Pastor Walker is a passionate Lutheran confessing Christian who has dedicated his life to his congregations. Pastor Walker imbued his youth groups with love for Christ and adventure frequently taking them on primitive explorations of the Canadian boundary waters or on long-distance cycling. He incorporated many of the same Christ centered principals (Word, Fellowship, and Service) that FCBA would later also use. Pastor was an early supporter of Millard and Linda Fuller, renaming our youth group Koinonia in their honor.

Arne M. Walker is a Lutheran pastor (ELCA) who graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College and the Lutheran School of Theology. He started his ministry in 1957 and remains a passionate force in the Lutheran church. In his early ministry, he served parishes in Minnesota, Iowa, New York, and Wisconsin before decades-long durations at Grace Lutheran of Lily Lake (St Charles, IL) and finally at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gatlinburg, TN. Pastor is also the author of two books detailing his years in ministry: Even I Will Learn To Dance and A Trail Less Hiked available at Amazon.

Pastor Walker’s avocation for 59 years has been volunteer work with male teens who had been removed from their homes by the juvenile court. This time also included 20 years of chaplaincy ministry at Illinois Youth Center (St Charles, IL).

He was an early follower and supporter of Millard and Linda Fuller after reading “Love in the Mortar Joints”. He renamed the teen ministry from Luther League to Koinonia in honor of the Fuller’s work in the mid 70’s and coincidentally modelled his church cycling ministry in a manner very similar to Fuller Center Bike Adventure (sleeping on church floors, stringent cost controls, self-supporting, raising funds for greater good).

As a church pastor, he excelled at developing an active youth ministry in which he challenged the youth to interact with the outside world in order to gain better perspective and empathy. This interaction included trips to inner-city churches of Chicago for multi-cultural exchange and worship. He also involved these youth in his ministry at Illinois Youth Center, having them participate in some rather bruising basketball games with the “residents”.

Pastor also shared his love of the great outdoors with his youth. He regularly led trips to the Canadian Boundary Waters and included church foreign exchange students and residents from the Illinois Youth Correction Center. These trips were challenging events in which the crews left on multi-week excursions from the base camp totally self-supported and often involving significant portages hauling canoes and backpacks multiple miles between lakes (the Grand Portage was nine miles).

An even bigger part of his “outdoor ministry” was sharing his love of cycling. Arne started “Bike Hikes” in the late 60’s, designing them after the three Biblical principles for a Christian church: the Word, Fellowship, and Service. Initial church cycling trips started off with a confirmation class riding their bikes 20 miles round trip to the local community pool but rapidly expanded to include trips to Rockford, IL (Loves Park), Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, New York, Tennessee, a circle around the Great Lakes, and even a six week trip to Europe. All told, these cycling trips covered more than 25,000 miles and raised over $50,000 for charities such as Habitat for Humanity. Former President Jimmy Carter honored his cyclists for raising enough money to buy three lots used during a Chicago build day.

This scholarship has been established by members and former members of the Grace Lutheran Church of Lily Lake with love and respect for Pastor Walker. He changed our lives and altered our trajectory for the better…we LOVE you Arne!!