I have appreciated Don Brandt’s wisdom and leadership in Lutheran renewal through the years, and I welcomed his article in last month’s CORE Voice. He accurately diagnoses the biggest single problem that runs through all of our Lutheran denominations in North America — our desperate shortage of pastors. And I almost agree with his proposed solution.

Don points out that even when we had more than enough pastors, there were not nearly enough willing to serve in smaller rural and inner-city settings. He notes that these congregations became training locations for pastors who would move on in a few years to a larger church. This does not provide the stability of leadership a congregation needs to be effective in mission and outreach.

I would add that in our time even larger congregations are having difficulty finding ordained pastors. In my North American Lutheran Church, we were told at our pastors’ convocation that some congregations have had profiles posted for a year or more but have received zero interest from pastoral candidates. The ELCA synod I had been a part of recently notified its congregations that because 40% of its churches lack either a called or interim pastor, they no longer have enough supply pastors or authorized lay leaders to provide leadership for these congregations every Sunday.

As an NALC dean, I tell congregations that the total cost of having a pastor (not just the compensation) will approach or involve six figures. Many pastors now serving “full-time” can only do so because their spouses provide insurances and other benefits. Retirements are outpacing ordinations. I don’t think we in the NALC are alone in these challenges.

So far Don and I are on the same page. And I fully agree that what we have been doing is not going to provide the pastors we need to lead our congregations in mission in the 21st century. Not only do we not have people who are in a position to take three or four years out of their lives to pursue MDiv degrees (even online), but many of our congregations cannot afford the salaries required to cover living expenses plus student loan debt (which can easily amount to $50,000 for seminary alone and at least as much for college).

My quibbles with Don are two-fold.

First, and probably minor, he repeats the common misconception that Luther taught something called “the priesthood of all believers.” For all that we have heard this repeated from lecterns and pulpits, Luther taught no such thing. It is actually a 19th Century Calvinist concept. Luther did teach a wonderful understanding of Christian vocation (see the oldie but goodie by Gustav Wingren, Luther on Vocation, Muhlenberg Press, 1957). Whereas the medieval church taught that church vocations were “religious” but others were not, Luther understood that all Christians exercise our Baptism in the world as we love God by serving our neighbors, and that we do so through our variety of callings. These grow out of the Fourth Commandment that establishes the orders and structures of society. Thereby all legitimate callings can be “religious,” as long as Christians engage in them out of love for God and neighbor.

Luther also taught that because the bishops refused to ordain pastors for the churches of the Reformation, the princes and magistrates should claim the authority of their Baptism and ordain pastors to serve these churches. This was not a free-for-all. Luther called on legitimate authorities to meet the need, and to do so by ordaining pastors to serve these congregations. More on that later.

In the Augsburg Confession, Article V makes it clear that the “Holy Ministry” is of divine origin, and that it consists in preaching the Gospel and administering the sacraments. Article XIV insists that nobody is permitted to preach or teach publicly in the churches or administer the sacraments without a “proper call” (rite vocatus in Latin, which in the context means “ordained”). The sad reality is that none of our Lutheran church bodies are observing Article XIV today.

As I see it, the problem is the professionalization of the clergy, which took hold in the 1950’s as pastors wanted to have the social status of lawyers, doctors, and others. The Bachelor of Divinity degree was changed to a Masters of Divinity with absolutely no change in the program (a similar thing happened to law degrees), and spiritual qualifications for ministry were largely replaced by academic ones.

It didn’t help that the primary requirement to teach in our seminaries was to have an earned PhD degree and not vital parish ministry experience. And with few exceptions PhD degrees could only be secured in religion departments of secular universities, which had no accountability to the “faith once delivered to the saints.”

Don proposes that the solution is to have lay-led congregations. My counter-proposal is that we ordain those people in congregations who have the gifts and call for ministry, which includes seeking realistic and reasonable ways to equip them to serve faithfully as pastors to God’s people in those places.

