St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church
Staff Biographies
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St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Staff Biographies | 00
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Pastor Lange was born May 16, 1962 in Houston, Texas, to the Reverend and Mrs. George H. Lange. He attended Lutheran elementary and high schools while living in Houston and Tomball, Texas, then in Oak Park and River Forest, Illinois. He then attended Concordia University, River Forest, Illinois, from which he graduated in 1984 with the Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education. On June 22, 1985, Pastor Lange was united in marriage to Marcia Boening of Frankenmuth, Michigan. The Lord has blessed this marriage with four daughters. Pastor Lange’s study for the Holy Ministry continued at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he graduated with the Master of Divinity degree in 1988. His vicarage was served at Zion Lutheran Church, Laramie, Wyoming. Following graduation, he continued at the seminary for two more years of further study, and as a Teaching Assistant in the area of Biblical languages. In 1990, Pastor Lange received a Divine Call to serve as Associate Pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Concordia, Missouri. He was ordained and installed there on August 26, 1990, whereupon he continued serving until August of 1999. While at St. Paul’s, he served on the Missouri District Board for Parish Education and in several other district and circuit offices. In 1998, he earned the Master of Sacred Theology Degree in New Testament studies from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Pastor Lange was installed as Senior Pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Topeka, Kansas on August 22, 1999.
Pastor Stark was born and reared in Dallas, Texas, and attended the University of Texas (UT) at Austin where he received a double Bachelor of Arts Degree in Latin American Studies and History. During that time he worked as a student associate in the UT school of law computer lab, aiding students with their technical problems. He also studied abroad for six months in Cuernavaca, Mexico, through the UT foreign exchange program and was a member of the UT tennis club. After college he taught high school Spanish and coached the boys junior varsity basketball team at Lanier High School in Austin. During this time he met his future wife, Brianne, at church. She was completing her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at UT to become a registered nurse. They were married in 2003, which was also the same year that Pastor Stark began his studies at Concordia Theological Seminary (CTS) in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He also played on and was the assistant coach of the seminary’s basketball team. Pastor Stark’s vicarage was at University Lutheran Chapel in Boulder, Colorado. After vicarage Pastor Stark and Brianne celebrated the birth of their daughter, Mary, in January, 2007. In April he received his Divine Call from St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Topeka, Kansas, and was graduated from CTS in May. He is very excited to serve here where the Lord has called him.
Pastor Roger M. Goetz was born in 1940 in Chicago, Illinois, to Dr. And Mrs. Charles A. Goetz, Sr. and lived in the suburb of Glen Ellyn, where he was a piano student of the late Fern Simons at the Simons Piano Studies from 1946 until the family moved to Ames, Iowa, in 1948. He studied piano at Iowa State University from 1948 through 1954 and organ from 1953 through 1957, with Margaret Snodgrass and others. He was confirmed in 1954 at Memorial Lutheran Church and Student Center in Ames and served the congregation as assistant organist from 1955 to 1958 (he was also assistant organist and choir accompanist from 1959 to 1962). After graduating from Ames Senior High School in 1958, he attended Iowa State University, summer 1958; Valparaiso University, 1958-1959; and Iowa State, 1959 -1962. His organ instructors were Philip Gehring, Marianne Webb, and Carl Bleyle. At Iowa State, Pastor Goetz became a member of Alpha Chi Sigma (professional chemistry fraternity), Phi Lambda Upsilon (national chemistry honor society), Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (national men’s music fraternity), and Pi Mu Epsilon (national mathematics honorary society). During his senior year he was also a research assistant with the Ames Laboratory of the United States Atomic Energy Commission. In the spring of 1962 he gave his senior organ recital, was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, and graduated cum laude from Iowa State with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry (Honors Program Graduate) and a second major in Modern Symbolic Logic (he also received the Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics from Iowa State in 1967). He studied organ with the late Paul Smith at the University of Wisconsin in Madison the summer and fall of 1962. During the spring of 1963 at Valparaiso University, he studied organ with William Eifrig, harpsichord with Newman Powell, Christian art with Richard Caemerer Jr., Christian drama with Van Kussrow, and church music with the late Theodore Hoelty-Nickel. Additional organ study was with Russell Saunders at Drake University the summers of 1955 and 1963. He entered Concordia Theological Seminary, then in Springfield, Illinois, in 1963. There he served two years as Seminary Organist, Choir Accompanist, and Assistant to the Dean of the Chapel under the late Rev. Prof. Dr. Fred L. Precht. Pastor Goetz’s vicarage was at St. James Lutheran Church, Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, where he also served as organist and choirmaster for six months. In 1967, he graduated from the Seminary with a Master of Divinity Degree in Systematic Theology, writing his thesis on “The Attributes of God, Man, and Angels” using modern symbolic logic. From 1967 to 1968, he studied church music with the late Robert Clippinger at Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, from which he received, in 1972, the Master of Sacred Theology Degree in Church Music, writing his thesis on “The Chorale Melody from Luther to Freylinghausen.” In 1968, he received a Divine Call into the Holy Ministry and was ordained on July 7, 1968, at Memorial Lutheran Church and Student Center by the late Rev. Dr. W. J. Fields, who had also confirmed him. From 1968 to 1980, he was Associate Pastor, Organist, and Choirmaster at Gethsemane Lutheran Church, Maplewood (St. Paul), Minnesota. At the same time he was part-time instructor at Walther Lutheran Junior High School, where his responsibilities included confirmation instruction, music appreciation, choirs, and drama. He was also director of the East St. Paul Lutheran Kantorei and Orchestra. He was married 22 November 1969 at Gethsemane to Miss Betty Jean Bokelheide, a teacher in Gethsemane Lutheran School. They had one daughter Anne-Katharine (deceased) and have two grandsons. In 1980, he accepted a call to St. John’s Lutheran Church, Topeka, Kansas, where he has served as an Associate Pastor, Organist, and Choirmaster. His continuing education has included study of music theory with Gary White at Iowa State University, organ with James Higdon at the University of Kansas, and family counseling at the Pozez Educational Center in Topeka. He was archivist of the Kansas District of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod from 1985 to1989, serving as editor of A Century of Grace: Centennial History of the Kansas District, 1888-1988. He has had articles published in The Lutheran Witness and Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly. He was chairman of the worship committee of the District from 1985 to 1994. His setting of Angels We Have Heard on High for Double Choir, Flute, Handbells, and Keyboard was published by Concordia Publishing House. His compositions for the carillon have been published by American Carillon Music Editions. He is a member of the American Guild of Organists and has served as Dean (president) of the Topeka Chapter 1984-1985 and 2004-2007. He is also a member of Topeka Cosmopolitan Club (a service agency devoted to fighting diabetes), which he has served as President (2005-2006) and Chairman of the Board (2006-2007). He was elected Precinct Committeeman of his city ward in 1996, 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008. He has been active in genealogical research and has written and published four family tree books. He is currently semi-retired at St. John’s, working 60-per-cent time. 
