Pastor Tim Bauerkemper came to San Marcos in September 2015. He is excited about renewal of First Lutheran through reconnecting with the San Marcos community.
Tim grew up in Austin, Texas. His family began attending Triumphant Love Lutheran when he was about a year old. While he attended Texas Lutheran University, he worked in outdoor ministry for two summers, and spent a summer as a full‐time maintenance volunteer with the Austin Steam Train Association. After college, he moved north to attend Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. Despite growing up in the suburbs in what had become a large congregation, he looked for a different internship experience. He convinced the seminary internship director to send him to rural southeast Michigan, where he served in a congregation surrounded by fields of corn, cucumbers, melons and cabbage.
After graduating from seminary in 2001, Pastor Tim was ordained on July 15, 2001, and began serving as associate pastor at Faith Lutheran in Seguin. After 9 years and a difficult conflict, approximately 1/3 of that congregation felt called by God to begin a new ministry together and asked Pastor Tim to lead them.
They began worshipping in December of 2010 and their first Sunday worship was January 2, 2011. He led the congregation as it grew and developed a new identity and style of leadership and mission.
After four years of work and play, aimed at understanding God’s mission and purpose for them and their community, Spirit of Joy Lutheran became the 500th new mission started by the ELCA to become a full congregation.
Pastor Tim is not a believer in highly model based ‘off the shelf’ ministry. His toolbox for ministry is ears. His focus in ministry is to engage people, as both individuals and communities, in conversation about their gifts and how God is working in and through their lives to do ministry. He loves to facilitate group conversation around mission, purpose, and seeking the voice of the Holy Spirit to guide ministry.
Another aspect of his ministry is community involvement. He is very active in schools, where connections with the community happen very easily. When Seguin needed to replace an outdated high school and provide other community needs, he was heavily involved with a broad cross section of the community that came together to make these things happen, which was a turning point for the Seguin community. These community efforts have brought several families to his congregation and raised its visibility in the community.
Tim and his wife, Jennifer, met while they were students at Texas Lutheran and married in July of 2000. She has been a software developer at Labatt Food Service for 17 years. He has two sons, Lukas (8 years old) and Benjamin (5 years old). Their family also includes a beagle, basset hound, a turtle, and some pond fish. When not doing church ministry, the family can be found camping in state parks. Pastor Tim loves kayaking, fishing, and almost any activity involving water.