LIFT Board Meeting
On Sunday I attended my first LIFT Board meeting at St. John's. Joined Maureen for the representation from Grace. Main business was the agenda for the full LIFT Board which is this Sunday, 12:30 pm at St. John's.
Council/Transition Team Workshop
Thanks to all who attended the Council/Transition Team Workshop on Monday night. I know that some attend these meetings after a full day of work, so your dedication to Grace is impressive and commendable. The documents I distributed at the meeting are linked below:
- Stages and Tasks of Interim Ministry
This chart describes visually (1) the Stages (linear in time) of the interim from Termination of your previous pastor to Startup of your newly called pastor and (2) The Tasks of interim ministry, referred to as "Self Study," and is also called "The Work of the Congregation." There are five Tasks (also called Focus Points) that are attended to during the interim time, facilitated by the Transition Team (see link to Focus Points below) - The Work of the Congregation During the Interim Period: Focus Points
This one page document provides brief descriptions of the Five Focus Points (new term) or Developmental Tasks (older term) which should be the work of the congregation during the Interim Time. Note that the end result is to provide an answer to the question: “Who are we?”, “What is God calling us to do?” and “Who are our neighbors?” - The ELCA -- Serving the Gospel for Tomorrow
This essay by Dr. Timothy Wengert, professor emeritus at United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia, is the piece that I began but was able to only begin. Dr. Wengert speaks in this essay of three areas which must shape our future as a church (congregation, synod, ELCA): the commitment to the Bible, the centrality of worship, and the witness of the gospel as shaped by our Lutheran Confessions, primarily the Augsburg Confession. This essay is quite long, but I'd encourage you to spend some time reading and studing it, as it provides some clear direction for the ELCA, and for our local congregations, especially those in transition. - Congregational Resource Tream (CRT) brochure
I had made copies of this brochure, but forgot to distribute them at the workshop. This brochure describes the work of the CRT in our synod, which leads a series of workshops developed the the Healthy Congregations organization, and helps congregations to see themselves as emotional systesm. This was the main theme of Dr. Peter Steinke's talk in the video that we viewed at the workshop. The synod recommends that all congregation going through the interim process participate in at least Workshop #1. It's a four hour workshop usually done on a Saturday morning. We did this at St. John's Bellevue with Pr. Rob Johnson from Toledo as our leader. It was very well received by the council there.
Care Center Visits
I made my first care center visit on Sunday, stopping at Valley View on the way out of town on US6. It was a rather laborious registration system of answering health questions and getting a QR code which I took a picture of with my phone. It will be easier for subsequent visits as all I'll have to do now is display the photo of this QR to their scanner, which also takes my temp (98.3 on Sunday!) and clears me for visiting. I was able to visit and offer Holy Communion to Geri S., Carol K. and Kathy S. Masks are still required in the hallways and in semi-private rooms, but can be removed if you are alone with a resident either in their room or in a community space.
Bishop Daniel's latest email
You can read it HERE.
Local Lutheran Pastor Elevated to National Leadership
Twenty years ago, Trinity Lutheran, one of our then sister ELCA congregations in Monroeville, was at a crossroads. Attendance and membership had dwindled to perilous levels, and they had talked about closing, because they could only afford a half-time pastor. A new Trinity Seminary graduate, Amy Little, accepted the half-time call to Trinity. After several years, Pr. Amy had grown the congregation in numbers and giving to the level they could afford to provide her full-time compensation. Pastor Amy continued to grow the ministry at Trinity, and proved that the right leader can help to transform the climate of a congregation.
In 2011, Trinity withdrew from the ELCA and joined the newly formed North American Lutheran Church, or NALC, formed primarily from their disagreement with the ELCA on matters of sexuality. As a pastor in the NALC, Pastor Amy has served as the submissions editor for Sola Publishing, and on various NALC committees. She has recently accepted a call to serve as General Secretary, which is the chief operating officer of the NALC, managing its day-to-day administrative functions.
For many years, along with other area Lutheran pastors, I worked with Pastor Amy, even after she left the ELCA, to provide summer camp experiences for our congregations' confirmation youth. We were neighbors in faith and ministry, and physical neighbors, too. During my years in Norwalk, we lived across the street and down a few houses from each other on Liberty Street. You can read more about Pastor Amy and her new call HERE.
First Transition Team Meeting Scheduled
Members of the Grace Transition Team caucused at the end of the Council workshop Monday night and scheduled their first meeting for Thursday, July 22 at 4:30 pm. A Transition Team normally meets about twice a month for as many months it takes to complete their work. Transition Team members are:
- Ed Muffler
- Beth Muffler
- Peggy Kiser
- Jean Dupey
- Becky Seibert
- Mike Amor
- Larry McElfresh
VBS Meeting Finalizes Plans for "To Mars and Beyond"
On Wednesday, Heather and I joined Pastor Paul, Tricia from Hayes UMC, and Sue from St. John's to finalize the plans for our LIFT sponsored VBS, "To Mars and Beyond." The VBS will be held from 6:00 - 7:30 on Monday through Wednesday, July 26 -28. To register Pre-K through Grade 6 kids, or yourself as a volunteer, go HERE.
Conversation with Sherry Krieger
On Tuesday, I had a Zoom conversation with Sherry Krieger, the NWOS Director of Leadership Development for Congregational Care. Bishop Daniel knew that I had some questions about Maureen's authority to preside over Holy Communion at Grace now that I have arrived as interim pastor. Specifically, I was wondering if Maureen's authorization to preside at Holy Communion extended to services for which I would not be present. This would include funerals for which the family requests Holy Communion, Saturday services, where normally only one pastor is present, and weekends during which I would not be present because of vacation or attending continuing education. The answer to that question is "yes". The only limit on Maureen's authority to preside over Holy Communion at Grace is when both of us are serving as leaders of a worship service, in which case I would be the one always to preside. The instructive paragraph of the ELCA docment The Use of the Means of Grace is on page 45:
In witness that this sacrament is a celebration of the Church, serving its unity, an ordained minister presides in the service of Holy Communion and proclaims the Great Thanksgiving . Where it is not possible for an extended period of time to provide ordained pastoral leadership, a synodical bishop may authorize a properly trained lay person to preside for a specified period of time and in a given location only.
Sherry also indicated that Maureen's authority to celebrate Holy Communion extends to all the LIFT congregations, if no other ordained pastor is present at that service. This is good to know, in that in our LIFT meetings we are considering a program of rotation of pastors, possibly on a 5th Sunday, so that all members of the LIFT parish are exposed to all the pastors in the parish.
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