Lowell G. Almen was the first secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for twenty years. Previously, he was editor of the Lutheran periodical with the largest circulation of any in North America. He is a graduate of Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, and Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota. He engaged in graduate study at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey and St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota. He is the author of Old Songs for a New Journey, One Great Cloud of Witnesses, and More to the Story: The Legacy and Promise of Lutheran Pension and Benefit Plans. He was co-chair of the Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue in the United States (2005-2020) and coedited the dialogue reports of Round XI, The Hope of Eternal Life, and Round XII, Faithful Teaching.