Ordination historically is not an academic certification. It involves the Body of Christ discerning God’s call on a person, and then gathering to lay hands on that person and pray for them to receive the gifts they need to serve God’s people faithfully. Does this communicate some sort of “indelible character”? I do not believe that ordination makes a person spiritually superior or gives them some special powers, but neither dare I say that these prayers are inconsequential. Paul called on Timothy to “stir into flame” the gift he had received through the laying on of hands (2 Timothy 1:6).

I am not arguing for dumb pastors (although the smart-aleck in me might wonder whether the academic captivity of the churches has alleviated this concern). We were ordaining pastors in North American Lutheranism for 125 years before we had a seminary. Their training and preparation was through mentorship. There is no reason we couldn’t have more than one clergy roster, or that we could not establish a system of ongoing mentoring for those unable to pursue the academic track.

I wish we could fill all our pulpits with faithful pastors formed by four-year residential programs in our seminaries. But as is so often the case, the perfect can be the enemy of the good. We need pastors in many of our congregations right now, not ten or fifteen years from now, and simply working harder at what has not been working fits the classic definition of insanity, if we imagine the results will be any different.

To return to Luther: I believe on the basis of the Augsburg Confession that all God’s people deserve and need to be fed with the Word and the Sacraments from properly ordained persons, and that the most important single task of any church judicatory is to provide such pastors for all its congregations. If the judicatory insists on procedures that effectively starve the people in congregations spiritually by denying them Word and Sacrament, perhaps the congregation should adopt Luther’s example and, after prayerful discernment and conversation, ordain people within their own fellowship to serve them. I view this as Luther viewed his proposal for the princes and magistrates to ordain as a “last resort” sort of option, and I am sure judicatory officials will not be pleased if congregations take matters into their own hands. The solution is for the officials to find creative ways to feed the lambs of our Lord’s flock with the Bread of Life. I suspect that here Don and I come very, very close to agreeing. Such a congregation needs to be prepared to accept discipline from their judicatories. [Here is where LCMC with its contract pastors offers a viable option, although I believe they need policies in place to protect people from abusive clergy.]

God has established the Holy Ministry of Word and Sacrament, and He has given us the task of determining how to structure and organize it in this time and place. The structuring of the Office of the Ministry has changed many times throughout history, and needs to change today. I fully agree with Don that what we are doing has not served us well for many decades and will become an even greater problem as time passes.

The answer is to re-evaluate how we discern that God has called a person to Holy Ministry. Once we make that discernment, after prayer and serious conversation, the solution is to ordain the person. St. Peter would not be acceptable as a pastor in most of our Lutheran churches today. We need to look at God’s call and gifts and not merely at academic degrees to determine whom God has chosen to preach the Gospel and administer the sacraments in our congregations.

To all decision-makers in our church bodies, our Lord says: “Feed my sheep.”

As CiT Director I have been in a coaching relationship—since 2019—with a large number of call committees.  I have now provided at least some level of assistance to twenty-five different call committees; all of them in the LCMC.  In addition, I have also been monitoring, online, how an additional twelve to fifteen call committees have been conducting their search for a new pastor.  Given what I have learned, I want to offer examples of the more common mistakes sometimes made when a call committee is looking for their next pastor.

     However, before mentioning these “mistakes”, it is important to acknowledge how incredibly difficult it is—in 2022—to identify and call the “right” pastor.  (Let alone making the mistake of looking for the “perfect” pastor.)  As just about all of you know by now, given the shortage of available clergy it is a far better time to be a pastor looking for a call than be on a call committee looking for a pastor.  Accordingly, it is not my intention to criticize call committees but rather to offer some practical advice as to how to conduct a pastoral search in such a challenging environment.  And just how challenging is it?  Well just in case you are one of a diminishing number of people who doubts the extent of the current clergy supply shortage, consider these four factors that have created something of a “perfect storm” when it comes to this crisis.  First, there is the issue of retiring Boomer pastors; something which all of us are aware of.  Next, we have the matter of far fewer seminary graduates than we have retiring pastors.  Third, there is the reality that there have been many congregations who have been negatively impacted by the pandemic; whether by decreased in-person worship attendance or internal conflict.  And fourth, if all of the above wasn’t challenging enough, we are also experiencing a significant national decline in the number of Americans who identify as Christians.

