New MLS president
Mark Luetzow, pastor at Bethel, Bay City, Mich., has accepted the call the serve as the next president of Michigan Lutheran Seminary (MLS), Saginaw, Mich., one of the WELS ministerial training schools. He will be taking over for Joel Petermann, who after six years serving as MLS president, took a call to Zion, Torrance, Calif.
“Pastor Luetzow combines the heart of parish a pastor with a keen understanding of the work of a preparatory school,” says Paul Prange, administrator for Ministerial Education.
When Luetzow as a young boy decided he wanted to pursue the ministry, his parents supported that path by sending him to Northwestern Preparatory School (now Luther Preparatory School) in Watertown, Wis. Luetzow has had a heart for the mission of the WELS ministerial education schools after his experience at Northwestern Preparatory School. “I’ve always had a deep love for our prep school system and in some respects I feel like this is a neat way to give back to something that has given so much to us and the WELS members who have supported us,” he says.
He continues, “Michigan Lutheran Seminary has such a rich history and it’s very much loved by its alumni and the district as a whole. I’m hoping that that love for the prep school will continue to grow—and not just in Michigan but in the entire United States so that we can have a bigger reach.”
Luetzow has served as a parish pastor since 2003. He says he loves being a pastor, so it will only be natural for him to encourage to do what he loves. “One of the things I’m looking forward to at MLS is being an encouraging voice for young men and women to consider full-time ministry for the Lord.”
Prange says, “In area after area, President Luetzow should be able to hit the ground running and advance the MLS mission of preparing high school students for the public ministry of the gospel.”
Luetzow will transition into the role of MLS president following this school year.
Learn more about Michigan Lutheran Seminary at mlsem.org.
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Volume 105, Number 5
Issue: May 2018
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