Kurt Fangmeier
MDiv, ‘01
Sierra Vista, AZ
Pastor at Sierra Evangelical Lutheran Church
Can you share some highlights or meaningful moments from your life since you graduated from LSTC?
There are too many to share, but the best ones have usually involved funerals and individual confession and absolution. That’s where God’s love and grace really hit the road for people, in the midst of their fears, tragedies, and uncertainty bringing hope, clarity, and new life. There is resurrection in those moments.
How has your LSTC experience shaped your journey?
LSTC really helped me get clarity about my sense of call to mission, and in particular my call to justice ministry (anti-racism, multi-cultural church, LGBTQIA+ full-inclusion, classism, etc.). Much of my ministry has been to help congregations redevelop/re-envision their sense of mission and purpose in a changing world.
Do you have any words of encouragement for current students?
Carrying your cross is hard work. There are costs, personally, professionally, familially. Jesus taught us as disciples to count them. We also are to count the blessings, the opportunities, and the challenges that lead to new life and wholeness. You learn just how amazing and life-changing God’s love and grace really are in the face of fear, shame, and guilt, sin, death, and evil. In seminary, it’s all “theory.” In ministry, it’s practical and transformative. Pastoral ministry is both life and death, both prosperity and adversity. It is not either/or; it’s both/and. So, gird your loins for the long haul and remember: God does walk with you, faithfully and lovingly, EVERY step of the way, even when God seems to have gone missing.
