Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church Three-Year Strategic Plan
 January 2023 – December 2025

Compiled by the Strategic Planning Team Adopted by the Congregation Council, May 31, 2022
Accepted by the Congregation, June 26, 2022

Strategic Plan PDF

Strategic Planning Committee

Pastor Amandus Derr has served as the Interim Senior Pastor of Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church since 2021. He retired in June 2020 after 46 years of pastoral ministry, 23 years as senior pastor of Grace Lutheran Church and School, Teaneck, in New Jersey and 23 years as senior pastor of Saint Peter’s Church, midtown Manhattan in New York. He and his wife Carole moved to Spring, Texas in August 2020 and joined Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church immediately. Pastor Derr is a graduate of Concordia College, Bronxville, New York and Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, Indiana. He received a Master of Divinity degree with a concentration in Hebrew from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, and a Doctor of Ministry in Moslem-Christian relations from the Divinity School at Drew University.

Pastor Beth Marie Halvorsen has served Memorial Drive Lutheran Church since the middle of August 2018 as an Intentional Interim. A graduate of St. Olaf College, Luther Seminary, and Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary (DMin), she has served congregations in Galveston, Austin, and Greater Houston since 1984. She also teaches for Lutheran Transitional Ministry Association (LuTMA) and continues to build upon her doctoral work, “Centered Flexibility.”

Terri Koehler is a life-long Lutheran and has been a member of Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church for more than three decades. As a worship enabler, bellringer, and long-time coordinator of the Meals Team, her service to the congregation has focused on Worship and Congregational Care. Terri has been a member of the Congregation Council since 2019, and she currently serves as Council President. Terri is Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at UTHealth McGovern Medical School. She and her husband Ed Nikonowicz, who is Professor and Chair of the Biosciences Department at Rice University, were married at Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church. Their young adult children, Peter and Rebecca, were baptized and confirmed at Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Maureen Lamson has been a member of Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church since 2017. Maureen moved to Houston from Annapolis, Maryland, where she worked as an operating room nurse, and an administrator of an ENT surgery center. She serves Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church as a member of the Altar Guild, the Congregational Council, the church property committee, and the Reconciling In Christ (RIC) committee.

Pastor Sergio Rodriguez has served Christ the King Evangelical Church since his internship January 2020. After concluding his internship and receiving his Master’s in Divinity (Hispanic Ministry Concentration) from Wartburg Theological Seminary, Pastor Rodriguez was called and ordained to be the Pastor for Community Ministries at Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church. Originally from McAllen, this life experienced has helped him to be involved in forming Eagle Pass Frontera Ministries, extend its Asylum-seeker services to San Antonio. He has been active in a variety of immigration advocacy ministries in the ELCA. He is the immigration Co-Chair of LULAC 2911 chapter. He is currently redeveloping Lutheran Campus Ministry at Rice University.

Nyla Woods joined Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church in 2013. She is a CPA and spent five years in public accounting, five years in private industry and twenty-five years in leadership at Family Services of Greater Houston, the last fifteen of those years as President/CEO. Nyla is a member of Altar Guild, was a member of the Columbarium Committee and is now a member of that Guild. She is currently a member of Congregational Council in her third year of service with the past two years on the Executive Committee of the Council.

Daniel Zorn is a life-long Lutheran and has been a member of Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church since 1999. He is a worship enabler for the contemplative service. Daniel has dedicated over 30 years to advancing the missions of nonprofit organizations through management and fundraising leadership. He received a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and is a graduate of Southwestern University at Georgetown, Texas. Daniel is an avid collector of nativities, a student of crèche art, and curated Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church’s Crèche Festival in 2021.

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CTK is a Reconciling in Christ (RIC) Community