Rev. Mark E. Kreemer
In my final interview during confirmation, My pastor, Pastor Hartman asked me if I had “ever considered becoming a pastor?” It took another fifteen years of discernment before I was ordained on August 25, 2000, at a service at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Grove City, OH.. I am forever grateful to Pastors Hartman and Allman, my youth leader Gary Pecuch, and the people of St. John’s for developing my faith and turning a shy kid into the pastor, husband, and father I am today. I appreciate all the people who saw things in me before I knew them myself.
I graduated from Grove City High School in 1985, where I was active in the Marching Band and Choir. My intent was to go to Ohio State and study music, but the question Pastor Hartman asked me kept popping up in my mind. I graduated from The Ohio State University in 1990 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education. During my senior year, the Men’s Glee Club, which I sang in, was named “Choir of the World” at the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales. After graduation, I began work on a second degree in Business Finance at Franklin University.
In 1994, I started receiving invitations to Visit Trinity Weekends at the Seminary in Bexley. I later learned that Alice Katterhenrich, a family friend and member of St. John’s, had submitted my name as a potential candidate for ministry. I went. During the weekend, I knew this was what God was calling me to do, and I could finally answer the question Pastor Hartman asked so many years before.
During my first year at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, I met my wife Veronica, and we were married a year later on September 7, 1997. I graduated in the spring of 2000 with a Master of Divinity and received a call to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Wichita, KS. On Valentine’s Day 2004, Veronica and I adopted our daughter Kyla. In August of 2025, I will celebrate the 25th anniversary of my ordination.
I am currently the senior pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Massillon, OH. I have previously served at Good Shepherd in Wichita, KS, St. Andrew Lutheran in St. Petersburg, FL, and Christ Lutheran in Islip Terrace, NY.