Gemeindepädagogin on Campus

MLC Grad Takes Her Degree Home to Europe

The last time Rakel (Edvardsen) Drechsler was on the MLC campus was 2005, when she was an international student from Norway, graduating with her degree in staff ministry.

In September 2024, she was here again, this time as a staff minister attending the WELS Staff Ministry Conference.

For three years, Drechsler has been serving at St. Trinity Parish in Leipzig, Germany, a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church, the German Lutheran church body in fellowship with WELS.

We would call her a staff minister. In Germany, she’s known as a Gemeindepädagogin. “It is sort of like a congregational teacher,” she says. “It’s a term that people understand even outside of our church body.”

Her responsibilities involve ministry to women and children. “We have a monthly Bible study with the women,” Drechsler says. “I oversee the Sunday School, visit elderly women in their homes, and organize hikes for the younger women. I’ve also led a few women individually through Bible information class.” She also teaches a weekly Bible course to children in grades 1-3.

“My work has a relational emphasis,” she says. “I try to look out for the needs of the women in my congregation and encourage them to serve God in the place that he has put them and with whatever gifts they have. In this kind of leadership role, quite a bit of time also goes into reflecting, praying, and studying the Word of God, even though it’s often hard to put this into a calendar. But maybe that is part of what serving as a leader is: carrying people on my mind and my heart all the time.”

The theme of the 2024 staff ministry conference was “Come and Go.” Coming back to the community and college where she spent four formative years of her life was emotional for Drechsler. “After I realized that I was going to get to come here, I didn’t sleep for two nights. I was so excited.” And once on campus, she became aware of how much had changed. “I realized that I’ve moved on. I’m not the student that I was 20 years ago.”

Thoughts of going back home after the conference led to more reflection. “At the moment, I’m the only one in the German church who serves in this kind of public ministry.”

That’s why seeing so many staff ministers was uplifting. “It was fascinating and encouraging to see the great variety of people serving as staff ministers,” she says. “When I came home, what stood out to me the most, though, was how grateful I am to get to serve in exactly the place that I am in, and it felt so good to realize that there still is a bridge between these different chapters of my life.

“So for my sake, the conference definitely served its purpose: ‘Come and Go.’ I was very happy to do both.”

Adapted from “Conference Encourages Staff Ministers,” Forward in Christ, December 2024, written by Rev. James Pope.