Speaker Biographies

The Reverend Mark Loest
     Rev. Mark Loest serves as pastor of Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church of Frankentrost (Saginaw), Michigan. He received the M.Div. and S.T.M. degrees from Concordia Theological Seminary in FortWayne, Indiana. He attended the Lutherische Theologische Hochschule in Oberursel, Germany. He served parishes in Indiana and Illinois. Before coming to Michigan he was Assistant Director for Reference and Museum of Concordia Historical Institute (CHI), Department of Archives and History of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in St. Louis, Missouri.
     Rev. Loest is co-editor of The Doctrinal Resolutions of the Conventions of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, 1847–2004, a CD-Rom resource produced by CHI in 2006. He edited a reprint of How the Missouri Synod Was Born byW. G. Pollack in 2001. He serves as cover art editor of Logia: A Journal of Lutheran Theology. He and his wife Malinda have five children.

Professor John Pless
     Prof. John Pless is Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions at Concordia Theological Seminary in FortWayne where he also serves as Director of Field Education and Editor of For the Life of the World. Prior to joining the faculty, he served for seventeen years as campus pastor at University Lutheran Chapel at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Prof. Pless is the author of Handling the Word of Truth: Law and Gospel in the Church Today, A Small Catechism on Human Life,Word: God Speaks to Us, Confession: God Gives Us Truth, Luther on the Care for the Sick and the Dying, and two chapters in LutheranWorship History and Practice. With Matthew Harrison he is Editor of Women Pastors? The Ordination ofWomen in Biblical Lutheran Perspective. He served on the Agenda Committee for the Lutheran Service Book and for two terms on the Synod’s Board for District and Congregational Services. He is Book Review Editor for Logia: A Journal of Lutheran Theology and a member of the Editorial Council of Lutheran Quarterly. A regular lecturer at various conferences both in the United States and overseas, Prof. Pless coordinates the seminary’s annual “Mercy Mission Expedition to Madagascar” in partnership with the LCMS Board forWorld Relief and Human Care. He serves as secretary for the English-language section of the International Loehe Society.

Dr. Paul Grime
      Dr. Paul Grime serves as Dean of the Chapel and Associate Professor at Concordia Theological Seminary, FortWayne. Prior to August 2007, he served for eleven years as Executive Director for the LCMS Commission onWorship where his responsibilities included project director for Hymnal Supplement 98, coeditor of Hymnal Supplement 98 Handbook, and project director for Lutheran Service Book. Before his work on the Commission, Dr. Grime served eight years as senior pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church,West Allis,Wisconsin. He has music degrees from Valparaiso University (B.Mus.) and the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati (M.Mus.), and theology degrees from Concordia Theological Seminary, FortWayne (M.Div., S.T.M.), and Marquette University (Ph.D.). He is married to Debra, and they have two sons, Matthew and Nathan.

Dr. K. Detlev Schulz
     Dr. K. Detlev Schulz has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Pastoral Ministry and Missions at Concordia Theological Seminary, FortWayne, since the fall of 1998. From 1994–1998 Dr. Schulz was a missionary in Serowe, Botswana, for the Lutheran Church Mission of the S.E.L.K. (Independent Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Germany). He also served as a guest lecturer at CTS during the Fall Quarter 1997.
     In 1984 Dr. Schulz earned his B.A. degree at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. In 1988 he successfully completed his M.Div. studies at the Lutherische Theologische Hochschule, Oberursel, Germany. In 1990 he earned his S.T.M. degree at Concordia Theological Seminary, FortWayne. He then served in the S.E.L.K. as vicar in Heidelberg, Germany, from 1990–1992. In 1994 he concluded his studies at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, by earning a Th.D. in Systematics and Mission. Dr. Schulz is presently the Chairman of the Pastoral Ministry and Missions Department at CTS, Dean of Graduate Studies, and Supervisor of the Ph.D. in Missiology program.
     Dr. Schulz and his wife Cornelia are the parents of two children, Julia and Sophie.