Pastor Jepsen originally hails from Green Bay, Wisconsin and remains a loyal Packer fan.  He was ordained in 1976 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Helena, Montana where he served for a little over 3 years as the Assistant/Associate Pastor. Since then, he has spent the majority of his ministry in the Seattle-Tacoma area of Washington State, where he has served several congregations.  He presently serves Living Word Lutheran Church on the South Hill of Puyallup, Washington.

Pastor Jepsen graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. He then went on to Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota where he earned an M.A. degree in biblical studies having written research papers on the eschatology of the Apostle Paul and the Eucharistic Words of Jesus.  He also earned the M. Div degree from Northwestern the year before it merged with Luther Seminary.

Pastor Jepsen later did M. Th. work under the tutelage of the late Gerhard Forde.  The title of his thesis (completed all but the final draft) was: “A Presentation and Comparison of ‘the Primacy of the Word’ as It Appears in the Theologies of Martin Luther and Karl Barth.”
He also went on to do graduate work in pastoral counseling and earned certification as a Pastoral Counselor.

Pastor Jepsen and his wife, Kathryn (“Kitty, my rib”), have three grown children and four grandchildren, with another expected in July.  In addition to their family, they enjoy travel and evening walks & talks together. 

Pastor Jepsen has had several articles published in the journal “Currents in Theology and Mission”, including, an overview of Paul’s letter to the Romans, as well as “Dale Martin's ‘Arsenokoites and Malakos’ Tried and Found Wanting”. In 2008, he had the privilege of being invited to speak at the national Word Alone convention in Golden Valley Minnesota, the text of which may be found at the Word Alone website, along with several other essay/articles. 

Following the highly controversial actions taken at the 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Pr. Jepsen found he could not in conscience remain within the ELCA and at the same time stay true to his ordination vows. His subsequent announcement and stand unfortunately led to a split in his former congregation, the result of which led to the formation of Living Word Lutheran Church in Puyallup, now a member congregation of LCMC. He has been asked to speak on several occasions on this experience as well as on the issues that led to his decision.