Lutheran Hour Ministries Selects Next Executive Director

New Executive Director Kurt Buchholz

ST. LOUIS, Missouri – Kurt Buchholz of Glen Arm, Maryland, has accepted a call from the Board of Directors of the International Lutheran Laymen’s League (Int’l LLL) to become the next Executive Director for Lutheran Hour Ministries. Buchholz will join the ministry Aug. 30 and will work alongside current Executive Director Bruce Wurdeman until Wurdeman’s retirement at the end of the calendar year.

“I have worked closely with the Int’l LLL and Lutheran Hour Ministries in my previous positions, and I am excited and honored to be chosen to lead this organization at a time when we are faced with so many outreach challenges and yet provided with so many Spirit-led opportunities to reach an increasingly post-Christian culture,” said Buchholz.

“I have seen firsthand how the ministry, under the excellent direction provided by Bruce Wurdeman and his leadership team, serves a unique role as ‘Your Partner in His Mission’ to boldly proclaim the message of Jesus Christ to a hurting world,” he continued. “I have also been blessed to know and work with many of the ministry staff over the years and I can assure you that God has brought together a very gifted group of individuals. It is truly an honor to be in ministry alongside them!”

Buchholz most recently served as the Vice President for Special Initiatives and Executive Director of the Lutheran Malaria Initiative for Lutheran World Relief (LWR) in Baltimore, Maryland. In this role he led strategic initiatives targeted at simultaneous growth in three areas: international programs, constituent engagement, and internal management systems. The Lutheran Malaria Initiative is a partnership of LWR and The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) to mobilize U.S. Lutherans in the global effort to eliminate malaria deaths in Africa by 2015.

From 1993 through 2011, Buchholz served LCMS World Mission in a variety of leadership positions, including as Interim Executive Director, where he helped reverse a decade-long trend of decreasing revenue and lead the organization to financial stability. He was instrumental in leading the rollout of a complex $100 million fundraising campaign for LCMS World Mission that ended in 2011.

Buchholz has lived and worked in Taiwan in various leadership roles, including school start-up and management, and he and his wife Jenny served as missionaries there for seven years. He is a graduate of Concordia University in Irvine, California, in the elementary education program, and received his Director of Christian Education certification and a Master of Arts in organizational management from Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“We are very pleased that Kurt has accepted the call to be our next Executive Director, given his past successes in leading large scale initiatives and his strong network of partnerships with leaders throughout The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod,” says Wurdeman. “He brings a wealth of experience and passion in national and international missions to this position and we are excited to welcome him to Lutheran Hour Ministries.”

Buchholz has also served in a number of volunteer professional service positions, such as advisory board member of Lutherans in Medical Mission, board member of Lutheran Society for Missiology and U.S. delegate for the Lausanne Movement Cape Town. He most recently has been serving as Chairman of the Int’l LLL, the governing body of Lutheran Hour Ministries. With his selection to be the next Executive Director of Lutheran Hour Ministries, Buchholz will step down as Dhairman of the Int’l LLL and Vice Chair Philip Krauss II of Westland, Michigan, will assume the role of Chair. A new Vice Chair will be appointed by the Board of Directors in the coming weeks.

St. Louis-based Lutheran Hour Ministries is a Christian outreach ministry supporting churches worldwide in its mission of Bringing Christ to the Nations—and the Nations to the Church. LHM produces Christian radio and TV programming for broadcast, as well as Internet resources, print communications and a variety of other culturally-relevant outreach materials, to reach the unchurched in more than 30 countries. Lutheran Hour Ministries’ flagship program, The Lutheran Hour, is the world’s longest-running Christian outreach radio program. It airs weekly on more than 1,350 stations. For more information about Lutheran Hour Ministries, visit www.lhm.org.

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