Name: John Stroeh ’91
Position: Associate Pastor, The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd
Location: Olympia, Wash.
Majors: Math and Physics
John Stroeh refers to his journey to become a pastor as a long and interesting one. After graduating from Wittenberg with a double major in math and physics, he spent three years at The University of Michigan earning his M.S. degree in mathematics.
From there, he started doing sales and marketing consulting in Chicago. Then something happened. It was during the second year of this job that he journeyed through a vocational crisis, seeking to discover “where God was calling him.”
After much soul-searching, John entered the master of divinity program at Luther Seminary in 1996. Following his four years of study, he was ordained as an ELCA pastor. His first call was to The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Olympia, where he continues to serve as associate pastor.
As a pastor, John’s responsibilities range from preaching to teaching and pastoral case. He also focuses on youth and family ministry, and on global mission at Good Shepherd. Last May, John led a group of 12 adults to Tanzania for a three-week mission during which he helped to bridge cultural barriers in his quest to share God’s word.
In addition to learning about various church-related social services in Tanzania, John and the other missionaries led morning and evening devotions, reflected on hunger and poverty issues, examined the AIDS epidemic and discussed service to others with the local people. They also helped build a church and visited homes where they shared their lives with others in song, worship, prayer, at meals and through laughter.
Three months later, John headed to Tijuana, Mexico with 18 people ages 12 through 60 to build two homes and teach Vacation Bible School to Mexican children.
John takes great joy in the opportunity to teach people of all ages, from preschoolers through seniors, across cultures and close at home. “I especially enjoy teaching and leading in intergenerational environments, where there is time and space given to young people learning from older people, and vise versa,” he explains.
The varied teaching environments and audiences keep John busy. He leads a regular chapel/teaching time with preschool children, teaches junior high students a portion of the confirmation program, which includes retreats on “Faith Connections” and “Human Sexuality,” and he leads a regular Bible study for adults.
John has learned that some of the best teachers are those who do not pretend to have all the answers. They are also genuinely concerned about their students, and they listen to their students both to discover their questions and learn from them. The three A’s to good teaching that John follows are be Available, Authentic and Affirming.
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet,” John says, quoting Frederick Beuchner in Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC.
John has certainly found that place.