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Members of St. Mark’s,
I’m writing to update you as chair of St. Mark’s call committee. Our current call committee has been serving since 2018. For two years we were tasked with calling an associate pastor, then reassigned to call a senior pastor after Pastor Bates’ retirement in the spring of 2020. The ELCA call process only allows us to interview and consider candidates that the synod first screens and nominates to us to consider. In four years, the synod has provided only four candidates that we have been able to interview. Two were associate pastor candidates and two were senior pastor candidates. In each case, we declined to move forward with one candidate, and one candidate chose to pursue a call at a different church instead.
Although the numbers change frequently, the synod has told me within the last week that there are currently 13 churches in our synod actively in the call process, and 9 more that are without a pastor and about to enter the process. Of the churches in our synod currently in the call process and awaiting a nominee, forty percent, including St. Mark’s, have been waiting for less than 4 years. Sixty percent have been waiting for 4 years or more. We have been blessed to have Pastor Westphal’s service as our interim pastor, but our congregation rightly desires to see more momentum toward securing permanent pastoral leadership.
Recently, our committee unanimously decided to bring a new proposal to St. Mark’s church council. In recent months, call committee member Paul Mauschbaugh has worked with former council president Dean Heffta to meet and interview pastors and lay leaders from the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ or LCMC. The LCMC is an affiliation of Lutheran churches, including about 30 in Illinois, 785 in the United States, and almost 1,000 worldwide. Most of these pastors and churches are from the ELCA tradition. The organization requires adherence to the Lutheran Large and Small Catechism, the Augsburg Confession, and the creeds. But they have formed their own association to allow more control and autonomy in the hands of the local church rather than a synod or a denominational organization, including in the call process. Churches in their association are free to contact, recruit, screen, and interview any Lutheran pastors in the LCMC association. The Pastoral Ministries Coordinator for the LCMC informed Paul and Dean that the LCMC would allow St. Mark’s to join their association and access their call process, without any action on our part to leave the ELCA.
This weekend, the call committee requested that the council call a congregational meeting on May 22 for the congregation to decide whether we should associate with the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, without taking action to leave the ELCA, in order to expand our ability to identify pastoral candidates. We understand that the synod does not approve of this proposal and that they may even choose not to allow us to remain in the ELCA if we choose this path, but we believe we need to be able to more proactively identify and pursue candidates for our pastoral vacancies.
The council approved our request and scheduled a congregational meeting on May 22 to vote on this issue. This decision was approved by all council members present, with the exception of Pastor Westphal, who dissented.
You will be receiving additional information by letter and email with dates for informational meetings, where information will be presented on behalf of the LCMC and the synod in advance of the congregational meeting. You can find more information about the LCMC at their website, www.lcmc.net.
I want to express to you how much our committee loves St. Mark’s. This is not a decision we entered into lightly. In John chapter 21, the Bible tells us that the disciples were fishing all night without success. Jesus told his disciples, “Throw out your nets on the other side of the boat and you will find some.” Our call committee believes that we are being called to throw out our nets on the other side of the boat. I know that many of you are frustrated by this long process, but please stay in the boat with us as we throw out our nets on the other side. We ask for your prayers for our team, for our church, for our next senior pastor, and for your prayerful consideration of this proposal.
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