Bill Bill Wenger joined the staff as a Pastoral Associate in January 2005. This is a new position for Lord of Life and follows a trend among many healthy and growing churches to efficiently and effectively staff with professional lay persons in addition to ordained clergy. As Pastoral Associate, Bill focuses most of his time and attention on matters of program development and oversight, lay leader development, teaching, and discipleship. General areas of ministry responsibilities include education, small groups, and outreach. He also serves as a staff resource to the many gifted folks in our congregation who are ably serving as volunteers in these important ministries.
Bill was baptized at Pearl Harbor Lutheran Church in Honolulu, Hawaii, was raised in Ohio, and graduated from Capital University in Columbus. He earned a PhD in Clinical Biochemistry from the Ohio State University in 1985 and spent 20 years in various clinical research, project management, and medical communications positions with several international pharmaceutical companies. Career moves have taken him to Michigan, Delaware, Indiana, New Jersey, and finally back to Ohio. He has been active all his adult life in lay leadership positions in the church and about 10 years ago felt the call to one day devote himself fully, in partnership with his wife Faye, to the service of the church. He eventually enrolled at Asbury Theological Seminary in Lexington, Kentucky where he earned a Master of Arts degree in Theological Studies in 2006.
Bill brings a strong sense of mission to his work in the church. He believes that as individuals we are to grow in fidelity with the Great Commandment (Mark 12:30-31) to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. As a church, we are to be faithful to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) to go into all the world and make disciples; the "Go, Sow, and Grow" of the Lord of Life Mission Statement.
In his spare time, Bill likes to travel with his wife, enjoy music, art, literature, film, and nature, and follow Cleveland's hapless professional sports teams.