Recommendations From Call Process Committee August 19, 2013
The surveys showed that the top five tasks the church wanted the associate pastor to do were the following:
Preaching and leading worship
Pastoral care and visitation
Youth and family ministry
Children’s ministry
Christian education
The gifts for ministry the congregation thought the associate pastor should have were these:
Be effective working with youth
Be an effective communicator
Be able to share leadership and work in a team
Be effective working with children
Help people develop their spiritual life
Be skilled in planning and leading programs
Be an effective teacher
Build a sense of community among people with whom he/she works
Have a strong commitment and loyalty to the Lutheran church
Provide care and nurture
Deal effectively with conflict
Bring joy and humor to relationships
The sessions on “who are we now?” revealed that the church wants to continue having a warm and welcoming atmosphere, utilizing and integrating the gifts of members. The church wants to be Bible-based, with joyful and meaningful worship, working to involve children, youth, those in middle years and parents in ministry and discipleship, while caring for all ages. The church also wants the pastors to work well together and if possible have a female as one to add that dimension to the overall atmosphere of the church.
Given this information, the committee of four Council members (Nick Schroeder, Lynn Anderson, Sherri Haggenmiller, Tricia Otto), Pastor Doug and Family Life Ministry Director Jessica Thomson present these recommendations:
First Choice—a full time associate pastor with strong interest and ability to minister to children and youth. This person should know what youth and family ministry is and seek to support the strong program that has been developing at Grace. While this may seem like a good place for a youth pastor, the other very strong concern is that the associate pastor needs to be able to preach, lead worship and provide pastoral care and visitation in all the possible circumstances that happen. Therefore, a pastor with ability to minister to all situations is most important, with the strong love and care for children and youth and their families.
Concern—As much as the congregation wanted the associate pastor to be full time and many said they would step up giving to support that, the church was falling behind about $1,000 per month in 2013 in its budget. So, can the church support a full time person? It is also questioned whether we would have any interested in half or three-quarter time.
Second Choice—We proceed with only one pastor but look for lay persons from within the congregation and outside to assist in various areas. These persons would be contracted for duties, time and compensation. This would mean looking for possible candidates to help with pastoral care, visitation, education (Confirmation, Release Time), worshipand children and youth activities such as retreats and mission trips.
Concern—Finding a person or persons to work in these areas may be possible or it may be hard. The difficulty might be in finding a person who would be able to do the pastoral care aspect in regard to deaths, funerals or other tragedies when Pastor Doug is absent. Also, finding a person that would be trained and able to lead Bible studies, Confirmation and be involved with youth on mission trips or retreats may be more difficult.
The Church Council and this committee want to know your thoughts so they can proceed with the next steps one way or another.
Grace Lutheran Church 