St. Paul’s and Trinity to install new pastor
June 19th, 2008Dr. William C. Nelsen will be ordained and installed as pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and Trinity Lutheran Church in Gaylord later this month.
Nelsen, a former college and national educational organization president, completed his studies at Luther Seminary, St. Paul in 2007 to qualify for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) at the age of 66. He served his internship in 2006-2007 as interim minister at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Auburn.
A service of Holy Communion and Ordination for Nelson will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Peter. The ordination will be held at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Peter because it is where Nelsen and his family have been members for 21 years.
Local participants in the ordination will be Mitch Setterman, a sophomore at Sibley East High School, who is a former confirmand from Immanuel Lutheran Church, New Auburn; Jerry Franke, congregational president of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Gaylord; and Curt Kahle, congregational president of Trinity Lutheran Church, Gaylord.
The preacher and gospel singer at the event will be the Rev. Wintley Phipps, founder and president of the U.S. Dream Academy.
Nelsen began serving the Gaylord congregations June 1. His installation will be held St. Paul’s and at Trinity, Gaylord on June 29.
From 1986 – 2004 Nelsen was president of Scholarship America, based in St. Peter, which is the nation’s largest private sector scholarship and educational support organization.
He has also been a program executive of the Danforth Foundation, vice-president and dean of St. Olaf College, and president of Augustana College in South Dakota. He served on the boards of the U.S. Dream Academy and of Midland Lutheran College, his alma mater.
Nelsen earned his bachelor’s degree from Midland Lutheran College, his master’s in religion and ethics from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary, and his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania. He also studied theology as a Fulbright Scholar in Germany.
He is the author of two books about faculty development and a variety of articles in the fields of religion, ethics, government, higher education, private sector responsibilities, community volunteer mobilization, educational achievement, and student aid.
He and his wife, Margie, a retired social worker and master gardener, plan to continue living in St. Peter. They have three adult children and three grandchildren.
