Phone: 254-986-2607
FAX: 254-986-1478
Email: pastor@stpaulthegrove.org
© 2015 St. Paul Lutheran Church • 220 The Grove Road • Gatesville, Texas 76528 • The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod
Called Staff
Pastor John Heckmann
Support Staff
Church Plant Pastor - Rev. Ryan Pennington
Retired Pastors - Rev. Dr. Alan Abel, Rev. Dick Greenthaner, Rev. Dr. Will Sohns
Secretary - Debra Heckmann
Organist - Miriam Winkler
Sound Technicians - Jr. Boriack, Chad Burrow, Stan Dake, Greg McFerrin
Cleaner - Mellissa Boswell
Groundskeeper - Janell Winkler
Rev. John Heckmann was born in Orange, Texas, but spent most of his youth and young adult years in Houston, Texas. He attended Concordia College in Austin, Texas; transferring then to Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska. His seminary years were spent at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri; with a year of Vicarage spent at Faith Lutheran Church in Eustis, Florida. Pastor Heckmann met his wife, Debra, at Concordia, Seward. He was ordained by his father at Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Houston in 1985 and was then installed at St. John Lutheran Church in Kramer, Nebraska where he served the first 18 years of his ministry. It was in Kramer that he and Debra were blessed with their three children. Rev. Heckmann and his family moved to The Grove in 2003. He has served the LWML as National Pastoral Counselor and as District Pastoral Counselor for the Nebraska South and the Texas Districts. Pastor Heckmann also serves the ladies of the Sunshine Zone LWML as their Pastoral Counselor, and the congregations of Circuit 17 as their Circuit Visitor.