     This last challenge—of a dwindling number of Americans who identify as Christians—was revealed in dramatic fashion just this last September.  I found this revelation written in Timothy Dalrymple’s “From the President” column in the September issue of Christianity Today.  He shared the results of a survey by the Barna organization.  According to this study the percentage of Americans who are “practicing Christians” plummeted between 2009 and 2020.  “Practicing Christians”, in this case, means they “prioritize their faith” and have attended church within the previous month.  In 2009 50% of respondents fit this description.  In 2020 only 25%! 

     Needless to say, all of the above adds to the difficulties that churches in general, and congregations “in transition” in particular, are facing.  But having said that, below are some of the more common errors that only add to a call committee’s challenges.  In other words, these are unnecessary errors that can be easily avoided.

1. Not keeping prayer as a central and crucial part of your meetings as a call committee.  When a search process has been prolonged and discouraging, group prayer is sometimes missing from call committee agendas.  This is a time when prayer is more needed than ever.  And not just a cursory prayer by one member of the committee is needed, but a time of prayer when any and all members can participate; sharing not only their hopes but also their concerns.

2. Not creating a well-written open-position post for your LCMC or NALC vacancy list.  I have become somewhat obsessed with monitoring—daily—the LCMC “Open Positions” list.  And I have been doing this now for three years!  (I know, a retiree with too much time on his hands.)  In those three years I have seen some posts which were thrown together and—compared to the majority of posts—were totally inadequate.  Here is the simple rule: When creating your position description, look at the vacancies already posted and learn from them regarding how to create the best possible description of your position, your congregation, and your surrounding community.

3. Not keeping your congregation up-to-date regarding your work and progress as a call committee. You should have brief, verbal Sunday-morning reports once every four to six weeks, and a brief article in every congregational newsletter.  Let the members know you have been working!

4. Too quickly assuming you can “get by” with supply preachers over an extended period of time. Some call committees, at the beginning of their search, casually dismiss their need for an interim pastor.  Instead, assuming that they will find their next “permanent” pastor within a few months, they decide occasional supply preachers will suffice to maintain their congregational ministry.  This can be a serious mistake; especially if your vacancy remains unfilled for a year or more.  (Which, more often than not, is the case in 2022.) The one bright side of many competent, retiring Boomer pastors is that some of them are open to part-time or full-time work as interim pastors for congregations in transition.

5. Organizing too large a call committee.  Two problems with this: The larger your call committee, the more difficult it is to achieve a unanimous decision regarding the candidates you are considering.  Also, the larger the committee the more awkward and ineffective initial online interviews become.  I believe the ideal size for a call committee is between four and six members.

6. Not having a quality congregational website up and running when you begin your search. Prospective applicants, more often than not, expect you to have a website.  If you don’t, they might feel they have too little information to make it worth their time to apply for your position.

7. Not conduct an informal, online background check before deciding to interview an applicant online.  I have sometimes been enlisted by a call committee after they have already interviewed applicants that I, and my other call committees have ruled out as even remotely viable candidates.  This is especially important for LCMC congregations, because the LCMC has not vetted most of the individuals listed on their clergy roster. 

8. If you are a multiple-pastoral-staff congregation, not seriously considering your Associate Pastor for your Lead Pastor call.  Given the current national shortage of pastors open to a new call, it would be a mistake to automatically rule out an associate pastor who is already loved and accepted by your congregation.  

9. “Settling” and calling the wrong pastor when you already employ—or know of—a competent interim pastor who is available to serve your congregation.

10. Finally, allowing your search process to drag on beyond 18 to 24 months when you have one or two members qualified and willing to be trained to serve and lead your congregation as part-time lay ministers.

