Thursday, October 27 – The Call Committee has completed its first task of finalizing the answers on MLC’s Ministry Site Profile, and having it approved by the Congregation’s Church Council of Representatives.
MLC Members can view MLC’s Ministry Site Profile on the password Church Documents page of mlutheran.org. If you are a member and do not know how to access this page, please call the church office.
The finished MSP represents the diligent work of MLC’s Transition Team who over the course of the year completed a large part of the draft MSP based on the Congregation’s input (MSP surveys, questionnaires, round tables, and town halls). They also gathered data like church and community demographics, attendance figures, and catalogued MLC activities.
The Call Committee’s review and final completion of the MSP ensures that it reflects and speaks in clear language who MLC is as a Cngregation and how we see our future with our next called Pastor. This step also helps inform and prepare the Call Committee for evaluating pastor candidates. Assistant to the Bishop Pr. Jonathan Hemphill also reviewed the final MSP prior to it being uploaded to the ELCA-wide database.
What happens now that the MSP is uploaded to ELCA-wide is very fluid. Bishop Kevin Strickland gave a terrific description of the process that follows during his visit to MLC on October 16, 2022. You can view a recording of it below.
Once the Call Committee receives the 4-6 names of potential candidates from the Bishop’s office, the Call Committee will conduct initial interviews of the candidates and then more in-depth interviews of the promising candidate(s) as the process continues. Note that while the Call Committee will eventually put forward a pastoral candidate for consideration, that candidate must first interview with the Church Council, then meet the Congregation at a “Meet and Greet” to give everyone a chance to engage with them. The pastoral candidate can only be approved through a majority vote of the Congregation following these steps.
Since a prospective pastor candidate may be actively serving a Congregation, the names of the prospective pastors during the interview phase of this process are kept highly confidential – known only to the Bishop’s office and the Call Committee.”
Please continue to pray for and trust in every person involved in the process so that the outcome of this interim period ends with the right next Pastor for MLC. We are in step three in the ELCA’s four-step call process.
~ MLC Call Committee: Chairperson: Peter Woods, Secretary: Reburta Spinas, Dana Burton, Kari Pitchko, Justin Walker, Joanne Weber
Pastoral Transition Resources: