We are excited to announce Pr. Steve Cook has been called to serve as the Equipping Congregations Synod Minister by the Southwestern Minnesota Synod Council. He has accepted this call to serve on your synod's ministry team. He will join the synod staff team in November.
He will serve as the synod pastor to our eastern conferences of our synod. In addition to this work of supporting congregations and leaders, he will also work with our synod's financial life, support our Equipping Congregations Board and Management and Mission Committee.
Steve grew up in Chicagoland and is a graduate of Valparaiso University and Christ Seminary - SEMINEX. Following ordination in 1979 he served in a bi-vocational congregational setting serving two small rural congregations in central Illinois. While there he worked in a residential treatment facility for adolescents and earned a Master Degree in family therapy from the University of Illinois. In 1984 he and his family moved to Brainerd MN to serve as director of The Counseling Center, under call from the AELC.
From 1992 onward Steve's focus has been on congregational ministry. He has served as co- pastor of First Lutheran Church, Little Falls and lead pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Princeton. In 2006 he became Pastor for Community Outreach & Congregational Care at Bethlehem, St Cloud. While there he helped develop the African National Ministry of the congregation.