Allow me to conclude by explaining #10 above.  I am convinced that bi-vocational or retired congregational members will, increasingly, be “called on” (pun intended) to serve in pastoral ministry roles.  I also believe that this will often be a healthy and positive development, not just a sign of desperation due to a congregation’s inability to find and call a new ordained pastor.  Too many churches, in the coming years, will simply close their doors because they can’t find an ordained pastor.  Tragically, some of these churches will have one or more members who could and would step up to lead in pastoral roles.  If these potential lay ministers do not feel qualified there are now reasonably-priced online seminary courses available in biblical studies, Lutheran theology, and preaching.  We must not make the mistake of always assuming only an ordained pastor can lead and serve our congregations.  For more information on this particular lay ministry strategy, click here to go to my article in the March/2022 issue of the Lutheran CORE newsletter.  Or better yet, contact me directly with any questions you might have; at pastordonbrandt@gmail.com.

I was going to write about the challenge of discipling online worshipers.  However, that topic will need to again wait for the next issue of this newsletter.  Why? Because something quite urgent has come to my attention.  It was a June 2^nd (2021) fundraising letter from North American Lutheran Seminary, the seminary for the North American Lutheran Church.  In that letter was this statement from the seminary President, Dr. Eric Riesen: “…Over the next ten years more than 70 percent of our current NALC pastors will retire.”

Reflect on the implications of that statement for just a moment.  And keep in mind that this forecast is undoubtedly reflective of the clergy supply crisis facing not just the NALC, but the LCMC and ELCA as well.

I am convinced there are three converging factors which will create a “perfect storm” when it comes to the available supply of pastors for American churches.

One factor is the significant number of current, working pastors who have already reached or surpassed retirement age.  We have not yet reached the peak of the exodus of pastors from full-time ministry for a couple of reasons: The pandemic; and the fact that some of these pastors just want to “keep going” despite their age.  But the aging process waits for no one, including clergy.  Like the full-time pastor who called me to talk about when he might want to start planning for his retirement.  His age?  81 years old!  And how does the pandemic impact retirements?  Some pastors, understandably, didn’t want to leave their congregations until the worst of the pandemic was behind them.  However, as we begin to enter a post-Covid environment many of these pastors are now about to retire.  

A second factor contributing to an increasing shortage of pastors is decreasing seminary enrollment.  This unfortunate cross-denominational trend has been going on for years, if not decades.  Just one example: In that fundraising letter from North American Lutheran Seminary that I mentioned there was a photograph of the graduating class of 2021.  Just four students.

A third factor in this developing shortage of pastors is clergy burnout.  Thom Rainer’s coaching ministry, Church Answers, conducted a cross-denominational survey of over one thousand pastors just last fall.  Close to 80% indicated they were thinking of quitting.  That’s right, 80%.  No doubt some of this was due to the multiple ways the pandemic has contributed to the stress of church ministry.  However, the trend of increasing pastor burnout preceded Covid and will undoubtedly persist post-Covid.  Kate Shellnutt, in the July/August (2021) issue of Christianity Today, writes: “Across the country, pastors…have ushered weary congregants through virtual worship setups, lonely hospital stays, funerals, job losses, intense political tensions, and relentless debates over pandemic precautions.”  She continues, “During the first months of the year, fewer than half of regular churchgoers in the US made it to an in-person service, according to the Pew Research Center, though more than three-quarters said their churches had reopened.”

All three of these factors are converging in the context of American congregations which are, more often than not, dealing with some level of institutional decline.  Be it an aging membership, declining worship attendance, or far fewer baptisms, most churches are facing a decidedly uncertain future.  Add the developing clergy shortage and the word “crisis” seems more than apt.  The Body of Christ will, of course, endure.  However, if we don’t confront this crisis in a proactive way a great many people will never be reached with the Good News.

