Staff
Sarah Friesen-Carper - Pastor
Rev. Sarah Friesen-Carper has been the Pastor at the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection since January 2021. She graduated from Valparaiso University in 2001 with a BA in Psychology and minors in Theology and Humanities. She worked as an Admission Counselor for two years at Valpo heading Engineering and International Student recruitment and co-leading the freshman orientation program. In August of 2007 Pastor Sarah was ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and began six years of ministry as the pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Charlotte, MI. She served as Assistant to the Bishop for Congregational and Leadership Excellence in the North/West Lower Michigan Synod for five years working with call processes, candidacy, lay theological and spiritual education, youth ministry, pastoral formation, and anti-racism and justice ministries. Pastor Sarah and her family relocated to Saint Paul, Minnesota in 2018 where she served as interim pastor for St. Timothy Lutheran Church in St. Paul and St. Paul Lutheran Church in Wyoming.
Pastor Sarah is passionate about walking alongside individuals of all ages in their spiritual journey, building diverse, beloved community inside and outside the congregation, and worship in which the Divine One meets us and does not leave us where we were. Pastor Sarah finds deep joy in spending time with her husband, Rev. Andrew Tengwall, and their two children, Micah, and Stellan.
Gary Butler- Cantor
I am the Cantor at LCR. I direct the adult, children’s, and handbell choirs as well as keep a team of instrumentalists busy, co-direct our annual summer children’s musical/VBS, coordinate our annual Bach Cantata, and write regularly for our church e-newsletter, among other things. I have been an employed church musician since March of 1980. After receiving my Bachelor of Music Degree from Westminster College in New Wilmington, PA in 1983, I received a Master of Sacred Music Degree from Luther Seminary, St. Paul and St. Olaf in Northfield in 1993. I was ordained as a Deacon (then “Associate in Ministry”) in May, 1993 I have served many denominations; United Church of Christ, Roman Catholic, United Methodist, and the ELCA in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, and Minnesota. I also studied organ at the "Sessione Senese per la Musica e l'Arte" in Siena, Italy for three months in 1981. I am retired from 38 years of public school choral directing and music instruction. I taught in New Jersey and Minnesota; Shakopee Public School District. I live in Burnsville with my wife; Ione. I have three awesome adult children; Sophia, Kristina, and Jon.
