Hanschen, Karl
Are you looking for someone open God’s Word for your community? Are you looking for someone shaped by walking with God through life’s storms? Are you looking for someone firmly grounded in orthodox, evangelical theology? Are you looking for pulpit supply or a retreat speaker? Then let me introduce myself. My name is Karl Hanschen, and I would love to have a conversation with you.
At 38 years old, I’ve already seen a lot in life. I’ve walked through the death of loved-one, the near death of a child, a layoff, unemployment, a failed business venture, medical challenges. I’ve had seasons of being away from my family for days to even weeks at a time. I have been married to my wife Rayna for almost 11 years, and together we have two kids, ages 6 and 3. To give you a sense for what life is like in my household, we have four redheads–five, if you include the dog–and three of them are firstborns. Enough said.
Most recently, I was the Interim Pastor for Gardens Community Church (Houston, TX). There I preached a 10-week series from 1 Peter. Audio recordings of those messages are available at karlhanschen.com/message-archive.
[Karl] preached an excellent series on 1 Peter. His expository preaching exhibited diligent study and attention to the context, culture, and language. Equally pleasing is his pure pastor’s heart and obvious love for God, the Bible and the congregation. – Marilyn Sharp, Interim Pastor Search Committee, Gardens Community Church (Houston, TX)
Prior to serving as an interim, I was the Executive Pastor at a 1300-person church in north Texas. I was ordained by Austin Ridge Bible Church (Austin, TX) in 2012 and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Dallas Theological Seminary in 2014 with a ThM (Masters of Theology).
My preaching style is clear, authentic, relevant, and expository. I find it hard to step into the pulpit to lead spiritually without having first submitted myself to God’s Word. Consequently what God is doing in me as a result of the passage at hand is often a part of my message. Furthermore it is my desire to connect with both Christ-followers and non-Christ-followers when I open up the text.
While style is important in pulpit supply, even more so is substance. My theology could be characterized as classically/historically orthodox and soteriologically reformed. It’s evangelical and 4-point Calvinistic. It’s premillennial, mildly dispensational, and mild-to-moderately cessationist. But my main goal is to be a man of the Word and to preach Jesus and the Gospel, not to preach the the views of one camp or another for the sake of that camp. (And if you don’t know what all those terms are, don’t worry. They are technical theological terms that are highly, highly unlikely likely to appear in one of my sermons.)
Presently, I live in Austin, TX, but I will gladly travel to wherever your church is so long as my travel expenses (mileage or airfare, and if necessary, lodging and meals) are reimbursed. I also ask for an honorarium for my pulpit supply services, an honorarium that varies based on church size and number of services.
For information about me, my theology, my philosophy of preaching, preaching samples, etc., please visit my portfolio at karlhanschen.com. If I can be of service to you and your church, I would love to connect and talk further. Please contact me through karlhanschen.com/speaking-requests.
