Terry L. Gerdts
Senior Vice President for Gift Planning Services

Terry Gerdts is the Senior Vice President for Gift Planning Services of The LCMS Foundation. In this position, Terry coordinates the gift planning program of the LCMS Foundation. Working with the Foundation’s management team, he integrates the program into the overall mission of the Foundation. Terry has developed goals and standards for the program, including a balance between current income and long-term growth. He is responsibile for the hiring, orientation, professional growth and effectiveness of gift planning counselors and associate gift planning counselors.

Terry was born to an Iowa farm family in 1946, the first of five children. He was baptized and confirmed at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Yorktown, Iowa. He is pictured above doing what he loves to do...helping a couple of God's children plan a gratifying and God-pleasing future.

Terry graduated from Concordia Teachers College, Seward, Nebraska in 1968. His first teaching position was in inner-city Chicago where he served as teacher and principal for five years. While in Chicago he met and married Colleen Douglass.

In 1973, Terry and Colleen moved to the family farm in rural Iowa to raise their family. From 1978-1984, he served as principal and teacher of St. Paul’s School, Yorktown. He was chairman of a new Lutheran school association and instrumental in establishing the LEAF Foundation supporting the new Clarinda Lutheran School. During that time he also worked for the former AAL for four years.

Terry and his family moved to Concordia, Missouri in 1989 where he served the members of the Missouri District as Gift Planning Counselor. He traveled extensively throughout Missouri helping people complete gift plans that share the blessings God entrusted to them. The past two years he was also Stewardship Development Director for the Missouri District.

Terry is a Certified Fund Raising Executive, Association of Lutheran Development Executives member and a senior partner in Concordia Center for Financial Leadership, Mequon, Wisconsin. The center provides leadership training opportunities for professional and lay leaders.

Terry and Colleen have three children and five grandchildren. Chris and his wife Amy live nearby in Concordia with their children, Nathan, Hannah, Micah and Josiah. Becca and her husband the Rev. Ben Mayes live in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Anne and her husband the Rev. Jim Gier and their son Noah live in Excelsior Springs, Missouri.

Send Terry an E-mail message: Terry Gerdts