Our Pastors

It has been a great privilege for me to be at Holy Communion. During this time we've been blessed with great music, seen our Food Pantry ministry grow, helped start the Rest Program, supported a wonderful Burmese refugee family and had two successful building programs.

For me, however, it is the congregation's commitment to young people that keeps ministry exciting. I consider myself lucky to be now a 56 year-old pastor whose favorite thing is still going on two week canoe trips with senior-high youth every summer. All one need to get to that point is to have a bunch of great kids and people who believe in them.

Pastor Jeff Barrow has been Senior Pastor of Holy Communion Lutheran Church since 1991. Raised in Billings, Montana, he is a 1973 graduate of Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and a 1979 graduate of Luther Northwestern Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. His previous parishes have been in Cuero, Texas and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has also been a Camp Director at Camp Indian Sands in Wisconsin and Koinonia in New York. His wife, Kate, is a middle school teacher and very active in music at Holy Communion. She also sings in a Christian quartet named Caritas. They have two children: Jackson and Anneka.

My husband, Greg and I met on a health and medical mission trip to Haiti. What a trip it was! First, I was blessed to be traveling with several of my friends, including Larry and Shelley. Second, in working at the clinic, I received every bit as much as I gave. I was privileged in having an opportunity to preach while I was there. A translator can really make you sound good! And last, but certainly not least, “under the Haitian moon,” in the midst of conversations about Star Trek and reciting lines from Monty Python sketches, a romance sparked between me and the doctor on the trip, Greg Brown. The way we were brought together just suggests again that God really must have a sense of humor!

Greg and his partner Jane Sparks opened A.R.C.H. Medical Center in Franklin, WI. It is a clinic for the biomedical treatment of autism in children. Their healing ministry keeps them very busy, but it’s worth it when we hear all the positive changes made in the lives of the children and their families.

I was ordained at my home church in Jefferson on Oct. 22 and installed at Holy Communion on Nov. 19. What a blessing it has been! Pastor Jeff Barrow is a great colleague with whom to work, as are the rest of the staff. The congregation has welcomed us very warmly, and we truly feel “a part of the family.” Greg and I have both joined the choir. Jeff and I rotate through a preaching schedule. Since Holy Communion has two campuses, one near downtown (2000 W. 6^th St.) and another further out of town (5040 Northwestern Ave.), pulpit coverage can be quite interesting to work out. I look forward to our ministry together!

My responsibility is to be pastor at the Northwestern Campus for Holy Communion. In August of 2007 I began leading worship at this campus and am now on board to care for those who worship there and to assist in the redevelopment of this campus.

Pastor Steve grew up in Minnesota and North and South Dakota as the son of a Lutheran Pastor (His mother, Ruth, lives in Moorhead, Minnesota.) He graduated from Concordia College, Moorhead Minnesota in 1970 and from Lutheran Seminary , St Paul Minnesota in December of 1974. He served parishes in Granton/Neillsville, Wisconsin, West Bend, Wisconsin, Lexington, Nebraska, Reynolds, North Dakota,. Emerado/Mekinock, North Dakota and Kenosha Wisconsin. He also served as interim ministry in Stone Bank, Wisconsin. He serves as president of the Salvation Army Advisory Board of Kenosha, Wisconsin and is active in the Rotary West Club in Kenosha. He enjoys, traveling, golfing and collecting sports cards. His wife Gayle, is director of nurses at St Joseph's Home, Kenosha. They have three children-Sarah (Kevin) Dummer of North Aurora, Illinois and their children Ethan and Alison Elizabeth (Jason) Blankenship of Avondale, Arizona and son Andrew; and John (Cheryl) Engelstad of Gilbert Arizona.

It is exciting to be here at this point in the life and ministry of Holy Communion-Northwestern Campus and to where God will lead in the next few years. Send email to Pastor Steve

Pastor Steve Wohlfeil serves both Holy Communion and Bethania Lutheran Church – ¼ time at Holy Communion and ¾ time at Bethania. Prior to coming to Racine, he was a pastor at Pentecost and Reformation Lutheran Churches in Milwaukee. He was also a campus pastor for 15 years and directed a homeless shelter for a year.
He has a passion for preaching, teaching and outreach. He often says that “the church exists for the benefit of those who are not here.” Steve and Mary, also a pastor, have 5 children.