Bouman ’82 New Director of Church Relations

The Rev. Luke L. Bouman ’82, a Luth­eran pastor from Texas with experience as a stewardship leader and mentor for students interested in church vocations, began serving as director of church re­lations at Valparaiso University on July 1.

He succeeds Bill Karpenko ’61, director since 1998, who retired in June. (See article on Page 15.)

Bouman comes to Valpo from Tree of Life Lutheran Church in Conroe, Texas, where he was senior pastor.

He helped develop the Summer Theological Institute at Texas Lutheran University and served on the institute’s advisory council for nine years. He also has served as chair of the Commission for Professional Leadership of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Southwestern Texas Synod.

Bouman earned his M.Div. degree from Trinity Lutheran Seminary and his D.Min. degree from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. He was ordained in 1987 and served as a pastor at Peace Lutheran Church in Austin and St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hondo, Texas, before accepting his call to Tree of Life. He also has experience as a youth director at Indianola Presbyterian Church and assistant chaplain at Lutheran Senior City, both in Columbus, Ohio.

He is one of six regular contributors to the English language section of Goettinger Predigten Online, the online sermon resource Web site of the University of Goettingen in Germany.