Dr. Todd A. Peperkorn

The Rev. Dr. Todd A. Peperkorn has been a member of the faculty of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne (CTSFW), since 2021. He serves as Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions, Vice President of Spiritual Formation, Director of Vicarage and Internship, and Director of Residential Pastoral Formation Programs. After growing up in Iowa, Colorado, and Missouri, Dr. Peperkorn graduated from Concordia University Nebraska (CUNE) in 1992, with a BA in pre-seminary studies and history. He is a graduate of CTSFW (MDiv 1996, STM 1999) and completed his DMin at The Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2021. His DMin thesis was entitled, “Sacramental Imagination: A Lutheran Approach to the Analogical/Dialectical Divide in Preaching.”

He served as sole pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church in Kenosha, Wisconsin, from 1999 to 2011, then as senior pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Rocklin, California, from 2011 until being called to CTSFW in 2021. From 1996–1999, he also served as an admission counselor for CTSFW. Dr. Peperkorn served as one of the assisting editors for the Treasury of Daily Prayer in 2008. His first book, I Trust When Dark My Road: A Lutheran View of Depression, was published by LCMS World Relief and Human Care in 2009. He was the author of CPH Lent Series on forgiveness in 2012. He has also had articles published in LOGIA, Concordia Pulpit Resources, and Concordia Theological Quarterly. Popular articles have been published in the Lutheran Witness, For the Life of the World, and Higher Things.

He has spoken extensively in the Church on topics surrounding mental illness, clinical depression and pastors, the history of the Lutheran Church in America, and pastoral care and preaching in the twenty-first century. His service to the Church at large has included time on the Cranach Institute Board of Advisors, the South Wisconsin District Board of Directors, and as an elected member of the Board of Regents of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (2015–2021). From 2018–2021 he served as chairman of the CSL board, overseeing the retirement of the Rev. Dr. Dale Meyer and the election of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Egger as the new president. He also served as one of the founding pastors of Higher Things, a Lutheran youth organization, and was the editor of its magazine for five years. He is a member of the Academy of Homiletics. Dr. Peperkorn and his wife, Kathryn (CUNE BS in K–12 music education 1993, Ball State MM 1999), have four children: Renata, Isabella, Richard, and Beata.