Pastoral Transition Update

At The Transition Team has completed their work! Calvary is moving forward toward calling its next Lead Pastor. Please help me thank the Transition Team (Tony Schroeder, Lori Kehrwald, Priscilla Marto, and Rachel Honl) for their work! They have offered an online survey and several listening sessions in the last 6 months and they have drafted and finalized the Ministry Site Profile (MSP). The MSP can be thought of as an introduction to Calvary Lutheran for candidates who might be the next Lead Pastor. An MSP can never say everything about a congregation, but it gives a solid introduction and overview of the congregation.  

The Congregation Council has approved the MSP which was prepared by the Transition Team and the council has appointed a Call Committee. The MSP has now been shared with the Eastern North Dakota Synod Office who will match Calvary with candidates to be the next Lead Pastor. If you care to read the MSP, it is a public document and can be found on the website or print copies can be obtained from the church office. The Call Committee members are: Nancy Andrews, Bruce Hornby, Joani Kilber, Anna Larson, Priscilla Marto, Lael Schmidt, Shari Storbakken, Elizabeth Wild, and 

Nancy Yoshida.

The Call Committee will work with the synod staff to have an orientation to the call process and will set to the task of interviewing prospective Lead Pastors. The Call Committee’s work is not secret, but it is confidential. For this reason, you should not be surprised if you do not hear about candidates or the process. I encourage you to trust that the Call Committee is doing their work: reading Roster Minister Profiles (RMP), conducting phone/Zoom interviews, and holding face-to-face interviews with candidates as they work to determine which candidate they would like to recommend to the 

Congregation Council. It is difficult to determine how long this process might take, so we wait 

patiently, trusting that God is preparing the right person. This process is real discernment of the Holy Spirit through human beings, and we pray for the Call Committee, all candidates, and the whole 

congregation of Calvary Lutheran Church.  

When a primary candidate for Lead Pastor has been identified and recommended to the 

Congregation Council then a special congregation meeting will be organized for the purpose of 

calling a pastor. At a special congregation meeting we will hear about the process that was 

undertaken and about the candidate being recommended. The congregation will then vote whether to extend a call to the recommended candidate.

Know that after a call vote has been taken, the candidate must also do their discernment work and decide whether to accept the call of the congregation. Then a candidate who has accepted the call would need to notify their current congregation, give them adequate notice of their departure, and 

arrange for a household relocation. From the time of an affirmative call vote by a congregation, it could take 2-3 months before that candidate is ready to begin their ministry.

I suspect that a new Lead Minister could reasonably be in place by June or July 2025 - could be sooner, could be later. While this might not be a definitive timeline, Pr. Jared’s contract for Interim Ministry at Calvary will remain in effect until a new lead pastor is ready to begin.

If you would like to talk with Pr. Jared more about this process, he can be reached at 

jared@calvarygf.org, or (701) 772-4897.