About

Pastor Amelia Houdek

Pastor Amelia Houdek is a second career pastor having served the Minneapolis Area Synod and the Northwest Synod of Wisconsin. She has served all sizes of church from the smallest to the exceptionally large, but truly loves the smaller church experience. When asked the question, “If you could do anything else beside being a pastor, what would you do?”, she responds, “Nothing! This is what I was born to do!” Before she was ordained into Word and Sacrament Ministry Pastor Amelia was a microbiologist but found she would rather encourage people to grow in their Christian faith rather than grow microbes in a petri dish.
Chris and Pastor Amelia have been married for 30 years and have two grown children, Xander and Noah, and count their golden retriever, ‘Gibson’, as part of the family. They enjoy spending time together playing games, making good food, and when the weather is nice, boating on the St. Croix. In fact, Pastor Amelia and Chris live mostly on their boat, ‘Holy Ship’, from May through September. Her two favorite places are in the pulpit and on her boat. Oh, and in her bed. Her best hobby is napping!
An interesting fun fact about Pastor Amelia is that she is a 200hr certified yoga instructor and loves to incorporate yoga movement into her prayer practice as a spiritual discipline. The movement with the breath and the thought help her to connect to God in deep and profound ways. She is also an avid reader of literary fiction and what she calls “church books”, plays piano and sings, and landscapes her yard when the weather cooperates. She loves creating welcoming and peaceful places whether that be in her office at church, her home, or her yard.