Greetings!

The Metropolitan Community Church of Austin Pastoral Search Team is pleased and honored to present Rev. Karen Thompson as Candidate for Senior Pastor. As a pastor, she possesses many qualities that have prepared and equipped her to lead MCC Austin. She is a pastor with a passion for our congregation, with Spirit-filled enthusiasm and vitality, and with a strong vision for our community of faith. Rev. Thompson has demonstrated through her experience in our church and in her journey to this call, that she is a leader whose skills, talents, and strengths are uniquely aligned to the MCC Austin congregation.  She has been called. The Pastoral Search Team's decision to present Rev. Karen Thompson as our candidate was one that we arrived at unanimously. This call is clearly the answer to the prayer that we had been praying since the beginning of this process.

Rev. Karen Thompson is presented as Candidate for Senior Pastor because of all of the candidates considered, she met the profile we presented, expressed the deep call to serve, and presented the team with an energizing and compelling vision for our church.

All of us on the team are certain that Rev. Karen Thompson is the person God has called to lead MCC Austin into the future.  It is true that she has been the person who has served as the pastor of our congregation in several capacities in this transition, as executive pastor and as acting senior pastor. Although these experiences helped form her portfolio which she presented to the Pastoral Search Team, we were very careful, cautious, and intentional to ensure that her application was considered alongside the others with the same level of prayerful discernment. 

In her applicant materials and in her interview, Rev. Thompson presented her leadership and excellence in worship. She has a deep commitment to the priesthood of all believers and an understanding that each of us is a minister in this church. She leads innovative, engaging, provocative, and inspiring worship experiences. She makes the scripture/sacred text relevant to peoples' lives through clarity in preaching and communicating a comprehensive understanding and application of progressive Christian theology. She plans worship with a spirit of creativity, innovation, diversity of service type, and intentionality. She noted in her interview that "unity in Christ is indeed amazingly diverse."

She has proven experience in providing leadership and service in a pastoral role. Her experience is deep and rooted in serving in almost every role a church has to offer and in the experiences which cannot be taught in seminary. Although she has recently been ordained as MCC clergy, she has experience in church administration, worship, and pastoral care that span a decade. She has experience as elder, deacon, and other leadership roles in addition to her church leadership roles in MCC. She shared a favorite quotation that guides her work. "Pray as if everything depends on us; work as if everything depends on God."

Rev. Karen Thompson has a pastor's heart with broad experience and commitment to pastoral care. She is committed to pastoral care in the most significant ways. She has clear boundaries, but leads with a compassionate soul. She clearly differentiates pastoral care and counseling and knows her personal capacities and roles. She is committed to helping our congregation grow into full understanding of the sacred relationship of spirituality and sexuality. When asked about complex theological/moral questions, she responded with open, honest responses and was very clear that "blessings are not hers to withhold."

We have watched the path of social justice lived out in the life of Rev. Karen Thompson. This journey has prepared her to be a strong advocate for social justice issues in our community and in our state.

She has very strong administrative skills and has clear ideas, vision and direction for the administration of our church. She has captured the essence of our community and is prepared to lead us to new levels of sustained growth. In her questions of the Pastoral Search Team, she challenged us, "Are you REALLY ready to grow?" The question was a compelling one that caused us to reflect on our own comfort.  She is well prepared to manage and lead the administration of a corporate sized church.

As we become a church without walls, Rev. Thompson has a personal commitment and compelling vision for removing barriers and helping us grow into our vision and mission.

So, the Pastoral Search Team, mindful that we are here to serve current and future members of MCC Austin are thrilled, humbled, and honored to put forth Rev. Karen Thompson as our choice for the next Senior Pastor of MCC Austin.

With Great Hope,

MCC Austin Search Team

searchteam@mccaustin.com

Just a few words about what's next:

May 2 - Candidate materials posted online www.mccaustin.com

May 3 and 4  - Official announcement at all services on Saturday and Sunday

Neighborhood Forums

Members of the congregation will host forums to meet the candidate, hear her vision and ask questions.  All forums will start at 7:00 pm. Light snacks will be provided.