Dennis Hintz was born on July 14, 1948 in Bismarck, North Dakota to Harold and Shirley Hintz. He attended St. Peter’s Lutheran School in Hannover, North Dakota through the third grade after which the family moved to Deadwood, South Dakota where he attended public school through graduation from Deadwood Public High School in 1966. He then attended the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado for one year before transferring to Concordia Teachers College in Seward, Nebraska from which he graduated in December 1971 with a B.S. degree in elementary education majoring in mathematics and minoring in theology. Upon graduation from college, Mr. Hintz received the Call from St. John’s Lutheran Church of Topeka, Kansas to serve as Director of Christian Education. He has served St. John’s since mid-January 1972 in this capacity. In July 1981 he completed the M. Ed degree, with emphasis in administration from Washburn University of Topeka. Concordia Teachers College - Seward, Nebraska also granted Mr. Hintz the Director of Christian Education certification in August 1985. In addition to his responsibilities in the parish, Mr. Hintz has been privileged to serve in various capacities on boards and committees of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod both at the national and district levels. In 2001 he concluded nine years as a regent for his alma mater, (now called) Concordia University - Nebraska. On October 10, 1969 Mr. Hintz was united in marriage to Miss Kathleen R. Heine of Seward, Nebraska. The Lord has blessed this marriage with one son, Brent of Topeka and two grandchildren, Andrew and Makenzie.
Deaconess Linda was born August 11, 1950, in Fredericktown, Missouri, the youngest of three children of Bascom and Veda Revelle. She graduated from high school there in 1968, and from Southeast Missouri State University in 1972 with a degree in music education. She taught a few years in the public school and gave piano lessons in her home. Her work experience also includes bookkeeping, real estate sales, and parent education in the Missouri Parents As Teachers Program. In February, 1997, Deaconess Linda was catechized and confirmed in the Lutheran Church after having held membership in a Southern Baptist congregation until that time. At an organist workshop at Concordia Theological Seminary in 1999, she was introduced to the term “deaconess” by Deaconess Pam Nielsen. After some life changes in 2002, the way was opened to study at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis where she earned a Master of Theology degree in 2004. It was then that she was accepted into the deaconess program at Concordia Theology Seminary to earn certification as a deaconess. After one more year of academic work, she was placed as a deaconess intern at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Topeka, Kansas. Upon completion of the year-long internship, St. John’s called her as a full time deaconess with the call becoming official on May 18, 2006. Deaconess Linda has two grown children, Elizabeth Strickland and Ben Cosgrove of Farmington, Missouri, and four grandchildren.
Pastor Glenn Ray Bitter was born on the family farm north of Susank, Kansas, on July 11, 1940, the second son of Mr. & Mrs. Ted Bitter. He was baptized at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Susank, on August 4, 1940. He reaffirmed his baptismal vows on May 9, 1954, when he was confirmed at Emmaus Lutheran Church, Hoisington, Kansas. He graduated from St. John’s Lutheran Academy, Winfield, Kansas, in 1958 and St. John’s College in 1961. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1963 from Kansas State University, Manhattan. He enrolled at Concordia Theological Seminary, Springfield, Illinois, that Fall and graduated in 1967 with a Bachelor of Divinity Degree. He was ordained on June 25, 1967, at Concordia Lutheran Church, Hoisington, Kansas. He received his Masters of Divinity Degree from Concordia Theological Seminary, Springfield, on May 24, 1973. Pastor Bitter began his ministry serving St. James Lutheran Church, Holland and St. John’s Lutheran Church, Woodstock, Minnesota. He returned to Kansas in 1971 to serve Immanuel Lutheran Church and School (Hermansberg), Bremen, Kansas. Major health concerns for Pastor Bitter beginning in 1973 resulted in a lengthy hiatus from the pastoral ministry. In 1998 with renewed health, Pastor Bitter was re-instated to the clergy roster of the LC–MS and on May 31, 1998, St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (UAC), Topeka, Kansas, called Pastor Bitter to the position of Visitation Pastor, with responsibilities for calling on the numerous Homebound members and bringing them the message of the Gospel and the comfort and reassurance of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Pastor Bitter has two children, David Bitter, Topeka, and Renea Willie, Lawrence, Kansas and one grandchild, Meghan Bitter. He is united in marriage to Denise nee Bondy.
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