Deacon Emma Janzen grew up just outside of Pheonix, Arizona. She attended California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California where she majored in English. She attended seminary at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, where she got her first experience of all four seasons! As a seminarian, Emma served as an intern in Portage, Michigan. Deacon Emma was called to serve as Director of Youth Ministries at Resurrection in 2025 and was ordained as a Minister of Word and Service May 3rd, 2025. 

Emma is driven to bear witness to God’s love in action throughout the world. She loves the ways in which young people discover their understanding of faith and how God is calling them to be in the world! Verses that speak to her sense of call are Job 12:7-9, “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you, and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?”