Pastors and Staff

ON THIS PAGE: The Rev. Scot E. Sorensen

St. John's Lutheran Church is currently served by Senior Pastor Scot Sorensen, Associate Pastor Frank Espegren, and Latino Mission Developer Pastor Jose Luis La Torre.  Angela Nickerson is the full-time Director of Congregational Discipleship, Steven Johnson serves as Director of Worship and Music, and Stephen Janzen and Barry Moenter serve as Organist and Assistant Organist, respectively.   A half-time Parish Nurse position is shared by Cindy Carroll and Suzi Carson.  In addition Darren Zinzer is our Youth Coordinator, Alice Reffitt and Joey Sotelo are the custodians, Patricia Miguel, Kathy Graalfs, and Holly Klaman serve in the office as Administrative Assistant for Ministry, Administrative Assistant for Finance and Administrative Assistant for Publications.  Each may be reached by phoning the church office at (916) 444-0874 and the appropriate extension number shown below or by emailing them at the addresses shown below.

Pastor Sorensen is a native Californian, born in Coronado and raised in

Huntington Beach. He graduated cum laude in 1980 from California Lutheran

University with a B.A. in History. From there he attended Luther Seminary and graduated in 1984.

Pastor Sorensen's first call was to Mount Carmel in San Luis Obispo, California, as the assistant pastor. While at Mount Carmel he served on the local ecumenical commission and was part of the Synod Youth Committee.

After his engagement to Kathryrn Hassell in 1989, he moved to Dallas, Texas. He was called to be a pastor on staff at King of Glory (KOG), Dallas, in the position as Director of Family Ministries. His duties at KOG included: singles ministries, youth ministries, and family ministries. Faith Ministries included young couples through OWLS (Older Wiser LutheranS, a 55+ fellowship and study group). During his tenure at KOG he organized a congregational effort to build a Habitat for Humanity house. That project started the congregation's ongoing relationship with Habitat.

Pastor Sorensen was called to the position of Pastor at Zion Lutheran Church of Helotes in San Antonio, Texas in 1993. There he had leadership responsibilities in all areas of ministry with added focus on youth, education and evangelism. An extensive building project was also begun at Zion.

Pastor Sorensen has a deep knowledge of various worship styles from "High Mass" to contemporary. He has been a guest preacher for congregations and youth events, including on stage as a Biblical Storyteller at the 1997 National Youth Gathering in New Orleans. He has had several sermons and articles on Singles Ministry and Education Ministry published.

He is married to Kathy who completed her Ph.D. studies at the University of Texas, Austin in Science Education. She teaches at American River College. Prior to her Ph.D. studies Kathy was a Biology Instructor at Palo Alto College in San Antonio. The Sorensens have a son, Kai Jacob, born in 2003.

E-mail: PastorS@stjohnslc.org

Phone extension: 12

The Rev. Frank Espegren, Associate Pastor & Dir. of Outreach & Service

E-mail: PastorFrank@stjohnslc.org

Phone extension: 19

Pastor Jose Luis La Torre - Pastor Latino Mission Developer

Pastor José Luis was born and raised in Lima, Peru. After High School he went to San Marcos University in Lima and studied Law and Political Sciences. He has a B.A. in Law and Political Sciences and a Professional Degree in Law. In 1991 he entered The Evangelical Seminary of Lima and in 1995 received his Professional Degree in Theology. In 2002-2003 Jose Luis did his Master studies in Philosophy at San Marcos University. He has traveled to Germany to visit Lutherland and companion churches there. From 1996 to 1998 he was a Vicar in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Peru and in the Evangelical Church of Rio de La Plata (Protestant Church in Argentina). Pastor La Torre was ordained Pastor in 1998. As a mission developer in the south of Lima he helped to found two congregations. He also traveled to Trujillo (600 Km north from Lima) to plant a mission congregation. Before coming to St. John’s he was a pastor to the Lutheran Congregation Cristo Rey in Lima.

Pastor La Torre enjoys traveling to the mountains, spending time at the beach in summer, reading, studying languages, baroque music (especially Bach) and South-American Folklore. His favorite foods are fish, lasagna, burritos, barbecue, and especially chocolate cake.

Pastor Jose Luis married Luz (Lucy) in 1992. Lucy studied language and translation at Ricardo Palma University in Lima, received a Masters at San Marcos University, and is a Spanish-German-English translator. The La Torres have two children, Nicolas (born 1996) and Miranda (born 2004).

E-mail: Prjoseluis@stjohnslc.org

Phone extension: 17

Angela Nickerson, Director of Congregational Discipleship

E-mail: Angela@stjohnslc.org

Phone Extension:  20

Darren Zinzer, Youth Ministry Coordinator

E-mail:  youth@stjohnslc.org

Phone extension:  16

Steven Johnson, Director of Worship and Music

E-mail: SJ88Keys@aol.com

Phone extension:  22

Stephen Janzen, Organist

E-mail: janzen@comcast.net

Barry Moenter, Assistant Organist
E-mail: bmoenter@hotmail.com

Patricia Miguel, Administrative Assistant for Ministry

E-mail: patricia@stjohnslc.org

Phone extension:  10

Kathy Graalfs, Administrative Assistant for Finance

E-mail: kathy@stjohnslc.org

Phone Extension: 11

Holly Klaman , Administrative Assistant for Publications

E-mail: editor@stjohnslc.org

Phone Extension: 15

Cindy Carroll, Parish Nurse

E-mail: ParishRN@stjohnslc.org

Phone extension: 13

Suzi Carson, Parish Nurse

E-mail: ParishRN@stjohnslc.org

Phone extension:  14

Alice Reffitt, Day Custodian

Phone extension:  25

Robert "Joey" Sotelo, Night Custodian

St. John's Lutheran Church
1701 L Street
Sacramento, California 95811
(916) 444-0874 (Telephone)
(916) 444-1205 (Fax)

www.stjohnslc.org (Web)
staff@stjohnslc.org (E-mail)