Living Our Baptized Life in Christ

Galatians 2:20

March 6, 2026

Call Received

The Rev. Samuel P. Handschke received a Divine Call to serve as Sole Pastor of Prince of Peace, Medina, OH. 

If your congregation has not done so already, please be sure to schedule an appropriate meeting for your congregation/parish to take an official congregation action to select its LCMS presidential voter(s), then register them online on or before March 8, 2026.

For more detailed information regarding your congregation’s or parish’s participation and about the election of the LCMS President, visit here.

Where do we get pastors who preach and care for us with God’s Word? Where do we get teachers who teach our children about Jesus in our Lutheran schools? Where do we get our directors of Christian education, deaconesses and directors of parish music? Set Apart to Serve (SAS) is partnering with our seminaries, Concordia universities, districts, congregations and many others to build a Synodwide culture of church work formation and recruitment. You can contribute toward this effort by taking this brief online survey. Please let us know how all of us can make SAS more beneficial to your congregation. Your responses are vitally important in this collaborative work.

Members of English District congregations in the Phoenix and Tucson areas joined with their brothers and sisters from area Pacific Southwest District congregations at the Arizona March for LIfe at the State Capitol in Phoenix. They were joined by Deaconess Dr. Tiffany Manor and Rev. Jonathan Manor from the LCMS in St. Louis.

Nominations are requested for the third annual Roger D. Pittelko Ille Dilexit Ecclesiam* Award (*He loved the Church).

The English District has created this award to recognize and celebrate pastors who have served God’s people well in the English District. 

Recipients of this award must meet the following criteria:

• He is an ordained pastor who served in the English District.
• He has retired from full-time active parish ministry.
• He exhibited a lifetime of faithfulness to our God and service to God’s people through congregations and the wider field of the English District.

Download the nomination form from the English District website.

The deadline for submitting nominations is Wednesday, April 1, 2026. The recipient of this award will be announced as part of the 2026 Professional Church Workers Conference.

We read in Hebrews 2:12, “...looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." 

The Lenten season is in a world that competes for, clutters, and clouds our minds. Focusing on the only Truth is needed now more than ever. We know and confess that Truth is a person, not a relative philosophy, belief system, or choosing of a personal theology. We see and are reminded in this verse Who this person is, and what He has done and is still doing for us.

We are at the halfway point of our Mission 1-1-1 campaign for 2025-26. We are also near the halfway point of the Lenten season. We have all heard the saying “keep the main thing the main thing.” This verse in Hebrews remains as our focus and purpose as we collect our dollars weekly for Mission 1-1-1 in our many congregations.

What remains the main thing is stated in Romans 10:14, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

More Scripture and messages for Mission 1-1-1 are available on the district website. 

Your congregation's participation in the 1-1-1 Dollar for Missions effort can inspire others. Please email a picture of your congregation's 1-1-1 Dollar for Missions box. Tell us what lessons your church has experienced. We look forward to celebrating your stories in this space in Servant to Servant and on the English District website. This week's example is from Trinity Lutheran Church, Villa Park, IL.

We pray for Ann Morgan (mother of Pastor Jonathan McCall), who has recently been diagnosed with Acute Leukemia, and her family as they support her through this time as she undergoes treatment.

We pray for the family of Rev. Dr. Dan Paavola, who was called to his eternal rest.

We pray for all missionaries and those who work in outreach and campus ministry.

District daily prayers for March 2026 are located on our website.

Your prayer concerns are important to the English District. If you have a prayer request you would like shared in this newsletter, email the district office.

February was filled with workshop dinners, Bible study, and celebrating the history of mission work in Latin America and the Caribbean. One highlight was witnessing the baptism of Erick, the grandson of a longtime friend. It is beautiful to see the faith being passed on now to a new generation! Click here to download our most recent newsletter.

In Christ,

Rev. Ted & Rebecca Krey,

Esther, Matthias, Natalia, Evangeline & Azariah

Please visit lc.lcms.org to submit your congregation’s end-of-year statistics and update your current list of lay leaders by Tuesday, March 31st. If the username and/or password that was created for the congregation is unknown, follow the on-screen helps on the login page to recover the congregation’s credentials.

Thank you in advance for providing this valuable information. Should you require assistance or have any questions, email Rosters & Statistics at LCMS or call (314)996-1366).

