W
hat happens at a large, complex
congregation when a long-serving senior pastor and three other key—and also long-serving—staff retire? That’s exactly what Christ Lutheran Church in Balti- more’s Inner Harbor
area is finding out. Christ Lutheran, which averaged more than 560 in worship last year, is responsible for several significant social and educational ministries in the inner city, including a 288-unit apartment complex for seniors, a homeless shelter, a parking garage and a nursery school. That’s in addi- tion to its strong music, Christian education and youth programs. The inner-city church has a his- tory of long senior pastorates, hav- ing had only six in its 130 years. Thus, senior pastor John R. Sabatel- li’s announcement of his proposed retirement after 29 years of service would have been a source of consid- erable concern for the congregation in and of itself.
When Sabatelli announced in early 2010, however, he knew three additional retirements were planned before his own in June 2012. Harold T. “Duke” Fries, associate pastor
Lovell is a freelance writer living in Ellicott City, Md.
PHOTODISC In transition
Baltimore congregation weathers four staff retirements
By Linda Nansteel Lovell
since 2000, was to retire June 30, 2011. The music director, Paul Davis, began as organist at the church in 1965 and would retire near the end of May 2011. Nancy Charitonuk, parish administrator for 34 years, will retire in December 2011. For all these reasons, Sabatelli proposed that the congrega- tional council immediately establish a group to oversee the various aspects of the transition to new leadership. Known as the Transition Task Force, it is composed of members, staff and
council members. It reports to the council’s executive committee. The group has no decision-making power but instead makes recommendations to the council and congregation. Its objective? To provide leadership to the staff transition process to assure that it is healthy, positive and faithful to the mis- sion of the church, the members of the congregation and the staff. For the first year of its two-year assignment, the task force met about every
three weeks, said Ronald Thomas, the group’s co-chair. This is, after all, the congregation’s “biggest transition in its history,” added Paul Erbes, the other co-chair.
One of the task force’s first actions, after consulting with a number of 34 The Lutheran •
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