Redeemer Lutheran welcomes new pastor

0

SIDNEY — Redeemer Lutheran Church in Sidney has a new pastor: David Weirauch, 31, a graduate of Fort Wayne Concordia Theological Seminary.

He was ordained in Sidney, June 25, for the congregation of around 150.

When Weirauch graduated from high school, he was not planning to become a pastor. He originally went to school for information technology and upon receiving his associate degree, moved with his wife, Kaci, to Florida.

“It was there that we kinda figured out that I wanted to go into the ministry,” he said. “It was kind of a lifetime calling that I ignored for a while, then eventually came around to it.”

Because a bachelor’s degree is required for entrance into seminary, he went back to school at Bowling Green State University before heading to Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Weirauch recently moved into the parsonage the church purchased in Anna, and is grateful for the location.

“I’m excited to be here. We just moved in this past weekend, and we’re still getting settled,” he said. “I was commuting for the first month, which is about an hour and a half, one way. It was brutal, and I’m happy to be six minutes down the road in Anna.”

He lives with his wife and two children, who are 5 and 1. He and his wife are expecting a third child in September. In his spare time, Weirauch enjoys gardening, hunting and fishing, but says his main focus is to serve.

“Having people whom you teach and they listen and actually grow from your teaching is the greatest reward,” he said. “A pastor is a teacher by heart. That’s what he does, and to have someone learn when you teach them, that is the greatest reward.”

Pastor Weirauch aims to gain more church members from Sidney to strengthen the church body.

“Right now, we have a lot of members who travel in from around, from Troy, Piqua, Wapakoneta, but don’t have a strong presence in Sidney,” he said. “I would like to expose the church to the surrounding area and the community in the area just by doing the things I do — preaching the gospel, teaching, baptizing — the things pastors do.”

However, he knows the ministry has its challenges.

“The biggest challenge is battling the culture, which is overtly anti-Christian, and making them see the Lutheran Church is a church that remains true to the word, contrary to what the culture says, but not anti-people,” he said. “There’s a stigma that says if you don’t agree with the current culture, then you must be anti-people. Anti- what everyone else thinks is OK, and that’s just not true. We’re a church that preaches the gospel of love. That doesn’t need to be something that’s untouchable.”

Redeemer Lutheran Church has a service every Sunday at 9 a.m. and a Bible class on Sundays at 10:30 a.m.

By Heather Willard

[email protected]

Reach the writer at 937-538-4825

No posts to display