January 26, 2013

 

Dear Light of the World,

 

As you all know, the council had a big task ahead when Pastor Deb informed us she was leaving Light of the World on the 4th of December.

 

Since then, we have been diligently interviewing and working towards naming an interim pastor who will be in place until the call process can be completed. Calling a new, permanent pastor will happen sometime within the next nine to eighteen months. From the beginning, our goal has been for the interim to be in place by Sunday, the 10th of February.

 

I am writing today with good news.

 

On Thursday, Hollie Holt-Woehl accepted the council's offer to become our interim pastor, effective the 4th of February. We hired her at 50% of full time.

 

Hollie is looking forward to personally telling her story in the upcoming months. Based on that, I will briefly let you know a few things about her. 

• She was ordained in 1993  
• She is a part time adjunct professor at Luther Seminary
• LOTW will be the fourth church she has served as interim pastor

As a council, we have been very impressed with her. She fit the profile request we provided very well and will be an important resource on a number of different fronts for our community, especially considering her previous experience as an interim pastor. We are confident that Hollie will provide stability in worship, help us to better understand where we have come from, and keep us honest with one another as we ask the hard questions about what we want to be as a church in the future.

 

I also wanted briefly lay out the next couple of weeks of worship for everyone. 

• January 27: Wendy Steger will preach and Paul Galchutt will preside over communion 
• February 3: Emmy will preach and Margaret Kelly (from Shobi's Table) will preside over communion. At this point, Hollie plans to be in attendance as well so that we can briefly introduce her at that time. 
• February 10: Hollie's first Sunday as Interim Pastor (she will also be preaching) 

I want to personally thank everyone on the Council, Lana Hedlund, Emmy Kegler, and Larry Morgan for all of the hours that have been put in the last couple of months to bring this to fruition. I am so grateful for all of you and continue to be impressed with your commitment to this community.

 

As always, we will continue to keep you informed as best as we can.  If you have additonal questions, feel free to reach out to me at 651-210-3349 or any of the other council members.

 

God Bless,

Brian Stangl, President