Matthew C. Harrison

Thirteenth President of the Missouri Synod: 2010-

Born: 14 March 1962, Sioux City, Iowa

Matthew Harrison attended Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa, graduating in 1984. He is a 1989 graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, Indiana, obtaining his M.Div. degree in that year. He also obtained his S.T.M. degree from his alma mater in 1991, and has received honorary doctoral degrees from Concordia University, Ann Arbor, Michigan (LL.D.) and Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, Indiana (D.D.)

After his ordination in 1991, Harrison served as pastor at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Westgate, Iowa, until 1995; at Zion Lutheran Church, Ft. Wayne, Indiana, 1995-2001; and as assistant pastor at Village Lutheran Church, Ladue, Missouri from 2010 to the present.

Harrison was a missionary to Native Canadians for the Lutheran Association of Missionaries and Pilots (LAMP) from 1983 to 1984. He was a graduate assistant at Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, Indiana from 1990 to 1991 and served on the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod’s (LCMS) Board of Missions from 1993 to 1995. He has also served on the LCMS’s District Task Force on Rural Ministry from 1993 to 1995 and the Synod’s Nominations Committee from 1994 to 1995.

Harrison has also served as the co-founder of St. Peter’s/Zion Project for Neighborhood Renewal from 1995 to 2001, he served as a board member for Project Renew (Neighborworks Housing from 1995 to 2001, has served on the Ft. Wayne Urban League Building Committee for a year in 1999, served from 2001 to 2010 on the LCMS President’s Church Relations Cabinet concerning Catholic/Lutheran Dialogue and also served on the Lutheran Services in America Board for Lutheran World Relief.

From 2001 until his election as LCMS president, Harrison served the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod as the Executive Director of World Relief and Human Care (2001-2010) as well as the founding president of the National Lutheran Housing Support Corporation (2004-2010).

He was elected as president of the 2.6-million-member Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in July 2010 and installed into office on 8 September 2010. He was re-elected in 2013, 2016, and 2019.

Harrison and his wife, Kathy, have two grown children.

Harrison is the author of Why Am I Joy- Fully Lutheran? (CPH, 2018); Remember the Poor (CPH, 2018); Closed Communion (CPH, 2017); The Journal Articles of Herman Sasse (New Reformation Publications, 2016); Church Order for Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (CPH, 2015); Letters to Lutheran Pastors (CPH, 2013); Church and Office (CPH, 2012); A Little Book on Joy (Lutheran Legacy, 2009); At Home in the House of My Fathers (Lutheran Legacy, 2009 and CPH, 2010); Christ Have Mercy (CPH, 2008); Meditations on Divine Mercy (CPH, 2003); and Sacred Meditations (CTS Press, 1991). He wrote a number of pamphlets for World Relief and Human Care while he was the Executive Director.

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