Pastor - Rev. Janel Kuester

Pastor Janel Kuester has been serving in a small town-rural congregation on the Minnesota prairie – Christ Lutheran Church in Cottonwood – for six years. She served three other congregations in the Saint Paul Area Synod as an ordained Pastor and one as a lay leader, prior to moving back closer to home. She is a second career pastor with an elementary teaching degree where she taught for several years before moving to adult learners for eight years when she worked at a corporate company offering computer and soft skill training courses. During seminary, she worked at the State of Minnesota Board of Barbers and Cosmetologist Examiner’s office as a Database Project Manager and built her own small HR and Bookkeeping business. Almost every evening, you will find her out taking Prairie Sunset photos and in the summer digging in her perennial and vegetable garden.