LCMS singles: Finding the Lutheran needle in the haystack

Esther and the Rev. Eli Voigt met through LCMS Connections, an online Lutheran matchmaking site. They married in Sept. 2025. 

By Mary Henrichs, May 11, 2026

“It’s becoming obvious to all of us in the older generation — parents and grandparents — that it is increasingly difficult for young people to meet and connect,” said the Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller, pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church and Jesus Lutheran Church of the Deaf in Austin, TX. Wolfmueller has done significant work sharing Lutheran theology online. Singles in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) looking to find their spouse within the church are often stymied because there are “just very few Lutheran singles that are concentrated in one spot,” he explained.

Many LCMS singles agree with his assessment. Matt Nitsch, 28, a technical support specialist in Sheboygan, Wis., concurred: “If you ask a lot of [young LCMS] people, [they will say] they’re the only person their age from their church.” In Nitsch’s congregation, he says, there are “maybe five people within my age range, and two of them are married to each other.”

With local LCMS dating pools seeming so small, many singles will try dating outside of the church, but without unity in faith, forming a lasting relationship can be difficult: “Certain things … you can debate with your significant other — you may like pasta, but then she doesn’t,” said Matt. “But when it comes to, say, abortion — you want to be aligned.” Marica Turan, a 36-year-old who works in the corporate world near Akron, Ohio, hopes her future husband will share her faith: “[With] Christ in the middle, … everything else falls into place around that.”

‘A great place to start’
Seeing the need to help LCMS singles connect with one another, Wolfmueller and his wife, Keri, stepped in with an unconventional idea: a Lutheran singles cruise. In total, 138 singles ages 21 to 41, each endorsed by their pastor, set sail in August 2024, hoping to find love or, at the very least, enjoy a “vacation with fellow Lutherans,” as Gideon Baldwin put it. As a “baseline,” agreed fellow cruise attendee Terrin Boozikee, “you’re surrounded by people who have common values, which is a great place to start.” She and Gideon, both 29 at the time of the cruise, hit it off during a round of minigolf — which she won — after he helped her by moving a rock that had been blocking her shot’s path.

Read the entire REPORTER article posted on Zion’s website at zlcb.org/singles