The Reverend Doctor Timothy Rossow has been appointed President of Luther Classical College. A student of the classics with over 35 years of experience in administration and fundraising – including church administration, capital campaign consulting, and development for a mission organization – Dr. Rossow is perfectly suited to guide LCC into its next chapter.
Though Pastor Rossow retired from full time ministry in 2016, he remains on the roster of the LCMS and will continue to serve the church as Assisting Pastor at Mount Hope Lutheran Church in Casper. Upon his appointment he said, “This position is about the only thing that could bring me out of retirement and draw me away from my adopted new home on the beach in the state of Washington.” Dr. Rossow and his wife, Phyllis, have already started the relocation process from the Pacific Northwest and look forward to joining the Luther Classical family in the Mountain West.
Dr. Rossow has a life-long history in the LCMS. He was baptized at St. Paul Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Fort Dodge, Iowa in 1958 and attended two different Lutheran day schools. He graduated from Concordia College, Seward, Nebraska in 1981 with a BA in Humanities and Pre-Seminary, and earned a Master of Divinity from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri in 1985. He continued his education earning a Master of Arts in Philosophy from St. Louis University in 1987 and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana in 2006. He served as Senior Pastor of two LCMS churches, Immanuel in Dearborn, Michigan (1990-1993) and Bethany in Naperville, Illinois (1994-2016).
Rev. Dr. Rossow has a rich set of credentials for the office of President, foremost among them is a devotion to Holy Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions, and to keeping Christ and His Gospel at the center of all things. He defines his ministry in the words of his mentor, Dr. Norman Nagel: “Let your words be dripping with Scripture.”
Dr. Rossow’s passion for leadership is one of the reasons this opportunity was able to draw him out of retirement. He loves to organize things, lead institutions, and manage large projects. In his retirement, he and his wife built their house on the beach in Ocean Shores, Washington (with their own hands), opened and operated an art gallery in their seaside village, directed one of the largest art festivals on the coast of Washington, created a development department for Lutherans in Africa, and most recently helped create the development department for Luther Classical College.
During his years in the Lord’s ministry, Dr. Rossow was hands-on with three different building programs including a $5.5 million new church and school at Bethany in Naperville. This experience will be helpful as the college looks to build out its campus in the years to come. He also led and managed a staff of thirty-five and a multi-million-dollar budget in his twenty-two years in Naperville. He was the creator and managing partner of Wittenberg Church Consultants, conducting goal-setting seminars and twenty capital campaigns around the country from 2012-2020.
Dr. Rossow is also passionate about teaching and is excited to be in the classroom at LCC. Apart from his regular teaching duties as a parish pastor, he was also a Teaching Fellow at St. Louis University and taught courses at Concordia University Chicago. While serving as Development Director for Lutherans in Africa, he also taught courses in Kenya and Tanzania.
An Aristotelian in terms of metaphysics and a Lutheran in terms of all other things, Dr. Rossow is fully committed to the classical model. He loves nothing more than talking about the facts and the truths of our Lord’s vast and wonderful creation.
“Pastor Rossow brings to our college a rare and wonderful combination of talents and experiences,” says Dr. Ryan MacPherson, academic dean. “He is experienced in managing capital campaigns, while also conversant in the Great Books. While he served in our advancement department, he and I regularly talked about how Christians can make the most of Plato and Aristotle, and he brought the same biblical worldview into our classroom when guest teaching a session on political philosophy recently.”
Dr. Rossow has been married to Phyllis for 44 years. They enjoy traveling together to promote and raise funds for Luther Classical College and look forward to continuing this mission full-time. Phyllis has been a great service to the college, volunteering in the Development Department and, like her husband, she loves the Mountain West.
In his free time, Dr. Rossow enjoys watercolor painting, traveling, hiking, framing his paintings, and building stuff. In the years ahead, he will bring the same creative and constructive energy to framing the need for classical studies in Confessional churches and continuing to build a college that forms students in the classical Lutheran tradition – preparing them for faithful service in the family, church, and society through a rich liturgical life, rigorous study, and a pursuit of wisdom and virtue. LCC is a mission worthy of calling him out of retirement.