Pastor's Biography

Pastor José A. González, known as Abe, was born in El Espino, Nicaragua, a village bordering the country of Honduras. He and his family moved to the town of Condega where he attended elementary school. After finishing elementary school, he and his family moved to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, where he attended high school. He graduated from the Cristobal high school in November of 1978. This same year Pastor Abe moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, where he attended Fox Valley Technical Institute where he took intensive English classes for six months. In the fall of 1979, Pastor Abe enrolled at Carthage College and graduated in 1982 with a major in History and a minor in Spanish.

 In 1986 Pastor Abe received his Master of Divinity degree from Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. His first call was to Hauge-Esperanza Lutheran Church in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. In 1990, Pastor Abe took a call to St. John’s Lutheran Church in Bluff Springs, Illinois. During his time in bluff Springs, Pastor Abe aided the Central-Southern Illinois Synod in establishing an outreach chaplaincy program to aid migrant farmworkers in the area.

Pastor Abe and his family moved to Greeley, Colorado in 1995 to begin Hispanic outreach in Northern Colorado for the Rocky Mountain Synod. Immanuel Lutheran Church called Pastor Abe in 2001 to serve as our Pastor. Pastor Abe is active in the Greeley community. Over the years he has served as a volunteer chaplain at Northern Colorado Medical Center, occasional Habitat for Humanity volunteer, and currently serves as president of Greeley Interfaith Association.

Pastor Abe is committed to leading the church in global service. He has led frequent mission trips to his home county of Nicaragua and has served as a consultant for other groups leading mission trips to Central America. Pastor Abe was a founding member of SSKIDS (Simple Suppers for Kids in Desperate Situations), a local grassroots organization dedicated to raising funds for “bricks-and-mortar” projects to aid kids around the world.

Pastor Abe is married to Pam who is also an ELCA Pastor and now works as a psychotherapist in the area. They enjoy a 21 year marriage and are blessed with two children: Miriam, age 18 and Martin, age 14.