St. Paul Lutheran Church, Cortland, NY

Rev. Cory J. Eckstrom serves as Pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church and Christ Lutheran Churches in Cortland and Interlaken, a newly formed dual parish in upstate New York. Cory previously served congregations in Nebraska and Pennsylvania before coming to St. Paul and Christ Lutheran in November of 2008. A graduate student in gerontology, Cory will graduate in 2010 with a graduate specialist certificate in Gerontology from the University of of Nebraska in Omaha. A 2003 graduate of Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska, he earned the Master of Science in Family Life Ministry. His special interests are religious gerontology, aging ministry, addiction cycles, & non-nuclear families dynamics among others. Cory also earned his Masters of Divinity from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, in 1996 and his Bachelor of Arts from Concordia College (now University) in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1992.

In addition to his academic background, Cory has served in several leadership capacities within the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the denomination in which he is a pastor. Pastor Eckstrom has taught as a guest professor at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis in 2004. He has also served

One of Pastor Eckstrom's personal mission statements in life is: "no one is beyond the loving touch of Jesus Christ, their Savior." It is his firm conviction that we should at all times be open to sharing the love of Christ with the lost, especially those in need or hurting. He believes that this heart for the lost is in fact heart of Christ, and indeed then the heart of the heart. When we live connected to our needs and the needs of others, we are also then blessed to be a blessing. Our lives are anchored to the One the Bible calls "the Great Shepherd of the Sheep," Jesus Christ. Cory understands the pain of divorce and the impact it has on people's having gone through this himself. He now, for the time being, serves God as a single person glorifying his Creator. He hope to be a father some day.