Sunday, May 21^st was a busy day for Pastor Phillip Beukema as he was installed as the new Pastor at St. John’s Church in Withee and St Paul’s Church in Thorp and hosted his first service on May 28^th with his family in attendance.  This will be his first dual parish, as he previously pastored Immanuel Lutheran Church in Lakefield, Minnesota beginning in 2019, but he is looking forward to the opportunities that will arise. Pastor Beukema enjoys the hometown feeling that occurs in smaller towns.

Born in San Diego, California, Pastor Beukema has lived all over the United States including, Michigan, Washington, Minnesota and Minocqua, Wisconsin.  Pastor Beukema and his wife, Brandi, married for 30 years, have three grown children together with one recently graduated from UW- Eau Claire and one already starting a family of her own. In 1994, Pastor Beukema graduated from Northern Michigan University.  Later in life, after noticing that there were no families in his community Church, he began to see youth fall away from their faith and wanting to help, started a Bible study, ran a second service and from there Pastor Beukema and his wife felt the call for him to go to seminary.  Originally thinking they would take it slow; Pastor Beukema was accepted as a seminary student about six weeks after the decision to enter the seminary was made. He graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne in 2016 and then pastored Rock of Ages Lutheran Church in Minocqua until 2019.

Pastor Beukema is ready to hit the ground running as he has already begun hospital visits and is looking forward to getting involved in the local communities. In his previous communities, Pastor Beukema was involved in the Lion’s Club and served as an Oneida County Sheriff’s Department Chaplain.  He loves to spend time with his family and enjoys the outdoors, specifically fishing and golfing. He also loves to travel having visited England, Kenya, and also led a trip to the Holy Land along with his wife.  A self-proclaimed “blue collar Pastor,” Pastor Beukema wants to “love on the Church and the Community” and become a familiar face in the community as he feels it is a “joy to share the Gospel.” He wants his parishioners to leave Church services knowing how to apply God’s Word in their lives.