Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod re-elects Kieschnick

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The head of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Gerald Kieschnick, will serve a third term as president of the 2.5-million member church.

Kieschnick was re-elected Sunday at the church's convention in Houston. He received 644 votes, or 52 percent of the delegates' vote. The Rev. John Wohlrabe Jr. of Virginia Beach, Va., came in second with 42 percent of the vote.

Half of the church's voting delegates are ordained pastors and the other half are lay church members, church spokeswoman Vicki Biggs said.

Kieschnick, 64, has been president of the St. Louis-based church since 2001. The Houston native is a graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary, which was once located in Springfield, Ill., and is now in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Kieschnick previously served 10 years as president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's Texas District and worked with the Lutheran Foundation of Texas.

He has served as pastor of three congregations, one in Mississippi and two in Texas. He and his wife, Terry, have two grown children.

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod was founded in 1847. The church said it has more than 6,000 congregations. It owns the KFUO radio stations, two seminaries, 10 colleges and universities and the largest Protestant parochial school system in America.

Other nominees for the presidency were all from Missouri, the Rev. Wallace Schulz of Augusta, the Rev. Daniel Preus of St. Louis, and William Diekelman of Ballwin. Those men each received about 2 percent of the vote.