Pastor Ken Ranos

Pastor Ranos, a life-long Lutheran who grew up on the far southeast side of Chicago, graduated in 2008 from Capital University, a university of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in Columbus, Ohio, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and religion. He graduated in 2014 from Trinity Lutheran Seminary, an ELCA seminary also in Columbus, with a Master of Divinity degree. Since his ordination into the ELCA’s Ministry of Word and Sacrament in 2014, he has served as pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Three Lakes, Wisconsin.

Susan Powell, Precentor

Susan is a graduate student at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana. She knew she wanted to be a church choir director before she finished high school. She graduated from St. Olaf College with a Bachelor of Music in organ and church music. She is passionate about her vocation as a “leader of congregational song” and also loves performing and composition.

Prior to starting grad school and joining the staff at Bethlehem, she was a home-schooling mom and free-lance musician. She and her husband Mike (a fellow St. Olaf graduate and a fellow organist) have three young children, Jacob, Meredith, and Joshua. Susan is an avid reader and an amateur writer. She also enjoys cooking, gardening, yoga, running, and travel.