Rev. Mark Barz has accepted the call to serve the Concordia Seminary, St. Louis community as campus chaplain beginning August 2025. He will be formally installed Aug. 22, 2025, during the Opening Service of the 2025-26 academic year.

Barz succeeds the service of Rev. Paul Sieveking, who retired May 31, 2024, and Rev. Dan Gilbert, who is currently serving as interim campus chaplain.

“We are grateful that the Lord is providing Rev. Barz as the campus chaplain for our Seminary community. He has many years of pastoral wisdom and experience; he is a biblical, Christ-centered preacher; and he has particular gifts and expertise in pastoral care,” said Seminary President Dr. Thomas J. Egger.  “He loves Concordia Seminary and the work that is done here in forming future servants of the Word, and he will be a faithful shepherd for our students and staff.”

Barz brings a breadth of pastoral experience to the role.

Since 1987, Barz has served as the senior pastor at Crown of Life Evangelical Lutheran Church in San Antonio, Texas. From 1978-87, he was the assistant pastor at Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church in Saginaw, Mich. He has served the broader church in a variety of ways, including as a writer for many publications, including The Lutheran Witness, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Youth Ministry resources, Lutherans For Life and Concordia Pulpit Resources.

In addition, he has served as a doctrinal reviewer for Concordia Publishing House (2002-09); as a Post-Seminary Applied Learning and Support (PALS) program facilitator (2005-14); and, since 2013, as a DOXOLOGY Chaplain and Collegium Fellow. He was elected Area C Vice President of the LCMS Texas District in June 2012, a position that he held until 2021. 

Barz graduated from Concordia College in Ann Arbor, Mich., now known as Concordia University, Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1978, with majors in history, religion and Greek. In 1982, he graduated from Concordia Seminary with a Master of Divinity (M.Div.).

“I am both humbled and honored to receive and to accept this call to serve as the next campus chaplain,” said Barz. “My prayer is that the Lord of the church will use me to care for the souls of those gathered at Concordia Seminary to study, to be formed, to teach, to lead, to serve and to worship.”

Barz is married to Connie Marie. Together they have four adult children and a growing family of grandchildren. 

About Concordia Seminary

Concordia Seminary, St. Louis provides Gospel-centered graduate-level theological education for pastors, missionaries, deaconesses, scholars and other leaders in the name of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). To learn more, visit csl.edu.