For the Rev. Louis Bloede, the most important thing about a church was the people — not the size or the building or the fundraising.
Bloede, who taught ministerial candidates at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver for 21 years, died Sunday from complications due to Parkinson’s. He was 81.
A service is planned at 4 p.m. July 11 at University Park United Methodist Church, 2180 S. University Blvd.
“Lou said that every Sunday there was someone in the congregation who came to church to hear a message of hope and grace,” said the Rev. Paul Kottke, pastor of University Park and a former student of Bloede’s.
Kottke has given “a fair number of controversial sermons,” such as gay rights, gun control and ethics in politics.
Bloede, who worked at University Park doing visitations after his retirement from Iliff, told Kottke a minister’s job went beyond issues to compassion and grace. Often Bloede would be the one who soothed the ruffled feelings of members who either didn’t like change or didn’t want political and social issues in their sermons.
Bloede taught seminarians theology as well as church management, supervised the “interns” at rural churches and conducted workshops with the Rev. Don Bossart about conflict resolution in congregations.
“He was a kind, caring, peaceful person who was always level- headed,” said Bossart, a retired professor of interpersonal ministries at Iliff.
“He made the students feel cared for,” Bossart said.
Bloede often filled in at churches, helped those who were having disputes and was one of the people deciding where to place interns. Bloede wrote two books about ministering to a local congregation.
Several years ago he spent time in England serving five rural churches. “He did three services on any given Sunday, and one congregation met in a farmhouse,” said his son Kirk Bloede. “He loved it.”
Bloede “wasn’t a guy who was used to hanging around and playing golf,” said his son, who lives in Millbrae, Calif.
Louis Bloede was born in Fond du Lac, Wis., on Aug. 17, 1928, and earned a degree in English at North Central College in Naperville, Ill. He earned his divinity degree at Evangelical Theological Seminary in Naperville and his theology degree from Boston University.
He served congregations in Wisconsin and Massachusetts and taught at Evangelical Theological Seminary from 1965 to 1974, when he came to Iliff.
He married Mary Lou Trautmann in 1955.
In addition to her and his son he is survived by another son, Paul Bloede of Denver.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
