Kevin Cederstrom
Ryan Stout was on his way to a career in the field of genetics when his educational path took a turn to religion, which ultimately led him from Pennsylvania to New York Mills.
Ryan, now the new pastor at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in New York Mills, went to college at Penn State to study genetics. As interesting and potentially lucrative the field of genetics was to him at the time, Ryan says he had always been drawn to religion and history. He figured he'd get his genetics degree, have a career in science, then become a pastor later in life.
By the time he neared the end of college, Ryan says, he realized religion needed to be his first career. He completed a B.A. degree in Easter Religion with a history minor.
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The youngest of six children in his family, Ryan didn't set out to be a pastor but his college studies led him in the direction of seminary.
"To my mother, I said it was like falling in love... you don't have a choice," Ryan says referring to his decision to enter the seminary. "To friends, I told them I was drafted and went kicking and screaming."
There was no real defining moment that pushed him to seminary but Ryan does recall what a pastor once told him as a youth in Pennsylvania. Ryan grew up in a very active church with a great youth group. Somewhat of a troublemaker in junior high and high school, he remembers the pastor at the time telling him: "It's always the loud ones who become pastors."
Perhaps his youth pastor's statement determined Ryan's path to religion.
Ryan went to seminary in Philadelphia, where through his fieldwork, he worked as a trauma bay chaplain in a hospital. This was an eye-opening experience, where some nights he'd see six or seven people die violently.
Ryan says the experience was good for him individually because he really felt he was helping people, and laid the foundation for his career.
Ryan spent one year doing advocacy work with the Pennsylvania State House and in Washington D.C., providing a "voice for the voiceless".
Then, as part of seminary, he moved to Boston for a one-year internship. And that's where he met his future wife, Rachel, also in Boston as a seminary intern. The couple completed their respective internships and Ryan was sent to Philadelphia, while Rachel went to St. Paul.
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They later married and had a son.
The past two years the couple worked in Fargo-Moorhead. Rachel was one of six pastors at a 4,000-person congregation at Trinity Lutheran in Moorhead. Ryan was a pastor at Fargo's Bethany Lutheran, which had about a 2,000-person congregation.
The Fargo-Moorhead jobs were term calls for both Ryan and Rachel, and after two years, St. Peter's hired Ryan to lead the NY?Mills church. Rachel is pastor at Emanuel Lutheran in Wadena.
Although he's only been here two months he feels NY Mills and St. Peter's is the right place for his family, which includes 13-month old son Soren. "This is easily the most welcoming community we've ever been," Ryan says. "The people here are so energetic and so excited."
Ryan is an avid reader and has studied extensively in religion, history and the history of religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. He's got about 4,000 books currently in boxes, and reads mostly non-fiction with a love of history and philosophy. With his scientific background, anything biological interests him. Ryan also describes himself as an amateur meteorologist. This background in science leads to interesting conversations about the intersection of science and religion.
Ryan plans to introduce new programs to St. Peter's, including adult education classes on world religion and a bare bones theology discussion about the Christian church.
Ryan replaces Philip Johnson, who was interim pastor at St. Peter's for almost one year. Prior to that, Steve Dahl was pastor 2002-07.
