About the Bishop
Craig Alan Satterlee is bishop of the North/West Lower Michigan Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He was elected to a six-year term on May 21, 2013 at the synod assembly in Lansing and installed as bishop on September 22, 2013 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Midland, MI.
Craig is also distinguished affiliated professor at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Craig served as the Axel Jacob and Gerda Maria (Swanson) Carlson Professor of Homiletics at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago for thirteen years, Dean of the ACTS Doctor of Ministry in Preaching program for eleven years, and adjunct professor in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame for nine.
Ordained in 1987, Bishop Satterlee served congregations in Upstate New York and Michigan before teaching at LSTC. While a seminary professor, Bishop Satterlee served as interim or consulting pastor in Chicago area congregations. He is known for regularly leading continuing education events throughout the church. Firmly grounded in parish ministry, Bishop Satterlee names as a priority of his ministry preaching and presiding in congregations of the synod as a tangible expression of the unity of the church.
Bishop Satterlee received the B.A. (political science and rhetoric) from the University of Michigan, M.Div. and S.T.M. (pastoral care) from Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, and M.A. and Ph.D. in homiletics and liturgical history from the University of Notre Dame.
Bishop Satterlee is the author of eight books and frequently contributes to both scholarly and ecclesiastical journals. Dr. Satterlee’s scholarly interests include the relationship of preaching and areas of congregational life and mission, including liturgy, spirituality, stewardship, mission, and leadership. He also studies patristic preaching, most notably that of Ambrose of Milan, and the worship of the early church.
As a scholar, Dr. Satterlee is described as belonging “to the relatively small group of working homileticians whose work can justifiably be said to have changed the agenda of the discipline.” His books are “superb examples of practical theology, remaining fully theological while engaging on-the-ground realities in the life of the church.”
Dr. Satterlee is past president of the North American Academy of Liturgy, and a member of Societas Liturgica, Societas Homiletica, and the Academy of Homiletics.
As a person who is legally blind, Dr. Satterlee has a passion for ministry with persons with disabilities and a unique perspective on the Christian faith, church, and world.
