Pastor Augie Ristow began his interim ministry Sept. 29 at Trinity Lutheran Church for at least one year.

He succeeds Pastor Tom Daly who answered a call to Fountain of Life Lutheran Church in Sun City.

Ristow is trained as an intentional interim pastor to lead churches at critical times. This is his sixth interim position, ranging from the state of Washington to Texas and southern California during a decade of serving as an intentional interim pastor.

He said he is part of the process of a church coming to terms with its identity, rebuilding church systems, connecting with the greater church body, and determining its vision and mission.

While serving as an interim pastor at various locations, he and his wife, Victoria, live in their traveling RV motor home. Their home is in Las Vegas. They are the parents of five adult children.

Born in Milwaukee, at the age of 12 he had the call to serve God. He graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran High School and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary.

Ristow’s ministry has been varied. He served a small church in the Sandhills of Nebraska, the inner city of Detroit, and southwest.

He has specialized in prison and hospital ministry, taught at Lutheran high schools and was a chaplain to a youth organization.

He has written two books on God’s love, “Agape, the Forgotten Teaching of Jesus” and “Agape, a Scholarly Study of the Word, a New Theology and its Reintroduction to the Church.”

He is the author of The Agape Plan that is used to help the interim church develop better Christians.