Pastor Hackbarth was born and grew up in Milwaukee Wisconsin. He served his country in the Army from 1962-1968. He was an engineer in Milwaukee with an Associates degree in Metallurgy and a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

In 1974 Pastor Hackbarth left Milwaukee with Bev and baby Tim and entered the Seminary at Springfield, Illinois. He served his vicarage in Itasca, Illinois, in 1976. During that year the Springfield Seminary moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Pastor Hackbarth graduated from there in 1978.

Pastor Hackbarth received his Doctorate in counseling from Trinity Evangelical Seminary in 1995. His doctoral paper was entitled "Marriage Counseling: A Study of Various Methods of Counseling and the Development of a Marriage Manual for Good Shepherd Lutheran Church." Pastor Hackbarth has been using his counseling skills in the Kenosha area for many years.

In 1990 Pastor Hackbarth led Good Shepherd in giving birth to a mission Church. Lamb of God Lutheran Church is a daughter congregation in Pleasant Prairie and has grown steadily under the leadership of Pastor John Berg.

Pastor has been active in community government for many years. He is the Chaplain of the Pleasant Prairie Fire and Rescue Department and is the secretary of the Village Plan Commission. He has served on the Parks Commission and as a baseball coach for the Pleasant Prairie baseball league. He has officiated at numerous civic functions such as blessing and dedicating Lake Andrea, blessing many new buildings, fire and rescue equipment, and businesses that have moved into the area.

If there were words to describe the ministry of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church the first words would be "A Faithful people called to love Jesus Christ and serve their neighbor." The second would be "A stable congregation that has grown steadily over the past three decades." The third would be "A collection of God's people who dearly love each other."