Pastor Ryan Groh

The Rev. Ryan M. Groh was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on September 21, 1999, to his mother, Elizabeth Groh, and his father, Jeffrey Groh. He was baptized and confirmed at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Moore, Oklahoma.

He attended the preschool and elementary school at St. John’s in Moore, then went on to a local public junior high and high school. He later enrolled at Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska, where he met his beautiful wife, Grace. They were married on April 18, 2020, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Columbia, Missouri. He graduated from Concordia University with a degree in Psychology, having also completed the Pre-Seminary program.

Following graduation, they moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where Pastor Groh attended Concordia Theological Seminary. He did his fieldwork at St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Ohio City, Ohio, and his vicarage at Faith Lutheran Church in Capistrano Beach, California. He graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity and was ordained into the Office of the Holy Ministry on July 12, 2025, at St. John’s Lutheran Church - Schubert in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Help us, O Lord! Behold, we enter
Upon another year today;
In Thee our hopes and thoughts now center,
Renew our courage for the way.
New life, new strength, new happiness,
We ask of Thee – oh, hear and bless!

   TLH 120 “Help Us, O Lord! Behold, We Enter”

Dear Saints,

As we begin a new year, things in our lives may be different – new jobs, new health challenges, new joys, and new struggles. No matter the changes, though – whether good changes or bad – there is One who does not change, One who is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb. 13:8), and that is our Lord. The same God who was faithful in 2025 will be faithful in 2026. 

As the hymn above puts it so eloquently, “In Thee our hopes and thoughts now center, Renew our courage for the way.” It is in God that we place our hope, for St. Paul writes, “Through [Jesus Christ] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace into which we stand, and we rejoice in hope in the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:2-5). We pray that the Lord would ever renew our courage for the way, for the year that lies ahead, that we would be strengthened through His Word and through His Sacraments to walk faithfully in our lives in service to Him. 

May the Lord bless and keep you this year!

Soli Deo Gloria,

Pastor

January 2026