Rev. Jukka Kääriäinen
Lutheran Church of the Messiah
pastorjukka@gmail.com
609-924-3642

Pastor Jukka received a B.A. in biology from Valparaiso University (1996), his M.Div. from Concordia Seminary (2000), and is currently a Ph.D. candidate completing a dissertation in Lutheran missiology from Fordham University (Bronx, NY). He spent his vicarage (pastoral internship) year at West Portal Lutheran Church, San Francisco, CA, serving under English District President Rev. Dr. Stechholz, who also ordained him into the Office of the Holy Ministry on March 5, 2000. His professional pastoral experience includes serving as Atlantic District mission developer among the Chinese community in New York City (2000-2002), associate pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Hicksville, NY (2002-2005), and extensive vacancy preaching (2005-2007).

Martin Erhardt
Seminarian Field Worker and Assistant to the Chaplain
Martin.Erhardt@valpo.edu

Martin Erhardt is a second-year MDiv student at Princeton Seminary. Before coming to Princeton, he was a chemistry professor at Valparaiso University, his undergraduate alma mater, where he earned a BS in chemistry and economics, followed by a PhD in chemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

In 2007, it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to him that he improve his Latin in a Roman monastery for a summer under the tutelage of the incomparable Father Reginald Foster, OCD, and enter the Master of Divinity program at Princeton Theological Seminary, preparatory to ordination for pastoral ministry in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. He currently serves as field worker at the Lutheran Church of the Messiah in Princeton, assistant to the Princeton University Lutheran Chaplain, and as a student representative to the Bible department at Princeton Seminary.