Three leaders installed at International Center

LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison installs, from left, Michelle Bauman, the Rev. Charles Varsogea and the Rev. Daniel Galchutt at the LCMS International Center in July. (LCMS/Frank Kohn)

On July 10, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Office of the President (OTP) officially welcomed and installed three leaders who will carry out vital work of the LCMS in the coming triennium. All had already been serving for several weeks or months prior to their installation.

The Rev. Charles E. Varsogea serves as assistant to the president for strategic operations. Before retiring from the U.S. Pentagon and joining the staff of the LCMS International Center (IC), he served as Commander of the Naval Chaplaincy School, both as the Force Chaplain for Naval Education and Training Command and as the Chief of Navy Chaplains’ Division Director for Training and Education. Before this assignment, he served in various leadership roles for both the Navy and the Marines. His decorations include the Legion of Merit with one gold star, the Meritorious Medal with three gold stars, the Joint Service Commendation, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with two gold stars, the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with two gold stars, and various personal and unit decorations.

A native of Monroe, Mich., Varsogea studied at Concordia University [then College] Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, Mich., and in the Air Force ROTC program at the University of Michigan, also in Ann Arbor. Upon receiving a B.A. in philosophy in 1991, he began attending Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, earning a Master of Divinity in 1995, and going on to serve congregations in Oklahoma and Indiana. He and his wife, Rebecca, have four children.

Michelle A. Bauman serves as assistant to the president. In this role, she will have various responsibilities, including serving as coordinator for the national LCMS convention. Previously, she served as director of Y4Life, the youth branch of Lutherans For Life (LFL), traveling nationally to teach high school and college students about life issues from a Gospel-motivated perspective. She has written and contributed to various Concordia Publishing House projects, including Growing in Christ, My Devotions and Lutheran Educator Academy.

Bauman is a commissioned LCMS teacher who earned a bachelor’s degree in Education from Concordia University, Nebraska, Seward, Neb., and a master’s degree in English from the University of Indianapolis. She taught English at Holy Cross Lutheran School, Fort Wayne; and English, drama and speech at Trinity Lutheran High School in Seymour, Ind. She and her husband, the Rev. Douglas Bauman, have two sons and one daughter-in-law.

The Rev. Daniel Galchutt serves as LCMS chief mission officer (CMO), a role he was already filling on an interim basis. Before becoming CMO, he was called to serve as executive director for the LCMS Office of National Mission. Prior to joining the staff at the IC, he served for six years as assistant to the LCMS Kansas District president, and before that, he was pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church, Topeka, Kan., and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Haven, Kan. As a parish pastor, he had the opportunity to serve as a vicarage supervisor and to work with a Lutheran grade school and two preschools.

Galchutt earned a Bachelor of Arts in Theology from Concordia University, St. Paul, St. Paul, Minn., in 2000, and a Master of Divinity from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, in 2004. He and his wife, Melissa, have five children.

Before installing Varsogea, Bauman and Galchutt, LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison referenced the Scripture reading for the day, in which Jesus instructs His disciples, “Let the children come to me” (Luke 18:15–17). Harrison elicited chuckles from the assembly when he assured the three that, as Synod employees, they could anticipate “many nights when you will sleep like a baby — waking yourself up every two hours and crying yourself back to sleep.”

He went on to note that the apostles, even after spending a significant amount of time with Jesus, got Him “100% wrong” in rebuking those who brought their children for Him to bless. Surveying those assembled, most of whom were Synod employees, he asked, “Do you think we’ll get Jesus wrong?”

“Oh, yes,” he immediately answered, before reminding them that, despite their own failings and the daily challenges of their respective roles, they can trust that God will bless their efforts and that His purposes will prevail: “We are called to proclaim the Word and let the Word do its business.”

“These vocations that you serve in are challenging,” Harrison continued, before again drawing from the day’s reading — “Unless you become like a little child, you shall never enter the kingdom of heaven” — and from Martin Luther’s last sermon, on Matthew 11: “I thank you, Lord, that you have hidden this from the wise and revealed it to babes.” Luther, he said, was imploring the church to “stick to the simple Gospel … of Jesus Christ and His blood-bought forgiveness. … God grant it to all of us in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

Read more about Varsogea, Bauman and Galchutt.

Posted Aug. 21, 2026