Philip Kuehnert, was born March 18, 1944, in St. Charles,
MO, the fifth of six children, from an extended family of Lutheran
Pastors - two brothers, father, father-in-law, brother-in-law,
cousin, two uncles, great-grandfather, and both grandfathers.
Pastor
Kuehnert graduated from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in
1969. He received a Master of Arts degree in Christian Education
from the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond,
Virginia in 1970. He completed a year of Clinical Pastoral
Education in 1976. Pastor Kuehnert received a Th.D. in Pastoral
Counseling from the Candler School of Theology, Emory University,
Atlanta, in 1987, and is a fellow in the American Association
of Pastoral Counselors. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor
in the State of Alaska, and serves one day a week (Fridays)
as a Pastoral Counselor at the Samaritan Counseling Center
in Fairbanks.
He
accepted his first call as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church
New Orleans in 1970. In 1976 he accepted the call to serve
as pastor of The Lutheran Church of the Ascension in Atlanta,
Georgia. In 1994 he accepted God's call to be pastor here at
Zion, Fairbanks. He was installed on October 2, 1994.
Pastor
Kuehnert and his wife Judy were married on April 28, 1967.
Judy is a pediatric nurse practitioner currently working at
the Tanana Valley Clinic in Fairbanks. They have four children:
Jill Wright (husband Glenn); Rachel Becke (husband Chris) and children now live in Williamsburg VA
(two grandchildren, Kennedy and Lindsay); Cynthia
(husband Chris – yes, two sons-in-law with the same name!)
of Virginia Beach, Virginia (two grandchildren, Carolina and
Courtney); and Seth, currently in Williamsburg, VA.
While
pastor in Atlanta, he was instrumental in the founding of the
first two Open Arms Lutheran Child Development Centers in 1989
and 1990. At the present there are 35 child development centers
that trace their origin to the Open Arms model. He is president
of the board of the Open Arms Institute which fosters church
planting and church expansion through child care ministries.
