Pastor

Rev. Chad Schopp has taken a winding road in life which led him eventually to Wisconsin. He joined the US Army at the age of 17 and served 22 years in the Army in both the Active and Reserve Components. He had several jobs including tank mechanic, combat engineer and Infantryman, working his way up through NCO to Officer. He served two tours in Iraq as an Infantry officer (’04-’05 and ’08) and retired in 2013.

During his first enlistment he met his wife, Tami, who was in the Air Force at the time and way out of his league. They have two grown children, Chris and Jeremy, who are both Infantrymen and veterans of Afghanistan. In 2018 they expanded their family with the adoption of Brayden, who was age 10. He keeps them both young and busy.

He graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology. He worked as a geologist for the USGS, the US Forest Service and for Stillwater Mining Company in an underground platinum-palladium mine. Although he is no longer employed as a scientist, he is still a huge nerd with a disturbing affinity for spreadsheets.

While working at the mine, he started delving deeper into theology and eventually chucked everything to attend Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He graduated with a Masters of Divinity in 2013 and was ordained that summer. He planted and served a mission congregation in Montana for six years and has served St. John and Bethlehem since 2019. He was not raised a Lutheran (or much of anything) and so he is fiercely committed to our Confessional Lutheran doctrine and practice, which he painstakingly discovered as an adult. 

When not serving his flock, he likes backpacking, hunting and Scuba diving. He makes a decent fettucine Alfredo and is a bit of a beer snob. His unrealistic goal in life is to be worthy of the wonderful woman God graciously gave him.