Added to all these ministry challenges, American churches have, for generations, developed an unhealthy dependence on ordained, seminary-trained clergy to lead and serve their congregations.  And as I continue, keep in mind that churches led by seminary-trained, ordained clergy was not the New Testament model for local faith communities.  (1^st Peter 2:4-10)

Consider, with me, one possible scenario where a hypothetical LCMC congregation makes the decision—after a frustrating and unsuccessful search for a new, ordained pastor—to embrace a ministry model that aspires, out of necessity, to move “beyond clergy”.

This hypothetical church is Grace Lutheran, and it is located in a small city in the Midwest.  Grace’s call committee was organized in the summer of 2021; about the time that the pandemic was finally winding down, and shortly after their pastor of 18 years announced his retirement.

Since Grace was a healthy and conflict-free congregation the call committee was confident they would be able to find and call the pastor “God had in mind” for their church.  Mixed with the committee’s initial optimism there was, however, some anxiety.  Grace Lutheran’s post-Covid weekly attendance in the fall of 2021 had shrunk to 85 compared to a pre-Covid 2019 attendance average of over 125.  But the call committee forged ahead; confident that part of the attendance losses were simply due to their pastor’s retirement.  Surely the “right” new pastor would help rebuild their attendance back to at least what it was in 2019.

However, the search process dragged on into the fall of 2022.  The call committee in particular and the members in general were becoming demoralized.  There was one brief period of optimism when the committee extended a call to an applicant they were truly excited about.  But at the last minute this candidate decided to accept one of the other two calls he was “sitting on.”

It was after going through this frustrating search for over a year that the committee decided to engage the services of (you guessed it) a Congregations in Transition coach.  This coach suggested a new, some would say even radical, strategy.  While continuing their search for an ordained pastor the coach recommended that Grace Lutheran consider recruiting, training and hiring a congregational member to serve as their minister.  Here were the steps their coach outlined for the call committee and church council:

1. First there was the matter of identifying the right person from among their members.  The question posed by the coach was, “Does a particular male or female member come to mind as someone God might be ready to call—whether part-time or full-time—to be a minister here at Grace?”  It would need to be someone who had the necessary gifts, faith, maturity, and integrity to fill such an important role.  Also, this individual would need to have already established a reputation, among the members, of being a faithful and trustworthy congregational leader.  With these qualifications in mind the call committee and council members were asked to pray and reflect on this question.  After an extended time of prayer and reflection (weeks perhaps?) there was the difficult task of coming to a consensus as to which person would be approached.  This took place in a (one-day) retreat setting.

2. The next step—once a consensus was reached—was to approach the “candidate”.  The question asked of this individual was this: Would he or she be willing to eventually accept such a paid ministry position if the congregation agreed to pay the cost of online ministry training?  In addition to this training the future minister would be encouraged to establish a mentoring relationship with an ordained pastor.  This could either be a CiT coach or a pastor living and serving within driving distance of Grace Lutheran.

3. Once this member agrees to pursue ministry training the church council and congregation would make this arrangement both public and official, commissioning (and celebrating with) this “minister-in-training” at a worship service.

4.  In consultation with congregational leaders the chosen future minister would then decide on an appropriate online ministry training program.  Possibilities considered might include St. Paul Seminary (St. Paul, Minnesota), the Institute of Lutheran Theology (Brookings, South Dakota), and North American Lutheran Seminary (Ambridge, Pennsylvania).

Note: If the person chosen is unable to commit to eventually work as a full-time minister the congregation should then be open to negotiating a worker-priest contract where this individual would be part-time and bi-vocational.  It is imperative that the “right” person not be passed over simply because he/she cannot be a full-time minister.

The above hypothetical scenario does not by any means address all of the details that would need to be worked out by the leaders of a congregation like Grace Lutheran.  These include the eventual job description, compensation, and whether this member-minister would be pursuing formal ordination (or not).  However, this entire process could be monitored and, to an extent, led by a Congregations in Transition coach.  By all means email me if you have any questions.