• May 13 - North Central:  Ervin and David's House
• May 14 - Southwest: Peggy and Bronnie's House
• May 15 - North: John Miessner's House

May 16 - Dinner Meeting with Staff

May 17 - Ice cream sundaes with Candidate - Open to Members of Congregation

May 17 and 18  - Candidate Sermon

May 18  -  Congregational Meeting and vote following 11 am service

Rev. Karen D. Thompson

Excerpts from Application File

Early in my seminary experience, I struggled mightily with my role in planning and offering worship versus God's role. "Why don't you move in the people's hearts and inspire them to come to church?" I wondered. I finally arrived at an understanding of the planners' and participants' role in worship in the form of, surprise, a sports analogy. We who participate should be as prepared and skillful as the athletes, yet as unnoticeable as the very best sports officials. Each service, not only special services, should be carefully planned and full of intention. Each service should have a goal or objective and should be so inviting that when the Spirit does move in the individuals who gather here to worship, poor planning or careless services will never provide them with an excuse to ignore the Spirit's leading and not come back again.

Early in my preaching career I pledged to myself that I would be a lectionary preacher, one who follows the three year cycle of scriptures found in the Revised Common Lectionary. I felt this was a faithful approach and a way to make sure that I was attune to God's leading through the Word and not simply pursuing my own agenda. I still do often follow the Lectionary, but I have discovered a great love for and excitement about intentional series. . .

. . .This Easter I wanted to try to "bring the congregation along" on Mary Magdalene's journey from grief to joy at Easter. We had the people enter the darkened sanctuary in silence, and the choir dramatized the Gospel story from John while the piano played softly. At the moment that Jesus calls Mary by name and she understands that Jesus is alive, the lights came up and the brass and piano and organ began to play "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today," and we all participated in Mary's joy filled Easter discovery.

I could not have imagined the turn that my life would take eighteen months ago when Rev. Ken Martin became Elder Ken Martin. Over the span of two months we literally found out that he was leaving and we said goodbye to every single full-time staff member of MCC Austin except me.   . . . I simply responded to what I knew the congregation needed: a steady presence. . .a pastor.

. . . I do not have quantity of experience leading as a pastor, but I have quality. During those first months of transition and now as I find myself in the acting pastor role again, I continue to be amazed and humbled by the way this congregation responds to my attempts to lead them. In 2006 we held a Stewardship Campaign that far surpassed our goals. We brought in $60,000 in tithes and offerings in December of 2006 while at the same time giving thousands of dollars of food, clothing, and financial donations to the larger community. In 2008, as we face yet another unexpected twist in our transition, we have begun a dramatic turnaround in our giving, attendance, and our spirits. . .

Had Candace Gingrich not already taken the title of Accidental Activist, I would have claimed it for myself. When I entered Austin Seminary five years ago, I had no inkling of what lay in store. I was a relatively closeted lesbian living in suburban obscurity with my partner and children. Then I had a life changing experience thanks to a seminary class called "Spirituality and the Holocaust." As often happens to people when confronted by the horrors of the Holocaust, I began to ask myself what I would have done had I been a German during Hitler's rule. I wanted to say that I would have stood up bravely and defied Hitler and defended the Jews despite personal cost, but I couldn't say that with integrity. The truth was that I was not even standing up for myself and my partner and my family because of my fear of the costs-and the costs were relatively small compared to the cost of defying Hitler.

. . .That journey has been one of the great blessings of my life. I have truly felt the comforting presence of God when I felt like nearly every human had deserted me. I have come to know the blessing of God-reliance over self-reliance, and I have come to understand that when no one will speak for me and the powers that be will not allow me to speak for myself, Jesus Christ is my Advocate. I will not be silent again.

