The questions members of the Pastoral Call Committee are asked most frequently are, “What in the world is going on” and “why is it taking so long?” Perhaps you were wondering that too. Well here is your authoritative answer.
In January, the Call Committee completed its work on the extensive questionnaires outlining the congregational profile and community profile required by the church for us even to be considered for a new pastor. Dozens of questions required research, drafting, editing and in some cases shrinking our answers to 200 words each. This work is now complete and will be presented to the Congregation Council at its next meeting on February 12. When the Council and the Call Committee have come to an agreement on the answers and finalized the text, it will go to Bishop Kurt Kusserow of our Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod and be made available to the members of the congregation. That should also happen in February. We then have to wait until the Bishop approves our documents. After that he will review the pool of available clergy to find good potential matches for Saint John’s based upon his personal knowledge of Saint John’s and the written material we will have submitted. In addition, the material will be on electronic file at the ELCA headquarters in Chicago for pastors from all over the world interested in new calls to review and potentially contact Bishop Kusserow. The new pastor could theoretically come from anywhere.
Patience is the order of the day. This is not a rapid-fire process in most cases, in part because the pool of available clergy is not huge. (Hint: The seminaries of the church have free tuition and are looking for good students right now.) We want a pastor who is a good fit for Saint John’s, not necessarily the first one to become available. We promise to keep you informed.
