Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, is pleased to announce that Rev. Robert Hoehner, associate pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in West Bend, Wis., has accepted the call issued him to serve as the Seminary’s director of placement and alumni relations. As such, he will oversee the process that directs the location to which pastors and deaconesses receive their first calls into service in The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), and will cultivate the relationship the Seminary has with its more than 6,100 alumni(ae).

Hoehner, a 1972 graduate of Concordia Seminary, received his first call into the pastoral ministry and served as pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Linn, Kansas. His more than 30 years of pastoral ministry experience also includes St. Mark Lutheran Church in Kentwood, Mich., Fountain of Life Lutheran Church in Kernersville, North Carolina, and Trinity Lutheran Church in Sturgis, Mich. His current service at St. John’s Lutheran Church marks the second time he has served on the church’s pastoral staff, having served from 1983 to 1995 as the church’s senior pastor.

In October of 1998, Hoehner began service on the district level as district executive for congregational services-youth and family life for the South Wisconsin District of the LCMS. In October of 2000, he accepted appointment to serve as the district’s executive for congregational services-missions and mission education. In this role, he provided direction and leadership to the district’s mission programs, including new mission starts, campus ministry, cross-cultural ministry, urban ministry, chaplaincy, and deaf ministry.

Hoehner also has served the church as a circuit counselor, zone pastoral advisor for the Lutheran Layman’s League, and Lutheran Women’s Missionary League (LWML), the South Wisconsin District Stewardship Committee, and as a member of the executive council of North American Mission Executives. He is serving on the Board of Regents of Concordia University-Wisconsin, and as zone pastoral advisor for the LWML.

Hoehner and his wife, Susan, have been blessed with three children, two of whom are also graduates of Concordia Seminary. Mark, a 2000 graduate of Concordia Seminary, serves as pastor of Chapel of the Cross Lutheran Church, St. Peter’s Mo. Matthew, a 2002 graduate of Concordia Seminary, serves as associate pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, O’Fallon, Mo.

“With his long and varied positions of service in the church, Rev. Hoehner will be among us as an experienced and caring churchman,” commented Dale A. Meyer, president of Concordia Seminary. “We look forward to welcoming Rev. Hoehner and Susan to our campus.”

Rev. Hoehner will begin his new responsibilities at Concordia Seminary on Sept. 17.