serves at KELC for half of each month. Jensen also supervises a German vicar, Tobias Röhrs, who is studying in the online program through Luther Academy in Riga, Latvia. In addition, he mentors Markus Busenius, a German enrolled in the Master of Sacred Theology program out of Gothenburg, Sweden, offered in collaboration with CTSFW.
Seminarian Stephen Guzik was not Lutheran when he came to KELC at the urging of his wife. But over time, several LCMS missionary pastors, including Asher and Jensen, catechized him and encouraged him to take on increasing responsibility in the congregation.
“I got to work under [Jensen] and see how church life works. Here’s what [a pastor] does every day. Here’s how you love and care for and teach your people. He set that example for me,” Guzik says. And when Guzik was on the cusp of enrolling in the seminary, all these mentors were still walking alongside, encouraging him: “You can do this. Despite your doubts, your reservations, God is working through this.”
Learn More
- Meet LCMS missionary Rev. Nathaniel Jensen
- Learn more about Kaiserslautern Evangelical Lutheran Church
- Listen to an interview with Stephen Guzik
- Read more about the LCMS Eurasia region
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Megan K. Mertz
Managing editor of Lutherans Engage the World and chief copy editor for LCMS Communications.