Many people were shocked by my desire to be MCC Austin's Executive Pastor, including myself. I came out of seminary believing that pastoring was largely preaching and teaching and pastoral care. But. . .our greatest need as we entered 2007 was attention to our financial and operational systems and structures. . . Working with our Board Treasurers and our Administrative Volunteer Judie Cowan, I have studied, scrutinized, modified, scrapped, and invented new processes for almost every aspect of our financial operations. I have developed task lists and timelines that include every financial task and created spreadsheets that simplify everything from paying weekly bills to preparing our tithe report. In the past year we have corrected several errors in our reporting to the denomination, purchased and converted to a new software system, and reduced our number of bank accounts from an impossibly unwieldy seven to one. We have begun accrual systems for all prioritized expenses and are moving steadily toward a comprehensive, realistic budget building process for the church.

. . .I am committed to team approaches in all that I do and I fully understand that there are always people with more talent and knowledge in any given area than I have myself. I believe that when good teams are assembled and led well, the results are exponentially greater than the sum of the parts. All that said, I fully accept the responsibility of being the final decision maker, and I am always willing to be fully accountable for those decisions.

Many people do not know that I created MCC Austin's first E-Link. There had been a community letter of sorts that included everything from worship information to classified ads, but I taught myself enough HTML to piece together a two-color, more traditional newsletter. Over time, the E-Link has evolved into a wonderful tool, and of course, it can be used even more effectively. One of the things that I have committed myself to is using the E-Link as a personal communication from the pastor to the congregation regarding our worship lives together. I give the same care to my words in the E-Link each week as I give to my sermons.

My basic approach to communication is to share as much information as possible as early as possible through as many venues as possible. People are busy, and we must be relentless in our efforts to communicate with them. . .

I will continue, as I have for the past five years, to be a willing, reconciling voice for progressive Christianity in the larger community. My commitment to that can be seen consistently: Two weeks ago I organized a small group who spoke to the Gay Straight Alliance at Lehman High School. Next week I will participate in a panel discussion of GLBT issues at St. Edward's University. On June 12, I will be the keynote speaker for the Interfaith PRIDE Service held in conjunction with Austin's Gay Pride festival.

I believe that sustainable growth at an institutional level is impossible without growth at an individual level. I am thrilled that we are offering our people opportunities to grow through CLM, ministry teams, and now a variety of courses through WoW U.

I know that the people of MCC Austin have identified growth as a main theme, and I am excited about leading that growth. We should be increasing in attendance, we should be exploring building a larger permanent sanctuary, we should be preparing for a capital campaign, and must start finding and developing ways to inspire more people towards greater financial support of MCC Austin. We should be creating more and deeper alliances with our area universities knowing that many young adults need and desire the faith community we offer. We should be building real partnerships with Equality Texas, Atticus Circle, OutYouth, the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and other organizations that go beyond advertising on each other's web sites. We should be reaching out to local GLBT welcoming and affirming churches and offering them our support and resources because we are, after all, the experts!

But, we should never seek to grow in size or number without a full commitment to growing and strengthening our infrastructure and our spiritual and emotional maturity. I would never allow MCC Austin to be a mile wide and an inch deep; we should instead be like the oaks that grow on our property with our roots running deep and our reach to the heavens.

I grew up here in Austin, left here, and then returned because my heart ached for my family, Texas, and Austin. I can fully appreciate and understand that a large part of the DNA of MCC Austin is Austin. Both Stacey and I would love to remain in Austin and continue to soak up its beauty and its weirdness.

. . .We love the variety that Austin offers, and we are proud of the seeming paradox of being both season ticket holders for the Lady Longhorn basketball games and subscription holders for the Austin Lyric Opera.

. . .All of this helps me to place MCC Austin within its Austin context, but I know that we have other contexts to consider. I welcome the chance to help us grow beyond those. For example, I welcome the opportunity to lead us completely away from a conflict-avoidant church to one that trusts ourselves to deal directly, lovingly, and honestly with each other, trusting that when we do, our greatest challenges will become our greatest blessings.

. . .MCC Austin is a church moving literally and figuratively toward Pentecost-if we will welcome it, I know the Spirit is ready to move through us like a mighty wind and send us well along toward being all that God intends for us to be.