Grace and peace,

Dr. Don Brandt

pastordonbrandt@gmail.com

503-559-2034

I have a soft spot in my heart for small congregations, congregations of any size in transition, and churches whose isolation and resources make it difficult to field an “emergency fill-in” pastor, much less an interim or called pastor. That’s one reason I compile hymn suggestions and write intercessory prayers, even though they are widely used by congregations of all sizes and staffing. Churches without a regular pastoral presence have enough to do without crafting prayers, selecting hymns to go with the appointed tests… or figuring out how the Word will be faithfully preached every week. That’s what I want to talk about now.

Yes, there are sermon resources online. They’re hit and miss. They may have great illustrations but lack theological “meat”. They may be unorthodox, at odds with classic Lutheran doctrine, or overly pedantic. The Board of Lutheran CORE hopes to provide a data base of solid, biblically faithful, and doctrinally orthodox sermons for congregations to download when the need arises. Maybe they’re house churches or are facing a long vacancy with few prospects for interim pastoral leadership. Don Brandt and his brilliant Congregations in Transition (CiT) initiative helps address some of the challenges such churches face. Or maybe the pastor took ill on a Saturday night and a supply preacher isn’t available. It’d be a blessing for them to have one place to search for good sermons to use: by Scripture, day in the church year, or topic.

So this is a call for pastors to help out congregations in such situations. I want your sermons! Please email them to cammlung@gmail.com.

  Here are some basic criteria:

1. When you submit a sermon, make a note at the beginning as to the main Scripture(s) referenced; the day in the church year/lectionary for which it is appropriate; and, if applicable, the general topic. That way we can cross reference sermons so they can be searched in several ways.
2. Select sermons that you’d entrust to a layperson in your own congregation to preach if you couldn’t be there.
3. No “First-person” sermons. They’re too unique to you.
4. Similarly, be careful about mentioning situations or people that may be specific to your own congregation and difficult to modify to be of more general use. If a person’s situation, however, may be more universally shared, please change names to protect the innocent!
5. Avoid using sermons that feature time-sensitive topics or express specific personal political beliefs. They don’t transport (or age) well.
6. Sermons should be full manuscripts, not notes, lists, or talking points. Please check for, and correct, errors in grammar and spelling!
7. If possible, sermons should take under 15 minutes to preach. Someone else will be using your words, style, and thoughts. That’s harder (mentally and physically), than using their own.
8. I will edit very lightly: Grammar, spelling, factual errors, or the stray name of a parishioner (for privacy’s sake). If I think any other edits need to be made, I will ask your permission.
9. Please don’t have your feelings hurt if a sermon doesn’t appear online. It may be a time factor and it’ll show up later. If I think a sermon is simply not suitable for use as per the criteria I’ve listed, I may ask you to either modify it or withdraw it. It does not mean I think it’s a bad sermon or you’re a bad preacher!

This is going to take some time to compile, organize, and put online. You can be selecting and submitting topical sermons immediately, as well as sermons from later in Cycle B (2^nd half of Pentecost, year of Mark). But also start setting aside, editing, and submitting sermons that can be used in Cycle C (Year of Luke). I will try to give folks a heads-up when more contributions are needed. Again, please send stuff as Word documents to cammlung@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Congregations in Transition (CiT) coaching has always, from its beginning, been available as an expenses-only, volunteer coaching ministry. But CiT can now provide assistance even when a church finds the cost of an on-site visit by the coach to be an obstacle to its participation. This means that even small and geographically more isolated churches can now afford the services of a trained CiT coach. In fact, the only cost to a church taking advantage of this new online, distance-coaching version of CiT is the initial registration fee of $150 paid to Lutheran CORE.

This means months of coaching guidance—at virtually no cost—to help your congregational leaders navigate through what can be an extremely challenging time in the life of your church. And, in the case of LCMC churches, your CiT coach can advise you not only in the initial period following your pastor’s departure, but also in your search for your next pastor.

