John William Behnken (March 19, 1884 – February 23, 1968) was the sixth president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) from 1935 to 1962.
Behnken was born on March 19, 1884, in Cypress, Texas, the eldest child of the Rev.
Following George's death, Helen and her three children moved in with her widowed mother for five years, when she remarried.
John Behnken attended Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1903 to 1906, and was ordained on August 12, 1906, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Fedor, Texas.
He then worked as a missionary in Houston, Texas, and in 1908 became pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in that city, serving until 1935.