January 2024
An Important Message from President Paul Linnemann:
“I know it’s not normal for me to send another video message so soon after Christmas, but this is a special announcement. Please take the time to listen to what I’m sharing. It comes to you with a prayer for God to bless us together in the mission and ministry in the Northwest District. God bless you in the new year and beyond.”
In the video below, President Paul Linnemann announced his retirement in 2024. Per Bylaw, the District Board shall fill the vacancy by extending a call to the First Vice President, who is Rev. Mike Von Behren.
Von Behren offered these words: “I am grateful for President Linnemann’s faithful, grace-filled leadership, and will join the whole NOW District in celebrating his service among us. Thank you, Paul! You have led us as a servant, a true servant of Christ. Elizabeth’s words from the Christmas account are also fresh in my mind, ‘why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’ (NIV, Luke 1:43). She said this when the opportunity came to her to care for Mary, the mother of the Lord, while He was still in her womb. I am similarly humbled knowing that the Large Catechism recognizes the community of faith as ‘the mother that begets and bears every Christian through the word of God’ (LC II, 42). Who am I that this opportunity, this call, should come to me? I’ll be prayerfully discerning what the Lord has in store for the NOW District and for my service to you and to Him. In the coming weeks please keep my family and me in your prayers as well.”
