Dr. Waldemar “Wally” Meyer is a third-generation Lutheran pastor who came to Christ Our Redeemer in June 1999. He was born in Ft. Worth, Tex., and raised in St. Louis and Albuquerque, N.M. He received his bachelor's degree from Concordia College in Ft. Wayne, Ind., received his Master of Divinity at Christ Seminary (Seminex) in St. Louis, and earned his doctorate from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. His doctoral thesis was titled Church and School: Two Organizations Functioning as One to Enhance Mutual Ministry. He was ordained in 1977 in Apopka, Fla., and has served congregations in Apopka, Deerfield Beach and Pensacola.

Pastor Meyer has served in various capacities in Synod. Currently he is one of two Synod Advocates in the ELCA Book of Faith initiative and serves on the Synod Leadership Steering Committee. A baritone with a love for music, he plays the organ, piano, accordion and banjo. Together with other musicians in the congregation he has provided music for the Americana or bluegrass services at COR since 2005.

Pastor Meyer also has developed extensive partnerships with Lutheran churches in Germany. Fluent in German, he has regularly traveled to the country to engage in continuing education and lead seminars on preaching. He has also supervised four vicars from Germany since 1994 and currently serves the Florida-Bahamas Synod as Interim Director of German Ministries. More recently he has also studied Spanish and preached his first sermon in that language in fall 2006.

Pastor Meyer is married to Geneva, a special education teacher, and has four children: Rachel married to Colin, Laura, Stephen married to Karlyn, and Johanna. The Meyers have one grandson, Louis Forman, born in September 2007.