Langer Construction has continued to build its religious portfolio over the past 80 years. Today, 100 % of Langer’ s clients are faith-based organizations— churches, private education, and nonprofits.
Russ Zellmer President & Co-owner Langer Construction
BUILDING CONFIDENCE
Josh
Schultz Vice President & Co-owner Langer Construction
St. Gabriel Before
Langer Construction has continued to build its religious portfolio over the past 80 years. Today, 100 % of Langer’ s clients are faith-based organizations— churches, private education, and nonprofits.
Founded in 1946, Langer Construction has been family-led and relationally driven since the beginning. Today is no exception; co-owners Russ Zellmer, President, and Josh Schultz, Vice President, comprise its third cycle of leadership. Zellmer started as an intern at Langer in 1996. Schultz, meanwhile, is the fifth member of his family to work for the business and has been with the firm since 2016.“ Over eight decades, turnover is minimal and tenure is long,” Schultz says. And while such stability is undoubtedly important, maybe more crucial is the company’ s consistently customer-focused approach to every project. It has been a defining characteristic since inception, from Langer’ s industrial beginnings to the current faith-based projects that are Langer’ s primary focus moving into the future. According to Zellmer and Schultz, every church client has a few things in common, regardless of denomination or size. First, many are heading up a building project for the first time. Second, accordingly, they place a premium on financial sensibility while meeting the needs of their community.“ Decades ago, we found a niche with people who own and occupy their buildings. These customers are looking for long-term solutions starting with their design-build team,” Zellmer explains.“ We are now working almost exclusively with Christian organizations. We have found that we can bring significant value to customers through our complete project leadership from initial idea to project completion.” As Zellmer points out, in contrast to collaborating with corporate figureheads, a church-designated leadership team represents a larger community comprised of people who are heavily invested, personally, in the project.“ This place is their home,” Zellmer shares.“ It’ s where they worship and grow. We have an entire community relying on the success of the project.”
AT-A-GLANCE: Langer Construction
1946— Founded by Louis Langer 1951— Began general contracting 1955— First religious project 1971— First design-build project 1990— Tom Langer succeeds his father as president 1996— Russ Zellmer joins Langer as an intern 2016— Josh Schultz comes onboard as Director of
Business Development 2020 – Russ and Josh complete buyout and begin third cycle of leadership 2026— Celebrates 80 years in business
18 CHURCH EXECUTIVE | JAN / FEB 2026