Warners return to the west

By: 
Ron Burtz

Although he grew up in Montana and spent the last five years serving as a missionary in Spain, Custer’s newest pastor says the Black Hills feel like home. Pastor David Warner was installed as the minister of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church of Custer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Church of Hill City Jan. 10.

Warner and his wife, Shelee, say they are glad to return to parish life after their busy years in Europe serving with Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) International Missions. They are also glad to be close to their son and daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in Rapid City. 

Montana-born and raised near Forsyth, Warner attended the University of Idaho in Moscow where he met Shelee who had grown up in Washington and Idaho. After graduation, the couple was married in 1988 after which Warner served seven years active duty as a Marine Corps officer. That career took the Warners to Virginia, California and Spain. During that time he was also deployed to the Middle East during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

The Warners’ son, Jeremy, was born at the base in 29 Palms, Calif., and their daughter, Madeline, was born in Rota, Spain.

Following Warner’s military service, the family lived in Pennsylvania where David worked for a trucking company and Shelee began volunteering and later working for a crisis pregnancy center. 

The turn of the new century in 2000 brought another career change and another move for the Warners when he entered Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind. Following graduation the Warners moved to Billings, Mont., for his vicarage experience, after which he was ordained and installed at a two-point parish in Sidney and Fairview, Mont.

There, Shelee continued her pro-life work, eventually serving as director of Sunrise Pregnancy Clinic in Sidney. 

The call to serve with the LCMS Office of International Mission as a church planter in Spain came in 2014. The couple lived in Seville and Cartagena and served members scattered in over 20 cities. 

With his mission field scattered across a country the size of California, Warner did a great deal of road time, which left little time for rest or travel to the rest of Europe, but he says it was a rewarding experience as they saw the number of church members nearly double and the pastoral group grow from just one to six pastors.

While it was hard to leave behind so many close relationships built over the years, last year the couple decided to leave the mission field and return to the States to be near their children and grandchildren.

Returning to the U.S. in October, they lived in their son’s basement for several months and received pastoral calls from both a church in Wisconsin and Custer/Hill City.

Warner says the Wisconsin call was tempting because it involved Hispanic outreach in which he would be able to continue to use his Spanish. He was on the verge of accepting it when the call came from the Custer/Hill City parish.

Having logged so many miles commuting between congregations in Spain, Warner said splitting his time between Hill City and Custer won’t be a problem.

On Sundays, Warner will lead an 8:15 a.m. worship service in Hill City, then travel to Custer for worship at 10 a.m., followed by a Bible study at 11:15.

On Thursdays he will be in Hill City for a Bible study in the afternoon and currently is leading a Lenten service there at 6:30 p.m. Lenten services at Our Redeemer are at 7 p.m. Wednesdays.

The Warners are living in an apartment in Custer as they await construction of a new home in Hill City. They hope to be able to move in by September.

Warner replaces Rev. Eric Obermann who left in the fall of 2019. He says the church has fared well with interim pastors in spite of the coronavirus pandemic. The Custer church had always recorded sermons for distribution later but during the pandemic they started live-streaming the services each week.

Warner estimates the church is still about a third down in attendance and he will actively work over the next few months to bring congregants back into the church building for worship.

With regard to COVID-19, Warner says he experienced a bit of “reverse culture shock” in returning to the States last fall, as Spain has a great many COVID restrictions and locked down severely again in late November.

He says to come to South Dakota, “which is kind of the complete opposite end of the spectrum,” was a bit of a shock, but a good one. 

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