From The Council President

Friends and Members of All Saints,

Lent is a season of waiting, of repentance, of turning back to God, of anticipation of the new life that Easter will bring. Easter is so important in the Christian life that we have to spend time preparing for it to really appreciate it, which is one of the reasons why we, as of Ash Wednesday, give up coffee, wine, chocolate or other things we love, and perhaps add a new level of devotion, i.e. extra prayer or Bible reading, a higher level of giving to others or some other act of generosity and sharing.

For us at All Saints, we are also in a different season of waiting; that of waiting for a new permanent senior pastor, and perhaps we should think of this era as well as a time when we can repent of hurts we have caused, forgive others who we believe have misbehaved, return to God in a new way, all these in looking ahead to what a new senior pastor will mean to All Saints and how we can make this time strengthen us.

To many of us, this interim/call process has seemed interminably long and disruptive, and to others it has been a time to reflect on how all of this change of pastoral leadership can make us a healthier family. Some of us have sort of stepped aside from commitments wanting to “wait and see” what a new pastor brings, some of us have been sure that all of our problems will go away the minute we hire a new permanent pastor, some of us have found this time freeing and are in no hurry to let it pass too quickly. Some of us have left AS, others of us have renewed our commitment to this branch of the body of Christ; all of us have experienced anxiety over the process, anxiety magnified by the state of SE Michigan’s economy.

The interim process officially began when Pr Mary arrived the week after Easter 2009, not the week Pr Dave left us, and assuming that the rule of thumb for determining the appropriate length of an interim process is about a month for each year of the previous pastor’s tenure, we are pretty much on track. The transition team has already conducted the history and norms events and should have finished up a series of cottage meetings (to which you of course are all invited) by the beginning of May. That event will help us as a congregation to clarify what we envision our church to be and what we most highly value; this in turn should help us see what kind of a pastor we truly want. This will be a casual and fun time, and a very good time for you to give input to the congregational profile on which the call committee will be working, as this final transition team event will segue naturally into the work of the call committee.

Council last week began assembling a call committee, and we expect them to have an organizational meeting within the next few weeks. Pr Cherlyne Beck has already suggested dates when she is available to provide the team with training and orientation, and we will firm up a date soon. They do have some significant work to do before beginning to interview prospective pastors, and I hope that when we identify the members of the call committee you will freely answer the questions that they will be asking in order to complete the “congregational profile.” As mentioned earlier, they will be getting a start on assembling this profile at the upcoming cottage meetings.

Of course when they begin interviewing prospective pastors, the length of time issue becomes a wild card. We don’t want them to accept the first willing, warm body no matter how inappropriate he or she might be to this time and place. Neither do we want them to hold out for some ideal dream pastor.

What can you do to help the call committee do its work efficiently? First of all, you can keep them in your prayers, and if you don’t already, this would be a good time to start praying for that person that God has been preparing for us. Secondly, you can make sure that you know of whom the committee consists, and if they don’t contact you in the congregational profile survey process, contact one of them.

Is the process of replacing a permanent pastor too long? Too short? I don’t know, but I do trust that our synod has developed this interim/call process with the individual churches they serve in mind. Most of us go through very few of these processes, but the leaders of the ELCA have walked hundreds of churches through it, and I trust that they know more than we do.                         

Of course this has been a stressful time for all of us, even those of us comfortable with this change and this process. Our own Herman Markwart in great wisdom cited us as having run into the perfect storm: we extended ourselves financially right before the building market collapsed, the Michigan financial situation became dire, our long term, popular pastor accepted a new call and our representatives at the national synod convention made a controversial decision that drove some families away from the ELCA. In spite of this, we are still standing, and new families still want to join us. I have great faith that the Saints of All Saints will weather this perfect storm and come out the stronger for it. Please continue to pray for all of your leadership.

Blessings
Kathleen M Waligura, council president