Presbyterians Pick Lutheran Pastor

Brentwood Presbyterian Church has taken the unusual step of naming a Lutheran minister, the Rev. Stephen Lien, as its new pastor.

Lien, 49, a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, will be formally installed Oct. 6. Officials said he is the first Lutheran pastor to be called to a Presbyterian congregation in the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii, which comprises 350 churches.

In 1998, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved a reciprocity agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Under it, a congregation in either denomination could call a minister ordained by the other.

Lien, who succeeds the late Rev. Charles Shields in the 1,344-member Brentwood congregation, said he believed denominationalism will become less important in the years ahead. “The 20th century allowed us the luxury of raising our families in the same church, often from birth to death,” he said. “Now, more typically, people are entering church in their 20s or 30s, when they are having their first child, getting married or divorced, or going through some turmoil in their life, with literally no connection to the church. We have to focus on the fundamentals, the essence of our Christianity, the many things we hold in common.”

Lien was born in Windom, Minn., grew up in New York City, and graduated from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., in 1980. He earned his doctorate there in 1998. For the last 12 years he served as senior pastor at St. John Lutheran Church in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He and his wife, Joanne, have three grown children.