Why this book? Though John Stough is widely considered the Father of Lutheranism in Ohio, this is the first time a book has been written about his life and ministry. It is also the first time that his full original autobiography has been published in "his own voice". It is a fitting tribute to a man who established innumberable congregations in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, who brought into the ministry and tutored many of the early Lutheran pastors on the frontier, and who is the primary figure in establishing the first Lutheran synod in Ohio. The patriarch of Lutheranism in this country, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, once described the kind of person who would be able to rescue the church on the frontier. He said such a person should be willing to work hard to learn the basics of theology under the tutelage of other pastors and should have "a heart that loves the savior of the world and his sheep and lambs". These words certainly describe John Stough.
Why this book? Though John Stough is widely considered the Father of Lutheranism in Ohio, this is the first time a book has been written about his life and ministry. It is also the first time that his full original autobiography has been published in "his own voice". It is a fitting tribute to a man who established innumberable congregations in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, who brought into the ministry and tutored many of the early Lutheran pastors on the frontier, and who is the primary figure in establishing the first Lutheran synod in Ohio. The patriarch of Lutheranism in this country, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, once described the kind of person who would be able to rescue the church on the frontier. He said such a person should be willing to work hard to learn the basics of theology under the tutelage of other pastors and should have "a heart that loves the savior of the world and his sheep and lambs". These words certainly describe John Stough.
