TEDS Alumnus of the Year 2007
Rev. Dr. Mel Lawrenz (MDiv ’81)
Dr. Mel Lawrenz steps up to the pulpit during
a Saturday night worship service at the
sprawling campus of Elmbrook Church in
suburban Brookfield, Wisconsin—no jacket
or tie, a simple but commanding presence. The fifty-two year old senior pastor
proceeds to weave his message, “Joy in the Mission,” around Luke’s account of
Christ’s life and focuses on the heart of Jesus’ ministry, now the church’s mission,
to extend to all people the benevolent power and grace of God.
He challenges the congregation to follow Jesus’ example. “Set your face at a
destination with resolve, and follow the movement of God’s power as you go on
a mission, be it to your Jerusalem, to your Samaria, or to boundaries unknown.”
The words aptly describe Mel’s own journey to becoming a steward of the dynamic
worldwide ministry at Elmbrook Church, which welcomes six thousand adults each
weekend.
The Mentoring
In the early 1970s, Elmbrook invited a British preacher named Stuart Briscoe to
become the church’s senior pastor. Briscoe faced significant challenges at the
time. “The Milwaukee area was considered unplowed ground, and Elmbrook was
thought of as a ‘flash in the pan’ ministry,” Mel says. “Even Dwight Moody called
this area ‘the graveyard of evangelists.’ Back then it was highly ethnic, with a
large Lutheran and Catholic population. Stuart didn’t fit the mold.” Still, the
church grew and thrived.
Mel joined Elmbrook’s staff straight out of seminary. For ten years he served
as associate pastor of small groups, marriage and family ministries, and
adult educational ministries. In the subsequent ten years, he served as senior
associate pastor, overseeing staff and programs. Mel also shared the pulpit
with Briscoe for fifteen years.
During this time, he attended every meeting and discussion that Briscoe
attended and developed a strong friendship with Briscoe. The two spent
countless hours together, casting vision, planning ministries, caring for people,
and discussing books they had read. Briscoe could see the giftedness in his
young colleague.
“Very early, Mel showed remarkable maturity and intelligence,” he said in a
Leadership Journal interview. “In his twenties, he was a godly young man with
a steady, level personality. I saw in him things I lacked myself. I admired his
analytical abilities. I respected him.”
Mel, in turn, appreciated the fact that Briscoe always put mission before
methodology. “Stuart always gave his staff the freedom and responsibility to
develop forms of ministry that were appropriate to them personally and to the
necessities of the day,” Mel says. “He kept the focus on our purpose, clear and
simple.”
While mentoring Mel, Briscoe found that he was learning too. “It was easy in the
ordinary course of events to understand Mel’s heart, to hear his issues, to delve
into his mind… not knowing he was doing the same with me. We learned about
each other, and our mentoring has been mutual and unintentional.”
In 2000, Mel Lawrenz succeeded Briscoe as senior pastor of Elmbrook Church,
and Briscoe and his wife, Jill, transitioned into new roles as ministers-at-large.
The Calling
Mel was born in Chicago in 1955. The Lawrenz family moved to Door County,
Wisconsin, not long after Mel’s father succumbed to pneumonia at the age of
twenty-six. Though Mel grew up as a Lutheran, he never really understood
personal faith in Jesus Christ until he attended a retreat while in high school.
“I came away with the present reality of God and soon became involved in a youth
group,” Mel recalls. “As I read the Bible, my structure of faith began to develop
immediately. From then on, I became a student of Scripture and later volunteered to
give a sermonette to a group. I stood in front of people and saw their spiritual need
as I looked into their eyes. I saw their heads nod. It was then that I understood the
ministry of the Word.”
As Mel’s thoughts turned to college, friends urged him to consider going into
church ministry. The idea resonated with him. He pursued a double major and
received his BA in Religion and Creative Writing from Carroll College in 1977. Mel
then applied to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) to begin his Master of
Divinity degree.
“Trinity stood out from the rest. I agreed with the institution’s value system and
its strong focus on historical Christianity,” he says. “I also appreciated the high
value placed on cultural and spiritual diversity, which was intentional and multigenerational—with the inclusion of both mature and young believers.”
Mel fondly remembers the mentoring he received under Doug Moo and recalls
David Wells’ lectures on systematic theology as eloquent, thoughtful, and
profound. At TEDS, Mel developed a love for learning and discovered through the
faculty’s example what true teaching meant. Mel kept all of his class notes from
TEDS.
“I remember going through the whole canon of Scripture and building a
storehouse of knowledge with biblical languages as the base,” he says. “I finally
understood what the New Testament called the ‘deposit and substance of the
faith.’”
At TEDS, Mel’s call to ministry was affirmed. He worked as a pastoral assistant
and preaching pastor in various churches in Wisconsin during the summers,
and in 1981 he graduated with a Master of Divinity degree. Eight years later, he
received his PhD in Historical Theology from Marquette University.
He still keeps his treasured copy of the 1977-1979 TEDS catalog in his office
library.
The Leader
Under Mel’s leadership, Elmbrook Church thrives today, providing a myriad
of ministries to the community and to the church’s thousands of members.
Elmbrook’s multimedia platform, The Brook, makes ministry resources, such as
interviews, articles, and messages, available online. Through the church’s Study
Center, Elmbrook serves as a TEDS extension site, offering classes that lead to a
certificate or master’s degree in Christian studies.
“Mel has a passion for books, knowledge, and learning; his eyes light up
when he speaks of such things,” says Debbie Jacot, an employee at Elmbrook’s
bookstore. “He is a prolific author. And he not only was the catalyst for
establishing the Study Center and its partnership with Trinity International
University, but he also had the vision for the International Center that offers
training to pastors and ministry leaders worldwide.”
With a global vision to spread God’s Word in mind, Mel initiated innovative
partnerships with other churches and organizations, developed a $2.5 million
missions budget, and opened doors for ministry in Africa. Elmbrook currently
partners with churches in Northern Ireland, Argentina, Kenya, Singapore, and
Jerusalem. Today, the church stands in a very strategic position to transform the
world through Jesus Christ.
The Joy in the Mission
Mel has developed his own style of leadership, emphasizing missions, small
groups, and strong expository and Scripture-based teaching. He salts it with
a great sense of humor, making Stuart Briscoe’s philosophy on leadership his
own—“You shouldn’t be more than five minutes from the next laugh.”
According to his staff, Mel is not afraid to be in a dunking tank or to be the
namesake for Mel’s Diner—which is Elmbrook’s annual congregational meeting,
during which Mel and other staff members serve dinner to the congregation.
Mel has even made an appearance as Johnny Cash, singing “Ring of Fire” at
Elmbrook’s annual meeting. He celebrates God’s faithfulness with laughter,
reflecting joy in the mission, as he continues to give both pastoral staff and lay
people the resources and support they need for ministry.
Mel and Ingrid, his wife of thirty-two years, will celebrate Elmbrook’s fiftieth
anniversary this year, having served with the church for twenty-seven of those
fifty years.
It is with great honor and pleasure that the Trinity Alumni Association awards the 2007
Alumnus of the Year Award to the Reverend Dr. Mel Lawrenz (MDiv ’81).