Our Pastor
Pastor Tim Hummel began serving our community in January of 2025. If you would like to contact him, please call his cell phone at 515-240-7375 or email him at: timhummel@msn.com
Greetings! It is a real pleasure for me to be your interim pastor at Emmanuel Lutheran. I appreciate the warm welcome that I have received from all of you. There are two questions that I am sure that some of you have wondered about, who is this guy, and what does it mean to be an interim pastor.
The first question about who I am is really simple. I am a redeemed child of God! That is the identity given graciously to me by God. That is the identity that I try to bring into this world that I live in for now. Within that identity, I am a husband of over fifty years to my lovely wife Jane. I am a father to two fantastic adult children. I am a grandfather to four boys and a girl. I have called Iowa home all my life. I grew up in a small rural town and now call Pleasant Hill my home for the last twenty-eight years. My life was in the business world and that was where my education centered. Ten years ago, I entered the public ministry. At that time, I became the intentional interim pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran in Adair for three years. I served short interims in central Iowa and four years ago I became the Care Pastor at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Altoona. I also teach Religion and Philosophy part-time at Grandview University in Des Moines. My main hobby is playing golf when I am able to. About twelve years ago I started my seminary process. I have earned several graduate degrees, including a Masters of Divinity degree. I am an ordained and LCMC certified pastor. My seminary of choice is the Institute of Lutheran Theology and the Christ School of Theology. Both are located in Brookings S. D.
Once again, I have a simple answer to the question, what is an interim pastor? It is the same basic job that any pastor has. I treat each and every day as if I will be your pastor for years to come. Anything from preparing sermons to visiting the sick or homebound. My vision for being your pastor is that we will approach Emmanuel as a joint venture between myself and the congregation. By virtue of being brothers and sisters in Christ, we bear the same task on proclaiming God’s Word to the world around us and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. I see Emmanuel Lutheran Church as a beacon of light for our area and a place to fulfill God’s mission for us. So, an interim is simply a pastor at a church for a time that is not determined. But during that time all pastoral duties are to be done. I hope we get to share the joys and the pain that life brings us, under the umbrella of God’s love for us. I hope we pray for each other daily and pray that our church be used by the Holy Spirit as that great light!