Congregation/ pastor matches
MICHAEL D. WATSON/DESIGNPICS
a work in progress F
or several genera- tions, the process for getting a new pastor didn’t change much. A congregation whose pastor retired or moved elsewhere contacted the district or synod office and was given a name or several names of pastors who might be appropriate for the vacancy. After a few months of interviews, a new pastor was on the scene. Seminary graduates looking for their first calls contacted their home synods or districts and were matched with congregations— often smaller churches or those in rural areas—willing to take a newly ordained pastor. Then in a few years that pastor would “move up” to a larger congregation that was better able to pay a sal- ary appropriate for a growing family. People in those smaller or more isolated congregations may have experienced numerous short-term pastorates. But they could be generally confident that a recent seminary graduate would be avail- able to begin his or her ministry with them. All that has changed. The number of those “starter congregations,” smaller places able to support a pastor, has declined, said Allan C. Bjornberg, bishop of the Rocky Mountain Synod and head of the ELCA Conference of Bishops. “What I hear from interns a year away from a call is anxi- ety about ‘Is there going to be a place for me?’ ” he said. “Just five years ago it was a ‘seller’s market’ from a seminar-
Days of quick, smooth calls swept away by several factors
By Charles Austin
Austin is a retired ELCA pastor and a long-time reporter for secular and religious publications.
ian’s perspective,” said Michael Cooper-White, president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.). That is no lon- ger the case. Several factors—some temporary, some long term—impact the
22 20 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
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