Newcastle welcomes interim pastor

Walter Sprague
Art and Culture Reporter
 
When Christ The King Lutheran Church found itself without a pastor a couple of months ago, a call went out to the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ. The organization passed on the name of Pastor Fred Grundmann and Karla Kaleva, his wife. Upon the call by the Lutheran church, Grundmann and Kaleva moved to Newcastle to become the interim pastors in the middle of October.
Grundmann served as a full-time pastor until his retirement in 2017. For the past year and a half, he had been working as an interim pastor in Carrington, North Dakota. He was raised in St. Louis and went to several Lutheran schools in that area. He received his master of divinity degree at Concordia Seminary of St. Louis. He knows Hebrew, which is the language of the Old Testament, and Greek, in which the New Testament is written.
Kaleva has a degree in music performance, with an emphasis on saxophone, but also plays piano. She graduated from the University of Montana, Missoula. 
Apart from serving in the ministry, the couple loves to travel. While on a recent road trip for pleasure, they were surprised to find out how close Mt. Rushmore is. They look forward to exploring more of the Black Hills, as well as going to Devil’s Tower in the months to come. Grundmann is also a certified ski instructor and loves to teach skiing.
They are excited about ministering to the Lutheran church and getting it ready to call a permanent pastor. 
“I look forward to meeting the people here and making friends for the one or two years it takes to find a pastor,” Grundmann said.
In the meantime, Grundmann wants to start a Bible study, starting in January. He said that he would take an ad out in the News Letter Journal so people can be aware of the exact dates. 
“It will happen two or three times a week to help with the different schedules of people,” he said.
The Bible study, called The Devine Drama, will be a walk through the Bible, with a twofold emphasis.  He wants to show how the Old and New Testaments connect and how to apply what people will learn to their personal lives. 
“People can come to that and don’t need to know anything about the Bible,” Grundmann said. “The class itself leads them into understanding, a little bit more, about Scripture and the themes of the Bible.”
Grundmann and Kaleva say they are already excited about this new chapter in their lives and that they believe that Newcastle is a special community. They are looking forward to seeing what it has to offer and what they will be able to offer in return.