The Reverend Dr. Douglas H. Spittel, PALM President
In November, Pastor Brian Westgate announced that he had received a divine call to serve as pastor of St. Paul's Evangelical-Lutheran Church UAC in Kouts, IN (south of Valparaiso). He announced his acceptance of this call on Advent Sunday. His last service at Redeemer, Oakmont was the First Sunday after Epiphany, January 8.
Pastor Westgate has served in the Pittsburgh area since graduation from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, in 2011. He served Faith Lutheran Church in Butler for his first five years in the area and has served Redeemer Oakmont ever since.
During his eleven and a half years, he has served the Church in many different capacities. He has served the English District as the Pittsburgh Circuit Visitor & LWML Zone Counsellor, as the English District Disaster Relief & Human Care Committee Chair, as a member of the English District Worship Committee, and as the organist at the recent English District convention at Concordia University Ann Arbor.
Pastor Westgate has worked tirelessly for the extension of Christ’s Church in the Pittsburgh Region. He served on the Pittsburgh Area Lutheran Ministries Board of Directors as both President and, more recently, Secretary. During his long tenure, he was instrumental in restoring PALM’s 501(c)(3) status with the government and RSO status with the synod. This enabled PALM to establish mission church plants across the region. He was instrumental in chartering St. John's Clarksburg as a parish of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod and has enjoyed watching from afar the mission work both there and at Holy Cross Hazelwood. He has served for several years as the Secretary of the LCMS Pittsburgh Pastoral Conference, helping to plan the conferences and invite speakers from across the Synod. He also serves as the organist for the annual St. Mark's Conference at The Church of Our Saviour in the City of Baltimore.
Pastor Westgate will greatly miss his Redeemer family and our Pittsburgh Lutheran family. He will be missed by the churches and LCMS organizations in Pittsburgh. He plans to take with him what he's learned from Hazelwood, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore to Kouts and put it to good use in that small midwestern town. We give thanks for his many years of service to the churches of Pittsburgh and pray that his ministry in Indiana is blessed and flourishes.
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