Continued Easter joy and hope to you in the name of the living Christ.

Whenever there is a pastoral transition in a congregation, invariably the question is asked, "Where do pastors come from?" That question was on the mind of our CIA youth last Sunday afternoon as their asset-building guides and I met with them to discuss the changes going on at Epiphany.

The short answer to the question is this: "From congregations." Five years ago I came to you from another congregation, Abiding Hope Lutheran Church, Littleton, Colorado.  How did I get here? The short answer is: "God."   The Holy Spirit works through the church and its leaders to bring congregations and pastors together into a relationship named "a call." Pastors do not look for jobs. They listen to the beckoning of the Spirit and go where they discern God desires them to serve. Invariably that discerning requires some listening to others, perhaps pastoral colleagues, one's bishop, family, and others. Five years ago, at the beckoning of the Holy Spirit, I made my mobility papers available to Bishop Julian Gordy of the Southeastern Synod through my own Bishop Allan Bjornberg of the Rocky Mountain Synod. Upon the recommendation of another pastor and in conversation with me, Bishop Gordy submitted my papers to Epiphany's call team. They spoke with and interviewed many pastors; all of them serving other congregations. The team also spoke with me on the phone, sent a delegation to Colorado, and invited me to Georgia three times - once to meet with the entire call team, once to meet with Epiphany's council, and once to meet with the entire congregation. On August 10, 2008 Epiphany held a congregational meeting and voted to call me. Believing it to be God's will, I accepted. That's how congregations get pastors - from other congregations.

Yet it is even deeper than that. Throughout the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, there are more than 16,700 pastors, officially called "ordained clergy." Of these pastors, 85% are serving in congregations. The others may be serving in a specialized setting, such as a teacher or a president of a seminary, or as a bishop or assistant to the bishop, or as a hospital chaplain, or campus minister, or any number of roles. But there is a deeper question. "From where do the collective 16,700 pastors come from?"   After all, pastors die and retire every year. Again, the answer is this: "From congregations." New pastors are ordained into the ministry every year. Their origin is their congregations. Through a multitude of voices they heard a call to consider becoming a pastor. Someone or many may have recognized certain gifts they had and told them. They in turn contacted the synod office who put them in contact with the synod candidacy committee. This committee takes the recommendation from the congregation's council and through testing and other means tries to discern if this sense of call is authentic. If so, the candidacy committee will endorse the person to apply for admission to a school of theology or seminary. The ELCA has eight. If the person has earned a bachelor's degree and is of good academic standing and possesses the academic ability, the seminary will admit him or her. The standard for obtaining a Master of Divinity, the degree necessary for call and ordination in the ELCA, is four years of theological education. Those four years include a year of internship.

So no matter what the situation might be, pastors come from congregations. They come from congregations they are already serving. Or they come from congregations who nurtured them and perhaps suggested to them that they ought to consider becoming a pastor, and they in turn entered the candidacy process that takes them to a seminary.

This is the challenge I have for you. Have you seen in anyone within Epiphany the kind of gifts, faith, and life which would make that person a good pastor? Have you ever told someone he or she ought to consider becoming a pastor? If you love the church and desire that it always has great leaders, then you need to always be on the lookout for persons who have the gifts to be a pastor and to have the will to tell them.

Epiphany will be looking to call another pastor. When that next pastor is discovered and discerns that God really does want him or her to come to Epiphany to serve and lead, it will be because someone at some time in a congregation said, "I think you'd make a great pastor."

Be on the lookout. It matters for our church!

That all might thrive and serve in the light of God's grace,