The Rev. Dr. Nathan Esala, who was recently named the David P. and Carol Matevia Pastor at Wittenberg University, will officially be installed on behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) during a worship service and ceremony on Sunday, Nov. 1, in historic Weaver Chapel, beginning at 1:30 p.m. Everyone is invited to join in the celebration of Wittenberg’s Lutheran heritage and support Esala in his new role.

A longtime global missionary with Lutheran Bible Translators, coordinator of strategic alliances with Seed Company, and most recently the pastor of Rockway Lutheran Church in Springfield, Esala began his new duties with the University on August 17, 2026.

Presiding over Sunday’s installation will be the Rev. Suzanne Dillahunt, bishop of the ELCA’s Southern Ohio Synod and a member of the University’s Board of Directors. Wittenberg President Christian M. M. Brady will offer a welcome and participate in the installation. Faculty, staff, and students are also expected to play a role in the service.

In announcing Esala as the University’s new pastor, Brady noted how his “innovative, creative pedagogies for teaching biblical and translation studies to diverse student populations as a missionary, pastor, and scholar, and his interactive approach to preaching” will benefit Wittenberg students and the campus community. Esala, he said, also “understands the impact, interconnectedness, and importance of campus ministry at Wittenberg.” With Esala’s arrival, Wittenberg officially opened a new Office of Campus Ministries, which Esala is now building and leading as outlined in the University's strategic plan.

For 10 years starting in 2002, Esala and his wife Sarah served as missionaries in northern Ghana through Lutheran Bible Translators, a global nonprofit that “partners with local leaders to create translation programs for the many communities who do not have access to God’s Word in their native language,” notes the organization’s website. Serving among the Komba people, Esala said, showed him the “art of living in community and navigating differences despite challenges.”

In 2014, Esala took the lead as translation coordinator for Lutheran Bible Translators, and in 2016 he became a member of the Scholars Seminar in the Network of Biblical Storytellers. In the same year, he joined a steering committee for networking scholars interested in Biblical Performance Criticism at the Society of Biblical Literature’s Annual Meeting.

By 2021, Esala earned a Ph.D. in biblical studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. A year later, he began parish ministry as the congregational pastor to Rockway Lutheran Church in Springfield, while teaching as an adjunct professor of religion and Bible at Capital University from 2021 to 2023. In that time, he also began Clinical Pastoral Education, where he learned to translate cross-cultural skills to serve diverse populations across the United States, and joined Seed Company, a partner with Lutheran Bible Translators, to “work with Lutheran church bodies (and others) who want to pursue Bible translation as a ministry of the church,” as per the organization’s website.

In reflecting on his experience to date and in considering the Matevia University Pastor position, Esala began to see where he could use his gift of translating and facilitating pastoral care across differences at this crucial and transitional time in Wittenberg’s history. Today’s students, he shared, “live in a world where the collective spirit of caring has been deeply wounded,” so the opportunity to help students discern their light, while passing it on to others through the development of relevant practices of care in community stood out to him.

“The Lutheran tradition grounds community and vocation in the love that God has demonstrated for each person and all of creation,” Esala said. “In these challenging times, Wittenberg’s diverse groups of students can foster community across differences by translating spiritual and theological practices through the liberating arts. I also trust that what started out as a spark of interest for me has now become a light that the Wittenberg community will see in me – a light that I can share with the campus and wider world.”

Along with his doctorate, Esala holds a Master of Divinity from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, a B.A. in speech communication from Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin, and a Certificate in Applied Linguistics from Dallas International University. He and Sarah, now Lutheran Bible Translators’ regional director for East Africa and Pacific, currently reside in Dublin, Ohio, and are the proud parents of five children.

At Wittenberg, the Matevia University Pastor provides institutional leadership for religious and spiritual life and is called to lead the campus community in ministry and pastoral care. The position was established thanks to the vision and leadership-level support of the late Rev. David B. Matevia, class of 1960, who passed away in August 2021, and his wife, Carol Matevia. The Rev. Rachel and Anders Tune were the inaugural holders of the position. The Tunes retired July 31, 2022, following 23 years of dedicated service to Wittenberg.

In addition to providing leadership for the religious community on campus, including the Interfaith Committee, promoting wholeness and growth among a diverse and changing student body, pastorally supporting students, faculty, staff, and other members of the University community, and stewarding and representing the ELCA at the institution, Esala, who also serves as a member of the president’s senior staff, guides and supports the ministries of such faith-based student organizations as the Weaver Chapel Association, Athletes in Action, Cru, Jewish Culture Club, Common Ground, and Newman Club. Moreover, he assists students eager to develop their own spiritual identities and campus programming initiatives, along with developing and implementing strategies to promote a creative and faithful culture of worship.