Vacancy Pastor - Rev. Gary Oehlerts Biography

Gary Oehlerts was born March 28, 1951, and grew up on a farm near Luverne, Minnesota, a small rural town in the southwest corner of the state.  His parents raised him from infancy in the Lutheran Church, helping him grow in the knowledge of God.  Following high school graduation, he served for four years in the United States Air Force, trained as Air Traffic Controller serving at Beale AFB, California and Kadena AFB, Okinawa, Japan.

After completing his tour of service, Pastor Oehlerts moved to California where he met his wife, Kathy, and moved to Luverne, Minnesota.  During that time, he worked for a property and casualty insurance company in the Information Systems Department, serving in various technical and management capacities.

In 1991, Pastor accepted a new job, moving his family to Grapevine, Texas.  During this time, he received his Bachelor of Arts and Science degree at Dallas Baptist University, majoring in Business and Management Information Systems.  This he accomplished while working for a large financial company as Vice President of Information Systems, supporting the technology and communication needs of the company.

Pastor Oehlerts has been involved in church work most of his adult life.  As a lay person, he served on the Board of Education, the Board of Elders, the Board of Stewardship, and has served as the Director on each of these boards.  He also served as Executive Director for two terms and was chairman of two call committees.  Pastor Oehlerts has always had a strong desire to support the work of our Lord through outreach and missions, both local and foreign.

In 1999 Pastor entered seminary at Concordia in St. Louis, Missouri, graduating in 2003 with a Master of Theology and Divinity degree.  His first call to a pastorate was to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Cameron, Missouri, and started a preschool, which has continued to grow in numbers each year. He received his second call to Lamb of God in Las Vegas, Nevada serving a congregation of 800 members with 60 employees, a preschool of 250 students, and an elementary school of 175 students. During his time at Lamb of God, Pastor Oehlerts worked in partnership with the preschool director assisting in its development and growth of the preschool.  In five years, the preschool grew from 50 children to 250 children.

(903) 758-2019 - Church phone

1300 Judson Road

Longview, Texas 75601

orlclview@gmail.com