Molly (Juntunen) Weinrich - Kingdom Expansion and Spiritual Formation Pastor
Pastor Molly oversees the development, launch and support of Hope’s satellite congregation ministry, including Lutheran Church of Hope NorthBranch in Ankeny and Hope CityBranch in Des Moines and is the pastoral support for Hope's Spiritual Formation Teams. In addition to being part of Hope’s regular preaching, teaching, and pastoral care team, Pastor Molly also oversees Hope’s growing internship program, and leads teams visioning for other ministry projects that expand Hope outside the walls of the growing West Des Moines campus.

Pastor Molly grew up in northern Minnesota, graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, worked as a youth director, worship leader, and spent two years in mission work with music and ministry teams in Germany, Denmark, and the east African countries of Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya before beginning seminary at Luther Seminary in St. Paul. Molly loves canoeing, camping, biking, playing piano and guitar, traveling, fishing, drinking coffee, listening to "A Prairie Home Companion" on NPR, collecting beat-up woodsy furniture and antique copies of "Little Women," and plans one day to become a bush pilot in Alaska...just for fun.

She and her husband Cory were married in January 2010, which they describe as "one of God's lovliest surprises." After attending college together, they went their separate ways in the world and in ministry for thirteen years, only to reconnect and find out that God's plan for their lives included each other!