Worship Leaders

Presiders

We are pleased to announce the following seasoned leaders of liturgy will be presiding at the Gathering and Sending Eucharist Services in April 2025.

Liv Larson Andrews is a pastor, writer and artist who lives in Spokane, Washington with her spouse and two children. Her work in parish ministry, community building, and worship renewal connects liturgical spirituality with social justice. She serves as Director of Evangelical Mission on the staff of the Northwest Intermountain Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

No stranger to the Institute, Liv has served as a member of the Advisory Council, participated in plenary panel discussions and led numerous workshops over the past years. She presided at the Institute’s Sending Eucharist in 2016. This year, Pr. Larson Andrews will lead us as we gather Monday evening and lead a workshop on planning for marriage rites.

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Jared Stahler serves as Senior Pastor at St. Peter Lutheran Church (ELCA) on Manhattan Island, New York, an English-Spanish bilingual ministry with a rich and varied liturgical tradition. Pr. Stahler is interested in the interface of religion and society and pays particular attention to the voices or viewpoints of persons placed by the powerful on the margins of church and society. He will serve as the presiding minister at our Sending Eucharist as well as lead a practicum session on intercultural ritual.

Preachers

Three gifted preachers will be proclaiming the Gospel at the 76th meeting of the Institute.

Cody Sanders is Associate Professor of Congregational and Community Care Leadership at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. Prior to Luther, he served as pastor to Old Cambridge Baptist Church in Cambridge, MA, and as a chaplain at both Harvard and MIT. He has published several books including, most recently, Spiritual Care First Aid: An All-Hands Approach for Church and Community (Fortress, 2025), and Corpse Care: Ethics for Tending the Dead (Fortress, 2023). He is also a leading voice in LGBTQIA+ spiritual care, writing and teaching on the subject frequently. Dr. Sanders will preach at the Gathering Eucharist and lead practicum sessions on Corpse Care as Christian Pastoral Praxis. 

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Dominic Rivkin is an accomplished spiritual guide, leadership coach, and organizational strategist. Currently working on a D.Min in Spiritual Direction from Fuller Theological Seminary (in progress), Dominic is passionate about encouraging and supporting Christ-centered relationship building and community-focused development. Dominic’s expertise includes spiritual guidance, discipleship and coaching, leadership development and training, strategic planning, and policy-based structures. He serves as a Mission and Ministry Executive at the Pacific Southwest District, Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). Dominic will preach at Tuesday midday prayer and lead a workshop based on his experience in spiritual direction.

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Debie Thomas is the author of A Faith of Many Rooms: Inhabiting a More Spacious Christianity and Into the Mess and Other Jesus Stories: Reflections on the Life of Christ and a columnist and contributing editor for The Christian Century. Born in Kerala, South India, and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Thomas writes that, like many children of immigrants, she grew up juggling a complicated and often confusing mix of identities: South Asian, New England suburban, evangelical, and feminist. In the murky “in-betweenness” of those identities, she says she learned that life is far more varied and messy than it is neat or certain and that faith is not about finding once and for answers but about delving deeper and deeper into mystery. Ms. Thomas is a seminarian at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. She will preach at the Sending Eucharist.

Primary Musicians

The diligent talent of creative musicians always blesses the Institute, and this year will be no exception.

Carl Bear is a native of Phoenix, AZ. Bear’s studies and music ministry in a range of Christian traditions have taken him across the continent.

He has a Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies from the Graduate Theological Union. He has served as music director in Methodist, United, Anglican, and Lutheran churches in South Bend (Indiana), Ottawa, and Berkeley (California). He has degrees in church music, musicology, theology, and liturgy, and is involved in The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.

Dr. Carl Bear earned his Ph.D. in 2017 at the Graduate Theological Union with a dissertation entitled “Christian Funeral Practices in Late Fourth-Century Antioch.” Among his publications are “Why Luther Changed His Mind about Music: Martin Luther’s Theology of Music in Light of His Liturgical Reforms,” in Luther im Kontext: Reformbestrebungen und Musik in der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts, edited by Michael Klaper (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2016), 15–38, and with Sarah Kathleen Johnson, “Medieval Hymns on Modern Lips: An Analysis of Medieval Texts and Tunes in Twenty-First-Century Protestant Hymnals,” The Hymn 69.1 (2018): 10–16. His project will contribute to understanding the “silencing of the laity” in liturgical music that scholars have observed emerging in the early middle ages. Dr. Bear will be back at the Reddell organ, where he studied with Dr. Lorraine Brugh, for our Gathering Eucharist.

