Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Rev. Grant Bode: New pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran



The Rev. Grant T. Bode will be installed as pastor of St.
Paul Lutheran Church, Lester Prairie, in that congregation’s regular Sunday
morning services at 8 and 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 1.

Officiating at the service will be the Rev. Randy Tonn,
who has been serving as St. Paul’s assistant vacancy pastor, and the rite
of installation will be administered by the Rev. Dr. Lane Seitz, president
of the Minnesota South District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. The
Rev. John Schoenfeld, pastor of St. James Lutheran Church, Howard Lake and
a friend of Bode, will deliver the sermon.

A coffee and cake reception during the normal adult education
hour at 9:15 a.m. and a potluck dinner at noon will provide Bode with an
opportunity to become acquainted with the members of his new parish.

The Bodes will live in the congregation’s parsonage, next
door to the church, and are expected to arrive in Lester Prairie on Jan.
28.

Born and raised on a dairy farm in the New Ulm area, Bode
attended Concordia College, St. Paul, and is a 1994 graduate of Concordia
Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, Ind. He spent his year of vicarage, or
internship, at Concordia Lutheran Church in South St. Paul and worked as
a mental health counselor at Lutheran Hospital of Indiana and Charter Beacon
Hospital while a student at the seminary.

Bode returns to his native state of Minnesota from Mattoon,
Ill., where he has served as assistant and then, after two years, as associate
pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church following his graduation from the seminary.

An avid sports fan, especially of basketball, Bode plans
to rekindle his enthusiasm for fishing and hunting after being gone from
Minnesota’s sky blue waters.

Bode’s wife is the former Gail Anderson of St. Paul Park,
who also attended Concordia College, St. Paul and graduated from that institution
with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. The Bodes have two children: Grace,
age 3, and Gideon, age 2.

Having retired from their New Ulm dairy farm, Bode’s paremts
now live at Courtland, Minn. Gail’s parents have retired from the school
district in St. Paul Park.

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