Pastor's Conference here deemed a booming success

Numerous Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) clergy were in Greenfield last week for what organizers say was a very successful conference for those in the western half of Iowa.

Rev. Dr. Keith Schweitzer, who pastors Immanuel Lutheran Church of Greenfield, first learned the district’s consideration of Adair County for their conference about six months ago.

“The leadership of the businesses here in Greenfield could not have been more helpful in working with Susan and me to put on a fabulous conference in the Normal Lear Theater of the Warren Cultural Center,” Schweitzer wrote the newspaper in an email. “The conference was a wonderful success.”

During the conference, pastors considered an important topic to them, which is inviting younger children to receive the Lord’s Supper at an earlier age. Traditionally in the denomination, that has been for those 14 and over. Schweitzer said many congregations are already allowing those younger to take it. He calls the guest speaker for the conference, Rev. Mark Surburg from Marion, Illinois, the “foremost authority” on this topic in the LCMS.

“The presentations and discussions were most interesting and engaging. Overall, the spring pastor’s conference was a wonderful success,” Schweitzer said. “Greenfield can take a bow. The pastors from throughout the district left Greenfield with very good memories.”

This is not the first time this year that a church body has held a conference in Greenfield, as the United Methodist Church held a similar gathering here as well a few months back.

Immanuel Lutheran Church will celebrate 150 years in Greenfield this year.