“Ask a pastor” is a place for you to obtain honest, thoughtful, pastoral answers to the questions you’ve been pondering. Is there anything you’ve always wondered about your faith and what it means to be Lutheran? Or perhaps there’s a tough question you’ve been grappling with about your faith? Maybe you’re just curious about a passage of Scripture or a tradition of the church. Or do you have another question you’d like to ask of an ELCA pastor? Send your question to us and you might see it answered by one of our pastors.
Meet our pastors:
Neddy Astudillo
Neddy Astudillo, a Venezuelan-American, is the pastor of Parroquia San José, an ecumenical — ELCA and PCUSA — Latino ministry in Beloit, Wis. Neddy has a Doctor of Ministry degree on “Greening the Church” from Drew University. She lives in northern Illinois with her husband where they moved 15 years ago to help start the Angelic Organics Learning Center, an exciting and engaging place to learn about food, farming and caring for the earth. Neddy shares her passion for God’s creation through worship, workshops and a Spanish website: eco-justicia.org.
Kelly Chatman
Kelly Chatman has served as pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church and director for the non-profit Redeemer Center for Life in Minneapolis for the past 15 years. From 1995-2000, he was director of Youth Ministry of the ELCA churchwide organization. Kelly is a graduate of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg and received Luther Seminary’s Race, Church and Change award in 2006. He was named the Portland, Ore., public schools’ Volunteer of the Year in 1992 and also Portland’s Mayor’s Citizen of the Year. In 2003, he was honored with the Tom Hunstad Award for leadership in youth and family ministry. Kelly is married to Cheryl Chatman, executive vice president and dean for diversity at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn.
Anne Edison-Albright
Anne Edison-Albright is the pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Stevens Point, a college town in the middle of Wisconsin. She earned a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School in 2008 and studied for a year at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. She served as an ELCA missionary in Slovakia and China and, before divinity school, was a high school English teacher. She loves her congregation’s lively Lutheran worship, teaching confirmation and enjoying time with her husband, Sean; son, Walter; daughter, Sally; and her dog, Hank.
Ron Glusenkamp
Ron Glusenkamp serves as senior pastor at Bethany Lutheran Church, Cherry Hills Village, Colo. He and his wife, Sue Ann, have been married for 36 years and have three adult children. Ron is an avid baker, walker and reader. He spent a three-month sabbatical last year in London attending 25 plays and 90 worship services. He is very interested in church and culture issues coupled with secularism. One of his favorite artists is Van Gogh. He often collaborates with Peter Mayer on devotions during Advent and Lent. You can find the devotions at h2odevos.blogspot.com.
David Hansen
David Hansen has the great joy of serving as the pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Brenham, Texas. He received his bachelor’s degree in theology from Roanoke College and his master’s degree from the School of Theology of Sewanee: The University of the South. Not satisfied with being a theology-geek, David also loves technology and is passionate about exploring how the church can use digital media to help grow the kingdom of God.
Anna Haugen
Anna Haugen is the pastor of a small, two-point parish in North Dakota – Augustana in Underwood and Birka in rural Washburn. She grew up in Oregon, did her undergraduate work at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and received a Master of Divinity from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. She loves history, science fiction, music, learning, the Bible and is inspired to help people discover the richness and depth of God’s word. Anna has Asperger syndrome, which gives her a unique perspective on life. You can find a link to her blog – “Theology for ordinary people” – at Lutheran Blogs.
Patricia Lull
Patricia Lull was elected bishop of the ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod in May 2014. Prior to her call to the Saint Paul Area Synod, she had served as the executive director of the Saint Paul Area Council of Churches since 2011. Prior to that, she served on the campus ministry staff at Augsburg College, as dean of students at Luther Seminary for 10 years, and as director for campus ministry for the ELCA. She has also served congregations in Athens, Ohio, and Alpena, Mich.
Brian Maas
A graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University and Yale Divinity School with a certificate of studies from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Brian Maas was ordained in 1992. He served three congregations: Emmanuel Lutheran, Tekamah, Neb.; Immanuel Lutheran, Kansas City, Mo.; and First Lutheran Church, Lincoln, Neb. He was elected bishop of the Nebraska Synod of the ELCA in June 2012. His wife, Debbie, is a therapist and elementary school counselor. They live in Lincoln and have two young adult children.
Rosanne Swanson
Rosanne Swanson is a teacher of pastoral theology and pastoral care serving the global church at the STT-HKBP seminary in Pematang Siantar, North Sumatra, Indonesia. She graduated from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg and was ordained at St. Andrews United Church of Cairo in 1994 where she and her husband, Mark, were living and working on behalf of the ELCA. Rosanne is deeply interested in cultures other than her own and how those cultures and traditions shape the life and faith of people, particularly women, and the stories they tell about their lives. Mark teaches church history and interfaith relations at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. They have three grown children and a new grandson.
Monica M. Villarreal
Monica M. Villarreal is a mission redeveloper and pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in Flint, Mich. She is a 2011 graduate of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and 2007 graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in cultural anthropology and specialization in peace and justice studies. Monica enjoys practical theology, cultural studies and is an avid bowler. She is passionate about people, inner-city ministry and social justice. Her congregation will tell you she is always asking, “What is God up to? What is God calling us to?” Monica is the North America regional representative to the Lutheran World Federation Global Young Reformers Network.