            So how can distance, online coaching make a difference for your church? Let me answer that question based on what I have discovered in working with congregations over this last year. I have found that effective coaching of transition teams can take place with conference phone calls, individual phone conversations, and through regular, on-going email communications. And I should not have been surprised. The professional coaching industry—whether church-related or secular—is based, in large part, on the model of online and phone communication, not face-to-face meetings. And unlike forty years ago, long-distance phone calls are free, and on-going written communication can be by email or text, not snail-mail.

            The primary key to making this kind of distance coaching effective is that individual phone calls, conference phone calls, and video conference meetings are based on written answers, from church leaders, to questions that have been provided by the coach in advance of each meeting. Then the answers to these questions are emailed back to the coach, and set the agenda for the subsequent meeting.

            But how does the coach become personally acquainted with transition team members when there is no on-site visit? Through an individual phone conversation with each team member. (Conversations—you guessed it—based on each team member’s responses to questions he/she has received in advance of that phone call.) Then, after these individual phone conversations, the first meeting of the entire team with the coach is by video conference. (Subsequent team sessions can be by conference phone call.)

            Through this kind of ministry your lay leaders can learn—from the coach—about the collective experiences of churches that have successfully addressed the challenges inherent in a period of transition. Additional information about Congregations in Transition can be found on the Lutheran CORE website.

            How can you inquire—before formally signing up—as to whether CiT can help your congregation? Simple. Contact me, CiT Director Don Brandt, either by phone or email. I hope to hear from you.

Dr. Don Brandt
503-559-2034
pastordonbrandt@gmail.com

Note: Recommendations and references are available from congregations working with CiT. Click here for more information on CiT.

Some startling statistics were included in a newsletter article by the president of an ELCA seminary.  According to the president, there are currently 2,776 vacancies in the nearly 10,000 congregations of the ELCA.  That is over one out of every four.  One thousand of those vacancies are for a full-time position.  What makes these statistics even more startling is the fact that the majority of the baby boomer pastors have yet to retire. No wonder there is such an extreme urgency about what Lutheran CORE’s Congregations in Transition (CiT) ministry initiative is doing.     

CiT is a new ministry, sponsored by Lutheran CORE, to assist churches facing the departure or retirement of their solo pastor.  CiT can be especially helpful in two kinds of ministry scenarios: 1. When the pastor has recently announced — or is planning to announce — his or her upcoming retirement; and 2. When congregational leaders who are already dealing with a vacancy have found the search and call process to be longer (and perhaps more frustrating) than they had anticipated.

Each congregation that “signs on” is assigned their own trained coach/consultant to provide customized counsel to the church for up to six to eight months.  These trained coaches are mostly recently retired Lutheran pastors, which means that they are volunteering their time.  This is a pan-Lutheran effort.  We have pastor/coaches who are rostered with ELCA, LCMC, NALC, and AALC.  The only costs to the congregation are the reimbursement of actual travel expenses incurred by the coach, plus a nominal $150 administrative-cost fee paid to Lutheran CORE.  This ministry is not designed to replace the ministry support and resources available to your congregation from your own church body.  Instead it is designed to supplement those resources.

Chuck Amdahl, retired LCMC and NALC pastor and one of the trained coaches, describes CiT in this way:

“It is all about people whose hearts are great for the people of God, for the life of the congregation. . . . As coaches they come alongside of congregations in transition, encouraging and equipping – empowering leaders whose responsibilities include navigating the congregation through uncertain transitions.  These coaches are building awareness, strength, and confidence among its members, renewing purpose (mission) and vitality all the while. 

“I am privileged to work alongside of these coaches.  They are brothers and sisters serving the Lord Jesus and His Church – your congregation, and the very Church which as Samuel Stone so rightly reminds us in that old and favorite hymn composed well over a century ago:  ‘…with His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.’”   

For more information contact Don Brandt at pastordonbrandt@gmail.com or Dennis Nelson at dennisdnelsonaz@yahoo.com.  You can also read more about Congregations in Transition by visiting the Lutheran CORE website.  A link to that portion of the website can be found here.