What does a man born 167 years ago in northern rural Germany have to do with planting new congregations, calling for more pastors and spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ today?
From an early age, Friedrich Pfotenhauer was set apart for church planting. Born into the 10th generation of a line of Lutheran pastors stretching back to the Reformation, Pfotenhauer came to America in 1875; attended Concordia College in Fort Wayne; and graduated from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, in 1880 at the age of 21. Pfotenhauer’s seminary formation included studies in the Old and New Testaments, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English, church history, preaching, pastoral care, liturgy, catechetics, logic, philosophy and the Lutheran Confessions — all to equip him for church planting.
Pfotenhauer’s first call was in western Minnesota as a traveling missionary in the Dakota and Montana territories. In 1891, Pfotenhauer was elected president of the Minnesota District, which then included congregations in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Montana, and central and western Canada.
Pfotenhauer had a true missionary spirit. In his address to the 1898 Minnesota and Dakota District convention, Pfotenhauer said, “Our messengers [pastors] have moved over great territories, entire states, as though they had wings. In hundreds of places, where the feet of those we’ve sent have touched the ground, Christian congregations now bloom.”[1]
What was behind Pfotenhauer’s missionary zeal and church planting? Faith in Christ and love for his neighbor. “Through His Church, the Lord sends out messengers of the Gospel, and through them, He works great, glorious things,” Pfotenhauer said, adding, “A true missionary, however, is not merely joyous in his work because his name is written in heaven, but also because through his ministry, his fellowmen shall be won for eternal life. … Truly, when we actually consider that through our ministry eternal, precious, purchased souls will be torn from hell and saved for eternal life, then we should all be inspired for the work of mission.”
In his address, Pfotenhauer marveled that so much church planting and missionary work was done by young pastors: “It is, to be sure, something great that in these last troubled times, under such difficult circumstances … that through our traveling preachers, who almost all enter their office right out of the seminary and are still young and inexperienced, such a great thing has been accomplished.”
Pfotenhauer urged churches in his district not to allow their mission zeal to weaken. He also cried out for more pastors: “This very year we are in need of more candidates than ever before. Now is not the time to rest. That rest will come on the Last Day.”
Even today, our seminaries, LCMS Church Planting, LCMS Discipleship Ministry and Set Apart to Serve are heeding Pfotenhauer’s call as they work together to train pastors, commissioned workers and laity throughout the Synod for church planting, missions and evangelism.
Pfotenhauer’s words continue to remind us that every Christian is set apart for church planting: “Our missionaries [pastors, church planters], since they must often work under the greatest self-denial, should be praised more highly than all the kings and authorities on this earth. And those of us who cannot go [do such work] should lift up their hands in diligent prayer for their messengers sent out and joyously support them with their earthly means. … We will rejoice that our work, to save souls, has brought forth fruit unto eternal life. Amen.”
[1] Friedrich Pfotenhauer, “The Lord’s Sending of the Seventy: An Encouragement to Mission! 1898 Address, Minnesota and Dakota District,” in Matthew C. Harrison, At Home in the House of My Fathers (Concordia Publishing House, 2011), 717. All Pfotenhauer quotes are from this article.
This article originally appeared in the November 2026 print edition of The Lutheran Witness.
Cover image: Friedrich Pfotenhauer at the 1923 LCMS Convention in Fort Wayne, Ind./Public Domain
