New servants for God’s people in LCC

WINNIPEG – During its teleconference meeting June 25, LCC’s Board of Directors issued two calls and appointed a volunteer missionary.

To fill the mission executive position vacant since 2006 with the retirement of Dr. Leonard Harms, the board called Rev. Dr. Leonardo Neitzel to serve God’s people as executive assistant to the president – Mission and Ministry Services. Dr. Neitzel, a native of Brazil, serves Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Vancouver. Before emigrating to Canada in 2003, he was a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil where he served as a mission developer and taught missiology at the seminary.

The board also issued a call to Deacon Michael Schutz to serve as electronic communication developer. LCC views the Internet as its primary tool for communication and with the rapid changes in this media, along with the growing use of technology in parishes, the board believed it important that the national church have a dedicated resource person. Deacon Schutz is a graduate of CUCA’s Director of Parish Services program and has served as a DPS in Kelowna, B.C., and Spokane Valley, Washington.

With a recommendation from the board’s Committee for Mission and Social Ministry, Rev. Dr. Ralph Mayan was appointed as a volunteer missionary assigning him to Nicaragua for one year beginning September 1. Dr. Mayan, now retired, was LCC’s interim mission executive and spent the first four months of 2009 working with Iglesia Luterana Sínodo de Nicaragua in Chinandega.

“The Lord has blessed us with so many opportunities in Canada and around the world,” noted President Bugbee, “and He also generously supplies us with the people to take up those opportunities.”

If they accept the calls, Rev. Neitzel and Deacon Schutz would assume their new responsibilities September 1.

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