Rev. Brian Krushel

Pastor Brian Krushel was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba where he lived for the first 23 years of his life. After graduating from high school, he obtained a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Ecology from the University of Manitoba. Soon after, he moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to study at the Lutheran Theological Seminary. After three years of courses and a one-year internship in High River and Okotoks, Alberta, he graduated with a Master of Divinity in May of 1992. Later that same month, he was ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC).

Pastor Brian’s first call was to a small 2-point parish in rural western Manitoba, in the towns of Waldersee and Langruth. After serving there for exactly 40 months, he moved to Thunder Bay, Ontario where he became the English language “mission pastor” at Hilldale Lutheran Church, a congregation of predominantly Finnish-speaking people. After establishing an English language ministry there, he moved to Comox, British Columbia to serve Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, a mission congregation that had been chartered a year prior.

A little over four years later, Pastor Brian moved to Kamloops where he served Hills of Peace Lutheran Church for nearly a decade. Then, accepting call to serve a two-point shared ministry parish (Anglican, Lutheran and United), he began commuting daily from Kamloops to serve churches in the towns of Barriere and Clearwater. In time, he left that call to begin serving Faith Lutheran Church in Kelowna. He has been the pastor at Faith since 1 September 2019.

Pastor Brian’s approach to ministry can best be summarized this way:

“I believe that God is a God of unconditional love and unsurpassed grace. In the person of Jesus Christ, God has been revealed as a personal God concerned with the well-being of all. God seeks us out, creates a relationship with us and gives us the gift of community. By faith we grow in God’s grace to a greater appreciation of our relationship with God and one another. The Gospel calls us to serve in our society according to the gifts and opportunities we are given.
As a pastor and as a church, I/we are called to communicate that love and grace in word and deed to all, but most especially to those of our local communities and those who are most vulnerable. The church needs to be a place where all people can feel safe and comfortable coming with their questions, concerns and experiences to meet this God who loves them.”

Pastor Brian is married and has 4 adult children (2 biological, 2 by marriage) and 2 grandchildren. When he is not working, he enjoys walking, fishing, growing tomatoes on his back deck in the summer and recently got back into a hobby from his youth, keeping an aquarium of freshwater tropical fish. He has been known to bake bread occasionally and fruitcake at Christmas.