St. John’s Lutheran Church Welcomes Pastor Greg Kjos

St. John’s Lutheran Church Welcomes Pastor Greg Kjos

Rosanne Fortier News Correspondent

Pastor Greg Kjos is the new minister at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Vegreville. Pastor Greg’s family heritage is from Ukraine and Norway.

He grew up in Camrose where he still lives with his wife, Chris. “We are parents of five adult children; three boys and two girls. Two of them are married and three of them are single. We also have four grandchildren; two grandsons and two granddaughters,” Chris said.

When asked how he received the calling into ministry, Pastor Greg replied, “When I was growing up, I was active with sports and certain things happened that made me examine the purpose of life. For example there was a certain hockey team I wanted to play on at a certain level that I never achieved. This disappointment made me question why I was here.

Then while attending the Canadian Lutheran Bible Institute, I had a sense of discernment, an awakening in my mind that a good way of life and job would be to be a pastor. My grandfather on my mother’s side was a Lutheran’s pastor of Ukrainian/German background so I talked to him and was encouraged to fulfill this vocation and then I was encouraged by others which led me to pursue the academic training to be a pastor.

Now, I have been a pastor for 37 years. For this church, I am what they call a vacancy pastor which means I will assist the congregation while they need me to. I hope to stay at this church for three years until they discern wisely who will be that full time pastor that they want.

Pastor Greg Kjos. (Rosanne Fortier/Photo)

The joy of being a pastor is always walking with Jesus as Lord and Saviour. There is no greater or better job than being a pastor. You get time to spend knowing what God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is. This vocation has intrinsic human value; I know why I am here. I am not perfect but God is gracious and merciful.

I can encourage people, and see that transformation, and it is because of Jesus that this happens; it is not because of the church. It is because of a relationship with Jesus as Lord and Saviour. All Christian churches are supposed to help people in their own walk with Jesus.

The challenges are to communicate in such a way in word and in deed to where I would hope that anyone would come into Christian ministry because Jesus has called them into this specific work to help people grow in their faith in Jesus,” Pastor Greg added.