Dear People of God of the Southwest California Synod,
May the love and mercy of God continue to surround you during these days and times.
It is my intention to communicate with you at least once a week in this fashion. Last week, after my first communication, a number of you responded with email messages and other communications. Thank you for your words of welcome and encouragement. I will continue to ask for your prayers. I hope you will keep the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; our presiding Bishop, Elizabeth; the Southwest California Synod; and those of us on the SWCA Synod staff in your ongoing prayers.
Bishop Guy, Rob, and Echo were able to leave this past week as planned. It was good to see that they safely arrived in Philadelphia. We trust that many blessings will be showered upon them as they begin their new vocational callings and ministries.
A word about Interim Ministry in this transitional time. In writing about John, the Baptist, all four of the Evangelists reference the prophecy from Isaiah 40 that was fulfilled with the ministry of the forerunner of Jesus.
“A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’”
Forty years ago, several of the senior consultants of the Alban Institute, including Lutheran Pastor Roy Oswald, began to help congregations and judicatories understand that good interim ministry might best happen when it is intentional and transitional. One of the primary goals of intentional interim ministry is to prepare the way for a new chapter of ministry within a community of faith that was experiencing leadership changes or that was at a crossroad in its mission. With Pastor Oswald‘s encouragement and with no intention of ever being an interim minister, I underwent the interim ministry training. ELCA Pastor Paul Svingen was my mentor and instructor; then for a number of years in the 1990’s, it was also my privilege to be an ELCA presence on the Governing Board of the Interim Ministry Network (IMN), headquartered in Baltimore. I was immersed in the benefits of intentional interim ministry and it proved to be very helpful during the next 24 years of my work.
Now today, more than ever, the role of intentional interim ministry for you and for me is on my mind and heart as we work together in this transitional time of the mission and ministry of this synod. This calling is inspired by the ministry of John the Baptist. His prophetic role was to prepare the way for the new day that was coming and always to point to the long-awaited Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Indeed, a new day is coming for the Southwest California Synod. Along with the daily responsibilities of the Office of the Bishop, it is my intention to work side-by-side with you as together we prepare the way to be what God is calling us to be at this time in the life and history of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I look forward to intentional processes. I trust our ministries will be transitional and transformational. May our voices continue to be prophetic, willing to cry out in the wideness and wildernesses of Southern California mission fields. I pray we will all be guided and nurtured day by day with the breath of the Spirit, with the Gospel proclamation of the Holy Word, with the enduring gifts of the Sacraments, and with a grace-filled theology of the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
God bless and keep us all during these holy days of transition,
Bishop Murray D. Finck (Interim)
