Pastor Matthew Moldstad is a fourth-generation pastor from the Mankato area. He was baptized at Bethel Lutheran in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, confirmed at Mt. Olive Lutheran in Mankato, attended high school at Minnesota Valley Lutheran in New Ulm, and went to college at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato. In 2002, he joined the United States Navy and graduated from the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, in 2003. From 2004 to 2006, he was stationed as a Hebrew Linguist at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia. He returned to Bethany in 2006, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts and a Master of Divinity degree at Bethany Lutheran Theological Seminary.
Pastor Moldstad vicared under Pastor Herb Huhnerkoch in Kissimmee, Florida, in 2011. (Interestingly, Pastor Hartwig and Pastor Moldstad are the only vicars to serve under Pastor Huhnerkoch.) He was installed and ordained as pastor of Peace Evangelical Lutheran in Kissimmee, Florida, on January 1, 2012. He served as pastor there from January 2012 to May 2017. He has been serving as a pastor at Peace Evangelical Lutheran in North Mankato since June 2017.
Pastor Moldstad married Joni Dukleth, his college sweetheart, in 2004. Joni is from Luverne, Minnesota, and is the daughter of the late Pastor John Dukleth. The Moldstads have five children.
