Author, Quick To Listen, Christopher Scott “Topher” Doerr

Born in Cudahy, July 30, 1973, as the youngest of four sons of Mr. & Mrs. Neil & Elaine (nee Babotan) Doerr, my family attended Resurrection Ev. Luth. Church in Milwaukee, where I was baptized into God’s family on August 26th of that same year. My dad was a City of Milwaukee police officer. My mom was a registered nurse at Mt. Sinai Hospital downtown. I attended Lutheran grade schools, then Wisconsin Lutheran High School, then Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. My parents and two of my older brothers still live in the Milwaukee area. My oldest brother, Tim, was killed in a car accident and went to heaven in 2013.

From little on up, my parents sent me for a week each summer to Son-Shine Camp, first at the White Sox Camp on the east side of Lake Winnebago, then at Camp Phillip in Wautoma, Wisconsin. As a high schooler, I volunteered there on the Junior Staff. Then, starting in 1992, I worked there for 6 summers on the paid staff, with the nickname “Topher.” It was the daily exposure to God’s Word at Camp Phillip that finally got through to me that “Pastors don’t make enough money” was a poor excuse for not studying to be a pastor. So, after graduating with a theater major from Wabash in the spring of ’94, in the summer of ’94 I met my future wife, who was just starting on the paid staff at Camp Phillip, and then in the fall of ’94 I started learning Hebrew and Greek at Northwestern. In ’95 Northwestern College moved to New Ulm, Minnesota, so I moved, too, attending Martin Luther College in its first year of existence, and serving as a freshman RA.

My wife Carrie is the second of five children of Pastor & Mrs. Tom & Carol (nee Molkentin) Knickelbein. Carrie grew up in Kekoskee, Wisconsin, until seventh grade, when her dad took a call to Ann Arbor, Michigan. She graduated valedictorian from Michigan Lutheran Seminary, and went to college in New Ulm. She taught for 2 years at Bethany Lutheran School in Manitowoc. Carrie’s parents now live in West Allis: her dad retired in 2018 after 25 years as pastor at Good Shepherd’s Ev. Luth. Church in West Allis. Her mom also taught kindergarten there many years.

Carrie and I were married in Milwaukee, August 9, 1998, just before heading to Martin Luther Ev. Luth. Church in Neenah where I vicared. Graduating from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 2000, I was called to be pastor of Grace Ev. Luth. Church in Waupun. A few weeks after arriving in Waupun, our first of 7 sons was born. They are Elisha (currently a sophomore at Harvard), Jonas (a freshman at Gustavus Adolphus), Benjamin (a junior at Wisconsin Lutheran High School), Thomas (grade 8), Simon (grade 6), Micah (grade 2), and Ezra (1.5 years old). God has also given us 2 daughters. Our older daughter, Evangeline, has been in heaven for 9 years now. She was born with a sickness called Trisomy-18, and we got to enjoy her with us for 39 days. Our younger, Galilee, is 4 years old. Carrie has been homeschooling the younger boys since Elisha was in first grade.

After pastoring in Waupun for 14 years, I served for 4 years as the Broader Reach Editor at our synod’s Northwestern Publishing House. My main responsibility was to dream up ideas for Christian books for people who don’t “speak Lutheran,” and then to find authors and help them write those books. Quick to Listen was one of my projects there.

Now for 2 years I have been blessed to serve as Pastor of Garden Homes Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI. It has been a wonderful experience and the Christians here have such a beautiful, loving faith.

We live near American Family Field and love following the Brewers, although we miss the days when they had $1 Uecker seats. Some of my other pastimes are volunteering at Camp Phillip, singing, playing cards and board games with family, bike-riding, planning family vacations, and trying to be funny.