The Lutheran Church of The Savior is truly blessed by the spiritual and pastoral leadership of Reverend Mark R. Oien who accepted a call to our church in 1983.
     Pastor Oien was born and raised in Minnesota; he graduated from St. Cloud State University in 1971 with a degree in Social Science and Business. After his undergraduate work, Pastor Oien entered Concordia Theological Seminary where he received his training in Theology. He received his Master of Divinity in 1975 and also holds a Master of Arts degree in Counseling from the University of Illinois. After his seminary training, he accepted a call to St. Paul Lutheran Church in Cortland, New York, where he served as pastor from 1976 to 1980.
     In 1980, Pastor Oien received a call to serve as a campus pastor at the University of Minnesota in Duluth. After three years serving as a university chaplain, he accepted a call from the Lutheran Church of The Savior in Bedford, MA where he has served since 1983.
     Pastor Oien has been active in the broader work of the Synod as a church consultant, a guest professor at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN, and a chairman of the Church Planting Commission of the New England District of the Missouri Synod.
     Pastor Oien is married to Gwen, a 5^th grade teacher in the public school system. They have three children -- Joshua, Rayna, and Jenny.

     Ernie Weinschenk was born in the Bronx on March 2.1932; baptized on March 27.1932; and confirmed on Palm Sunday 1945 in St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.
     Ernie and his family moved to the Flatbush section of Brooklyn and joined Good Shepherd Lutheran church. During this time he attended Brooklyn Technical High School graduating in 1950 and then attended Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. After completing his second year in college, Ernie joined the U. S. Army during the Korean War and was assigned to the 52 Medical Battalion in Yongdongpo Korea. When he returned home he attended the University of Wisconsin where he met his wife, Jeanette Bramstedt. They were married at the Calvary Lutheran student center in Madison on June 13, 1957.   In February 1958, Ernie graduated with a B.S.in Mechanical Engineering and was employed by AC Spark Plug in Milwaukee where his first two children were born.  He and his family were members at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Mequon Wisconsin.
     Job changes took him to Los Angeles, California where his third child was born.  In August of 1963 he moved to Bedford, Mass. where he and his family became members of the Lutheran Church of The Savior. Within a few years he became a member of the church council and served for over 18 years in various council positions.   He was president of the congregation for 9 ½ years during which time a major building program was started and completed.
     In 1991 he retired from engineering and headed off to Concordia University Wisconsin where he studied to become a Lay Minister.  He was called to be assistant to Pastor Oien of LCS in Bedford in 1992. While fulfilling his job as pastor’s assistant, Ernie helped establish the Central Food Ministry in Lowell, Mass. which now has a building of its own and feeds over one hundred families weekly, distributing 6,000 pounds of food weekly. In 1996 he led the first foreign mission trip to Hungary from the Bedford church. Every summer since, a mission team heads to Hungary to help with construction efforts and Vacation Bible School.  Ernie again retired in 1998 but is still active with many ministries at LCS -- Senior Luncheons, shut-in visits, Central Food Ministry, and Hungary Mission Trips.