Huebner installed as new pastor at Marion, Hillsboro Lutheran churches
Staff writer
Brett Huebner was ordained as a pastor and installed Sunday as pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church, Marion and Zion Lutheran Church, Hillsboro.
Huebner will be serving both parishes, and hopes to bring hope, fellowship, preaching, teaching, and support of spiritual needs.
Huebner, his wife Janna, and one-year-old son Kellan moved June 3 to the Willow Glen area of Hillsboro from outside St. Louis, where Huebner had been completing work on his Ph.D. in historical theology.
As a freshman at Concordia College in Seward, Neb., Huebner decided he wanted to become a pastor.
"My family has always been involved in the church," said Huebner.
Huebner met his wife Janna while she was attending Concordia College pursuing an art degree. Janna grew up in Clay Center. Following college, Huebner went to Concordia Seminary. He completed seminary in 1999 and decided to defer being a candidate for placement in a church and return to college to pursue his doctorate. He attended St. Louis University and while he worked on his education, Janna worked full-time in charge of government regulations at a pesticide plant.
Now Huebner only has his dissertation to complete in order to finish his Ph.D. He and Janna decided he was ready to take a church, so he asked the placement committee to put him back on the list for a church.
The churches in Hillsboro and Marion have welcomed him with open arms. Three members of Zion came to St. Louis to help the family load their possessions, and drive the trucks to Hillsboro. Huebner says more church members came to their house to bring food and help them unpack.
The seminary tries to match pastor to church and since Huebner grew up in Fall City, Neb., a town of about 4,500 people, he told the selection committee that he would like to be placed in the Midwest, possibly in a rural community. Although he's lived close to large cities for several years, he says Hillsboro isn't unusual to him.
"It's kind of like returning to my roots," he said.
Huebner says he's excited about his first church, and hopes his higher education will help him understand the theology better and answer his parishioners' questions more easily.
"I'm new to it," he said, "so I'll be learning as I go."
