Mr. Abbe has spent over twenty years in ministry to middle school and high school youth, guiding them to follow Christ.

Mr. Abbe grew up in Carroll, Iowa, where his family was active in the life of St. Paul's Lutheran Church.  After high school, and a few years in college, he entered the United States Air Force.  During his time in the Air Force, he became actively involved with The Navigators, a para-church ministry focused on one-to-one mentoring and training of believers for evangelism and discipleship.

In 1980, after six years of active duty, Mr. Abbe was honorably discharged from the Air Force, and he began pursuing education for ministry.  He graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies from Miami Christian College, having taken a year out to serve on staff with Campus Life/Youth for Christ in the Miami area.

As a seminarian, Mr. Abbe served in two Lutheran parishes as a “parochial vicar,” working primarily in ministry to youth, including teaching two sections of 7th grade religion.  Before graduating from seminary, he also spent a year teaching religion at a Lutheran high school.

In June 1991, Mr. Abbe graduated from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago with a Master’s degree in Systematic Theology.  He and Marie were married the following week.  They relocated to North Carolina.  Mr. Abbe spent the next year working with a subcontractor at Research Triangle Park while awaiting a “Call” that would keep them close to the Raleigh area for the sake of Mrs. Abbe’s work at IBM.

In August 1992, Mr. Abbe received his first call, to serve as associate pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Raleigh.  He was ordained on August 28 (the Commemoration of St. Augustine), at St. Paul Lutheran in Durham, where he and Marie were then members.

After serving for almost three and half years at Holy Trinity, he received a call to serve as pastor of Resurrection Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kings Mountain.  His first worship service as pastor of Resurrection took place on Ash Wednesday, 1996.

After almost three years at Resurrection, he received a call to serve as Associate Pastor for Youth and Families at Grace Lutheran Church in Raleigh.  Rev. Abbe was installed on the Feast of All Saints, November 1, 1998. 

After serving faithfully for seven years, he resigned his call on December 31, 2005 for reasons of conscience.   He resigned from the clergy roster of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on April 25, 2006 (Feast of St. Mark).

Mr. and Mrs. Abbe were received into full communion in the Roman Catholic Church on September 14, 2006 (Feast of the Exultation of the Cross), by Msgr. John Williams, at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Raleigh, were they have been attending Mass since January 2006.

For a more in-depth account of his faith journey from Lutheran pastor to assistant headmaster at one of the top 50 Catholic schools in America, please see “From Shadows and Symbols” (The Coming Home Network International Newsletter, February 2007).