From the P.I.T. (Pastor In Training)

Greetings to you, my new friends at St. James. I have had several people introduce themselves to me and I wanted to take some time to introduce myself. My name is Bryan Odeen, the new guy at   St. James. I am a seminary student at Wartburg Seminary through their distance learning program where I'm seeking training to be a pastor. A big advantage of that process is that I am able to get the academic work done while I serve at a church!

  Before coming to St. James, I worked at Nazareth Lutheran Church in Cedar Falls; and, previous to that, I was a music therapist for Iowa Hospice. I appreciated my time at both places and learned a lot of skills and practices. Now, I begin my time at St. James as a pastoral associate until the ordained pastoral positions are filled.   Essentially, I will fill in as many pastoral roles as possible without being ordained. So, you may see me visiting, preaching, leading  worship, doing music, working with the youth group, and whatever else needs to be done!

I have a beautiful family consisting of my wife, Lisamarie, and two daughters, Maren (2.5 years old) and Hattie (7 months old). Lisamarie and I met in the Castle Singers at Wartburg College and, after college, moved to North   Carolina for about a year and a half. Eventually, work brought us back to Iowa and we have lived in    Mason City for about 4 years now. We have enjoyed getting to know this area and continuing to meet the wonderful people here.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at bryanatstjamesmc@gmail.com or give the church office a call. I have loved getting to know people the last few weeks and I look forward to serving in any capacity needed to help St. James!

~ Bryan Odeen

---