Rev. Erik and his wife, Heidi, were married in 1997 and have three amazing children, Ethan, Daniel and Katy.  Erik is a native of the Detroit area, having been born in Rochester and raised in Shelby Township, where his parents still live.  He is a graduate of Lutheran North and has degrees from Carthage College (B.A., Kenosha, WI), Christian Theological Seminary (M.T.S., Indianapolis, IN) and Concordia Seminary (M. Div., St. Louis, MO).  Prior to seminary, he taught college courses in philosophy and religion in Houston, TX, and loves to talk world religions.  He also spent time as a youth minister, an assistant store manager at Lowe’s and even as a minor league baseball stadium usher.  Although raised Lutheran, he spent a good deal of time in other Christian denominations before returning to the LCMS because our doctrine is soundly based in the Word of God, rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel is eternal Truth.  It holds the means of salvation: the love, mercy and grace of God bestowed on us, who deserve nothing more than death for our continued rejection of Him.  Yet Our Heavenly Father loves us so much that He sent His Son to die on a cross to pay the price for our sin – just so that we could be reconciled to Him.  Our Lord Jesus Christ lived as one of us, died for all of us and rose again in promise of new life to those whom God has claimed by grace through faith.  There is no greater proclamation than that – the Word of God changes lives! – and Rev. Erik feels honored that God’s Holy Spirit would use him to deliver it.

While he takes very seriously the Truth of the Gospel, he also firmly believes that humor is one of God’s gifts, and he has a lot of fun delivering that Truth.  You can follow Erik and his family on their Blog, http://ourschmidthouse.wordpress.com.