Pastor Craig Minich

Photo by Vince Donovan

On Sunday, February 18, 2001 Craig Minich was ordained as Pastor of Youth Ministries for the Oakland-Berkeley Lutheran Youth Program. Pastor Minich was called by three Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) congregations — St. Paul Lutheran, Oakland, United Lutheran, Oakland, and University Lutheran Chapel, Berkeley.

Pr. Minich is a 1999 graduate of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California. Pr. Minich established the Oakland- Berkeley Youth Ministry in 1999 and served as a lay director until his ordination. The program has changed over the past decade of its existence, adding a church, losing a church, and even experiencing a name change. The East Bay Lutheran Youth Program (EBLYP) serves youth and families from five East Bay congregations and provides pastoral care and ministry opportunities for children pre-elementary through college age.

Pr. Minich attended Lenoir Rhyne College in Hickory, NC and graduated in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree, double majoring in Philosophy with an emphasis in existentialism and English Literature with an emphasis on 20th Century drama. Interestingly, he was baptized as an adult at his college chapel April 15th, 1993, just two months before he graduated from LRC, and his freshly forming faith was impacted greatly by two summers as camp counselor at Lutheridge Summer Camp in Arden, NC. It was there that he felt God's call and honed his passion for youth ministry.

In addition to the Master of Divinity degree from PLTS in 1999, he also took a Master of Arts in Ethics, his thesis "Healing Self, Healing Identity: The Ethics of 'Right Relationship with Self, Other, and God in the Face of Affliction" passing "with honors."

Other ministry opportunities has found Pr. Minich serving on the Sierra Pacific Synod Youth Committee (SPSYC) for the past 9 years, 6 of those as District C adult representative, and the last 3 as adult chair. Most recently in July 2010, he co-led a group of 25 adults and youth on the SPSYC for their annual training immersion - this year in Rwanda in Africa. The SPSYC is working on deepening partnerships with Lutheran Church in Rwanda and is excited to invite Rwanda youth next year to Northern California to the mirror image of our experience this year.

Pr. Minich would like to thank all the members of the Extraordinary Candidacy Project, Lutheran & Lesbian Gay Ministries, and Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries who helped create the infrastructure and support necessary to make extraordinary ordinations feasible and possible. He would also like to acknowledge all the members of the East Bay Lutheran Parish who created a structure to multi-point ministries in the city.

Pr. Minich live in San Carlos with his partner of 7 years, Bruce Baker. He loves to snow board, attend concerts, and make movies.