The Rev. Randall Weinkauf and his wife, Nancy, are now at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 2104 Bob Billings Parkway, after serving in Hawaii.

A new wing is being constructed on the north side of Immanuel Lutheran Church, 2104 Bob Billings Parkway.

If there’s one thing Randall Weinkauf has learned since moving to Kansas just days ago, it’s to make sure he’s a basketball fan.

“I think when you move to Kansas, the answer is yes,” he says, suggesting that one cannot move here and not love the sport. “And if you are not (a fan), then you will be soon.”

The second thing he learned? He needs more than one sweater.

After 12 years living in warmer climates, including recent stints in Guam and Hawaii, Weinkauf has found his perfect job, as Pastor Randy at Immanuel Lutheran Church and University Student Center, 2104 Bob Billings Parkway. But during his first official day on the job, he was freezing. And that was on Monday — the warmest day this week. Good thing he’s got a sense of humor to keep him warm.

“I don’t take myself seriously,” says Weinkauf, who warns he’s a jokester behind the pulpit. “Everything is Christ-centered, but everything else … really doesn’t matter. You don’t take it that seriously.

“I think God put us here to also enjoy this world. If we’re not, then that’s our fault.”

Back on the mainland

Pastor Randy, as he’d like to be known, got in town just last Wednesday after spending more than a decade off the mainland. Sure, he came back to visit once a year, but he didn’t plan on making it back to the continental U.S. again until hearing the call to come to Lawrence. When he heard the call, he was two years in to a ministry on the big island of Hawaii, in the city of Hilo. He had had offers to come to other places on the mainland, including Sonoma, Calif., and Hannibal, Mo., but there was just something about Lawrence.

“I’ve had other offers since we’ve been in Hawaii, but this is the offer that wouldn’t let us alone,” Weinkauf says. “There was something about it just really nudging at us that it’s time for you to go back and this is very different than what we were doing.”

Immanuel Lutheran, which had been looking for a pastor for three years, fulfilled a need that after 27 years as a pastor, Weinkauf, 56, felt hadn’t been met: A need to try new types of ministry and work. Immanuel Lutheran has nearly three times the number of parishioners as his church back in Hilo. Moreover, it has an active campus ministry, led by the Rev. Alan Estby, a preschool and a 9,600-square foot recreational addition nearing the halfway mark that, in 2007, was estimated to cost about $1.5 million to build.

“I’ve done this for 27 years, and this is now the largest congregation. It’s in the middle of a major building program with major debt. The preschool, we have a full-time campus pastor as well,” he says. “A lot of new areas of ministry that I hadn’t done before, or if I had I hadn’t been exposed to that great a degree.”

Despite not being in the continental United States much in the past decade, Weinkauf is familiar with Lawrence. During his most recent stint in the Midwest, he was a pastor in Rolla, Mo., with sons active in track and field. His oldest had a few meets in Lawrence and the family made the trek to the Kansas side. Now a grandfather of five, Lawrence’s location meant more than just a fine place for a track meet: It was central his family, spread all across the Midwest. His wife, Nancy, who gave up her job as church secretary in Hilo to move to Lawrence, is happy just to be a grandma for a while.

“I’ve never had grandkids in my home,” she says. “I have five of them, and I’m looking forward to having family come.”

Back on course

Of course, moving back to the mainland has been a big switch. First there was the matter of getting all of the family belongings to Lawrence. They moved in with just the modern essentials — air mattress, TV, computer and clothes. They bought a patio table just to have somewhere to sit.

In fact, Weinkauf’s office has more furniture in it than his home. Among the furnishings: A brand new desk, chairs, ottoman and a beautiful picture of Hilo. One can almost feel the warmth jump off the page and mingle with the building’s artificial heat.

But the Weinkaufs are happy to be in this chilly, basketball-crazed corner of Kansas, watching over 600 parishioners.

“I’m looking forward to the ministry here. There’s a lot to learn about the church that we don’t know,” Nancy Weinkauf says. “Learning … 600 souls. We won’t just learn them, we will get to learn other people outside, in the community and hopefully bring more people into the church.”