Contact John Hoover, LCEF District Vice President, by email or phone 314-276-3370 for more information.

Contact Ron Grimm, English District Gift Planning Counselor, 412-584-7039 or visit www.LCMSFoundation.org.

For more information, please contact our Operations Department at 314-394-2790.

Pastor Martin Erhardt, who serves the Lutheran Church of the Messiah, shared the following:

The Lutheran Campus Ministry of the Lutheran Church of the Messiah and the local chapter of International Students Inc. presented a workshop at Princeton University to help foreign students, scholars, and their families make friends and build lasting relationships with Americans. The workshop, entitled Deepening Authentic Connections, was led by Ashley and Heather Holleman and based on Heather's book, The Six Conversations: Pathways to Connecting in an Age of Isolation and Incivility. Approximately 30 students from countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America attended. Many are not yet Christians, but are attracted by the genuine love and honesty they see in Christians. We form relationships of trust with students in which God's love for us is manifest and made known. We are grateful to the English District for generously supporting our campus ministry among international students with grant funding from The Bolick Foundation.

"Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God." 2 Corinthians 4:1-2

Pastor Rob Kieselowsky, who serves St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, recently shared a story from Philadelphia Lutheran Ministries, a rostered service organization (RSO) of the LCMS. Gina stopped attending the Lutheran church when she was a child. As a graduate student in Philadelphia, she decided to resume attending church. Gina recently confirmed her faith, thanks be to God! Another student, Jacob, is currently in confirmation instruction. Vicar Zigmas Kisielius works with students, regularly trying to foster interest in the faith and build relationships.

Pictured L-R: Vicar Zigmas, Gina, Pastor Kieselowsky.

Celebration, St. Johns, FL

Pastor Santiago Keinbaum and members at Celebration Lutheran Church give thanks and praise for their new elder, Geoff Borlinghaus. May the Lord continue to mightily bless this congregation.

Pictured: Left - Geoff's wife, Ginger, with Pastor Keinbaum and Geoff. Right - Celebration's head elder, Tom Anderson, Pastor Keinbaum, and Geoff.

Peace, Palm Desert, CA

March is Pastors' Wives Appreciation Month. Pastor James Bowes and the members of Peace Lutheran Church of the Desert (PLC) honored and showed their love to Lauren Bowes. Lauren has recently taken on the role of President of PLC’s LWML. The congregation also honored member Sonnie Faga, widow of a wonderful LCMS pastor, Rev. Robert Faga. Both women always show Jesus’ love to all who know them. May God bless all pastors’ wives. They are all an incredible support to their husband’s ministries. To God be the Glory!✝️

Pictured: Left - Pastor Bowes and his wife Lauren. Right - The Bowes family.

Spread the word about Vocatio: Retreat — a three-day event for college students and second-career adults considering service as a pastor, deaconess, missionary or chaplain. This distinctively Lutheran retreat includes worship, time in God’s Word, conversations with Seminary faculty and students, and a glimpse into life as a seminarian. Space is limited! Register by March 22.

What does it look like for the church to compassionately respond to LGBTQ+? Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (CSL), in partnership with Concordia University Wisconsin (CUW), will offer a new online continuing education course to address this question, "Who Am I? A Christian Response to LGBTQ+." The course will cover gender identity, gender dysphoria, transgender experiences, homosexuality and related challenges facing the church today. Click here to register.

LAST CALL for LSM 2026! Enrollment for this summer is over 80% full, but there’s still time for young musicians to apply, and for you to nominate students. Lutheran Summer Music is the nation’s premier faith-based music academy for high school musicians. Students come together from around the country for a joyful summer of music-making through large ensembles (band, choir, orchestra), chamber music, private lessons, elective classes (conducting, composition, jazz, musical theatre, handbells, pipe organ) and use their musical gifts in performance, and in worship. Learn more here.

Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, is celebrating 100 years at its iconic Clayton, MO, location. Plan to join us for a special chapel service at 3 p.m., Sunday, April 26, 2026, honoring our milestone anniversary or plan to watch the livestream here.

If you have a personal connection to the Seminary's history in Clayton, MO, we'd be honored to learn more about it. Share your story here.

ENGLISH DISTRICT LCMS

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info@englishdistrict.org

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