The combined talents of Marin Jacobson, Sally Messner, Jim Marriott, and Omaldo Perez will lead us in Tuesday Morning Prayer.

Conductor, music educator, soprano, and composer Dr. Marin Jacobson serves as Duesenberg Chair in Lutheran Music, Director of Choral and Vocal Activities, and the Bach Institute at Valparaiso University. Beyond the University, she is a frequent clinician and adjudicator. Jacobson earned the DMA in Choral Conducting and Pedagogy from The University of Iowa, an MM in Vocal Performance from the University of Minnesota, and a BA in Vocal Music Education from St. Olaf College. She is an active member of the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the National Association for Music Education.

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Sally Messner is director of worship and music at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis, where she plans and leads worship, conducts adult and children’s choirs, and manages the music series. She is also the founding musical director of the Elm Ensemble. This liturgical project brings together professional and amateur musicians with great sacred music and creative worship planning to help keep the church in dialogue with diverse voices from Christian history. Ms. Messner earned a Bachelor of Music in voice performance from Valparaiso University and a Master of Sacred Music from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota. She has taught workshops and written articles for the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians and contributed to 1517 Media’s Sundays and Seasons. She is on staff with the Institute as Director of Worship.

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Dr. James Marriott is an Assistant Professor of Theology and Music, the Chair of the Theology Department, and the Director of Choral Activities at Concordia University, Texas. Holding undergraduate and graduate degrees in Parish Music from Concordia Nebraska and Concordia Wisconsin, respectively, he earned a Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL, with an emphasis in liturgical inculturation. He was also ordained into the pastoral ministry through Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He frequently lectures and performs across the United States, using workshops and hymn festivals as an opportunity to demonstrate the cultural diversity of the church. Dr. Marriott serves on the Institute Advisory Council and as the Institute’s Schola Director.

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Omaldo Perez is the Director of Music and Worship Arts at Christ Presbyterian Church in Madison, WI. As a church musician whose interests range from early baroque practices to improvisation to musical diversity in today’s church, Mr. Perez has served Lutheran and Roman Catholic congregations in addition to leading worship at national events. He currently serves on the Board if Directors of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians and on the  Institute Advisory Council.

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Nate Crary is the Director of Worship at Christ the King Lutheran Church in New Brighton, MN where he curates seasonal liturgies and writes original worship music. He is the musician at Tree of Life Lutheran in Minneapolis and at Lutheran Campus Ministries at the University of Minnesota. Since graduating from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, with degrees in music and art, Mr. Crary has led worship in various settings. He recently composed an evening prayer liturgy with the Tree of Life community. He will lead us in singing Tuesday Midday Prayer.

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Paul Soulek is cantor and director of music at St. John Lutheran Church and School in Seward, where he offers many opportunities for students to develop and use their musical skills in worship and class. At Concordia University Nebraska he directs the Male Chorus and teaches courses in arranging, church music, and applied organ. His compositions for organ are published by Concordia Publishing House. Mr. Soulek earned a Bachelor of Music in church music from Concordia University, Nebraska, in 2007 and a Master of Church Music from Concordia University, Chicago in 2015. He serves the church as a cantor for Higher Things, a Lutheran youth organization, and as a cantor for spiritual care retreats sponsored by Doxology, the Lutheran center for spiritual care and counsel. He will be leading our song at the Tuesday Evening Prayer Hymn Festival along with Sally Messner in the role of leader.

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Jihye Choi, a native of South Korea, is the Assistant Instructor of Music, the Director of Chapel Music, and University Organist. Professor Choi holds degrees from Indiana University Bloomington, the University of Cincinnati, and Seoul Theological University. She has won top prizes in numerous competitions around the world including First Prize in Duo at the YoungSan Organ competition in South Korea, third prize at the Sydney Organ Competition in Australia, second prize at the Arthur Poister Organ Scholarship Competition, first prize at the Fort Wayne National Organ Competition and second prize in the Sursa Organ Competition. Most recently Jihye was selected as one of the finalists in the 2022 National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP). She has performed throughout South Korea, Australia, Europe, and the U.S. She will be the organist for the Institute’s Sending Eucharist.

Get registered for the 2025 conference!