Concordia Seminary Newsroom
Serving God to the Ends of the Earth
Dr. Cory Rajek and his wife, Jennifer. Photo: Courtesy The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod/Erik M. Lunsford
God uses means outside of us to accomplish His will. For Dr. Cory Rajek that “means” was a hearty breakfast between his father and his childhood pastor.
Age 13 and newly confirmed at the time, Rajek remembers his father coming home one Saturday after the breakfast with important news. “Pastor Hoogland said that he thought you would make a good pastor,” the elder Rajek told his son.
Unconvinced, Rajek wondered whether his pastor said that to all the young men at Faith Lutheran Church in Merrill, Wis.
But that day, that breakfast, became a turning point in Rajek’s life. Nowadays Rajek serves in Rīga, Latvia, as a missionary for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). This summer, he and his family of four will move to St. Louis where he will begin a new position as the executive director for the LCMS Office of International Mission (OIM).
“The Lord uses means outside of us to bring about His will,” Rajek said. “He uses bread and wine, water and the pastor to deliver His forgiveness to His people. And the same can be said of me. It was my pastor who was the driving motivation for me entering the ministry.”
When it came time to consider college, Rajek applied to Concordia University Wisconsin, Mequon (CUW). With the memory of that breakfast conversation planted in his mind, his plan was to enroll in the pre-seminary program and see how it went. Maybe he would become a pastor? He continued on as the Lord guided him to Concordia Seminary,
St. Louis, where he received a Master of Divinity in 2001, and then to his first pastoral call — a dual parish in Iowa.
“The Seminary did a fantastic job training me in Lutheran theology and grounding me in solid Lutheran doctrine,” Rajek said. “Obviously we studied the doctrine of man and what that entails, but even more, the doctrine of justification by grace through faith in Christ.”
That doctrine has helped Rajek understand his own limits and the limits of those he serves. “But even more so, it puts things into context regarding the love of God, which has no limits,” he said. “Being able to share that message in the parish and then now in the mission field, I consider it a true gift to be able to do that. It is a blessing that the Lord has placed me where He has.”
“There’s a great need for missionaries . . . for both laity and pastors on the mission field.”
Dr. Cory Rajek
Rajek often recalls his time at the Seminary and Dr. Norman Nagel’s class on the Office of the Holy Ministry. Professor Nagel, now sainted, told the pastors-in-training that the pastoral call and office were gifts.
“This is the pastor’s calling: It’s Word and Sacrament ministry,” Rajek said. “It’s proclaiming Christ crucified. It’s delivering the gifts of God to His people for the express purpose of the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. And so, in that sense, the pastoral office is really a gift. The Office of the Holy Ministry is bigger than the man occupying it. It’s the office that Christ established, and it’s one of the ways that Christ can be present among His people and deliver His message to His people. It is where He can be the voice from heaven declaring Absolution on His people. This is the gift that God has given to His people.”
In 2022, Rajek and his family moved to Rīga so he could teach at Luther Academy, the seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia, which is a partner church of the LCMS.
Latvia’s history is intimately intertwined with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia. When Latvia gained its independence from the Soviet Union in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the church needed to be reestablished after years of suppression. Atheism and agnosticism were perpetually pushed on the masses.
Before the Soviet occupation, Latvia was primarily a Lutheran country. In fact, the Reformation began just outside of St. Peter’s Church in downtown Rīga in 1522 — just five years after Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the Castle Church doors in Wittenberg, Germany. The Latvian church considers itself the oldest Lutheran church in the world because it signed on to the teachings of the Reformation in that same year.
After the Soviet occupation, Lutheranism remained the country’s largest denomination, yet the number of seminary students dropped to where they were before Communist rule. As a result, the church reached out to the LCMS for help. Rev. James Krikava, the regional director for LCMS Eurasia at the time, talked to some of the bishops of the Latvian church. Together they devised a plan for Luther Academy to offer studies in English in cooperation with the LCMS. The purpose of this new program is to prepare indigenous pastors and church planters who do not have access to seminary training. Currently, the program is comprised of online learning and on-campus intensives, with the long-term goal of shifting to an in-person seminary.
Students enroll from all over the world to learn theology from skilled LCMS professors. Today, Rīga Luther Academy, a recipient of EU accreditation, is the largest Lutheran seminary on the continent.
In 2022, after teaching for a short amount of time there, Rajek was appointed to serve as the LCMS associate regional director for Eurasia. He then became the regional director for Eurasia in January 2023. In this role, he oversaw LCMS international activities in the Eurasia region, including relationships with partner churches, mission activity and church planting.
This past January, Rajek was called to be the executive director for OIM, a position that he will take on more fully this summer after his family returns to the United States. “So much of what I did as the regional director of Eurasia I will now take on as a global scale,” he said. “As the executive director of
the LCMS Office of International Mission I will oversee and assist our regional directors throughout the world and our missionaries to conduct the missio Dei, the mission of God. And that is to make disciples through Word and Sacrament ministry.
“More people need to hear and receive the gifts of God. There’s a great need for missionaries, and I’m not just talking about pastors. There’s a great need for both laity and pastors on the mission field.”
His advice to those who are thinking about becoming a pastor or missionary?
“Pray; look for the signs that God has placed in your life and ask Him to guide you,” Rajek said. “Second, talk to someone: your parents, admissions officers at the Seminary, the LCMS Office of International Mission, or — perhaps start by having breakfast with your pastor!”