Krikava named regional director for Eurasia

On Nov. 10, the Rev. James A. Krikava was appointed regional director for Eurasia with the LCMS Office of International Mission (OIM).

Krikava

Based in Prague, Czech Republic, he had been the OIM’s associate regional director for Eurasia since June 2014.

“Pastor Krikava brings a rich background to this position, with experience as a solid pastor, mission planter, educator and visionary leader,” said OIM Executive Director Rev. John Fale. “He is committed to implementing our six mission priorities in a manner that is faithful to Scripture and our confession of the faith as Lutherans. Pastor Krikava is a strong and vocal advocate for missionaries who serve in the field as well as our partner churches. We are blessed to have Jim on staff in this capacity.”

The OIM’s Eurasia region stretches from Greenland to eastern Siberia and includes Europe (except for Spain), the Middle East and western and northern Asian countries.

“I am honored to serve the Lutheran church in this new capacity and will do my best to help the vast Eurasia region with all its workers and missionaries to further our outreach with the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost,” Krikava told Reporter.

“In this region in particular we have many partner Lutheran church bodies which also request our help, especially in the area of theological education. This will be a special focus of ours,” he said, “as many of our mission-church pulpits have been filled with indigenous pastors. But they themselves still want continuing education so that they and their congregations may grow and mature in our common Lutheran faith and identity.”

Before becoming an LCMS clergyman through colloquy in mid-2014, Krikava was a pastor and missionary in the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS). For several months before being colloquized, he was interim pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, an LCMS congregation in Randolph, N.J.

Before that, he was pastor of an ELS congregation in Brewster, Mass., where he and his wife, Peggy, maintain a home. They have three grown children and eight grandchildren.

Krikava served 16 years (1990-2006) as a missionary in the Czech Republic, where he established numerous church initiatives and congregations and a small church body after the fall of Communism there. He also set up an organization for translating into Czech and publishing many of Martin Luther’s works and other confessional Lutheran writings.

He received a bachelor’s degree in music education in 1976 from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Divinity degree from Bethany Lutheran Theological Seminary in Mankato, Minn., in 1983. He taught religion and music at Bethany Lutheran College, Mankato (1980-84), and remains an accomplished musician.

Krikava was instrumental in forming Trinity Lutheran Press in 1986.

He currently also serves as a regional teaching fellow to Europe for Luther Academy, an independent Lutheran theological institute.

Posted Nov. 24, 2015