Harmelink named executive director of Concordia Historical Institute

For Immediate Release

Contact: Vicki Biggs, 314-996-1236, 314-556-3829 (cell), @theLCMS

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ST. LOUIS, January 28, 2014—The Rev. Dr. Daniel N. Harmelink has been named executive director of Concordia Historical Institute (CHI), The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s (LCMS) venerable repository of documents and artifacts, effective Feb. 1.

An ordained minister, artist and historian, Harmelink brings to the position a profound interest in CHI and desire to proclaim Lutheran history.

“Daniel is well qualified for this position,” said Larry Lumpe, CHI’s present executive director and a member of the search committee for his successor. “He is well-versed in the church’s history and dedicated to maintaining our legacy.”

Lumpe, who has served in that role since 2010, is set to retire Feb. 15. He and Harmelink will work together for the two weeks that their positions overlap.

“Our Christian faith is grounded in history,” says Harmelink. “We need to take the history of Christ and His church seriously. As such, treasuring and trumpeting the history of our Lord and His people is more important than ever.”

Harmelink is the founding president of the International Association of Reformation Coins and Medals, which seeks to further the study of the Lutheran Reformation worldwide through numismatic art. With the help of the Rev. Dr. Frederick Schumacher, executive director of the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, he recently photographed and cataloged CHI’s collection of some 700 commemorative Reformation coins and medals, some of which date to Martin Luther’s day. Now he and Schumacher are working with Concordia Publishing House to publish the catalog in time for the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.

Harmelink earned a Ph.D. in Missiology from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind., in 2003; an M.Div. from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, in 1993; and a bachelor’s degree in Comparative Culture in 1988 from Christ College (now Concordia University) in Irvine, Calif. He has been serving as pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Huntington Beach, Calif., since 1996.

CHI, the official Department of Archives and History of the LCMS, holds more than 2.5 million documents and 7,500 artifacts tracing Lutheran history in the United States and the world. CHI also operates the Lutheran History Museum in St. Louis; administers the Saxon Lutheran Memorial in Perry County, Mo.; and publishes Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, the oldest journal devoted to American Lutheran history. Its research facilities are open to the public. For more information, contact CHI at 314-505-7900 or chi@lutheranhistory.org.

About The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod is a biblical, confessional, witness-oriented Christian denomination with 2.3 million members – 600,000 households – in 6,200 congregations. Through acts of witness and mercy, the church carries out its mission worldwide to make known the love of Jesus Christ. Learn more at www.lcms.org.

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