I am the sole active LCMS pastor in Maine at the moment, and a 2024 grad from Ft. Wayne. We need some help out here! There's 3 LCMS congregations and a single ordained non-retired pastor in the state (me). Much of the "how to do church life" stuff I learned in sem had to be thrown out the window, since this is essentially the frontier.
Serving on the Central coast of CA my family is still working through a similar experience. Especially going from “my kids can go through a full Lutheran school system” to now there is no such thing in this area.
Thank you, Pastor. Yes, you are now a frontiersman with a heavy burden. May God grant you the faith and means to prosper in His service. I hope the Synod sees the need to begin winding down foreign missions to support the urgent needs at home. The days of empire are over.
My guess is that you didn't request Maine as a call day destination, right? If you did, then what I'll say doesn't apply, but this is how the current system populates some less desirable places. We send seminarians. Now if you want to send more mature folks, there would have to be a much larger renegotiation of how it works which boils down to a dramatic weakening of congregationalism. The district, usually from richer congregations, would have to supplement money typically. Congregations in less family friendly areas would need to be open to changing practices and merging. That would go a long way to getting people to consider calls.
Actually they did an interview with me, which is strange for a sole pastor role I was told, but I whole heartedly desired to go, knowing it was by no means sure. It was appealing to me because I've never been to New England, and heard there were few LCMS churches out here. I hope I never leave. I love the folks up here and it's an edifying challenge to be a confessional Lutheran in a state which always lies at the bottom of the graph for "regular church attendees per capita." What more can you aspire to in your career than to be faithful in an unfaithful land? I've only been here for a year, and there used to be two of us, but the other pastor took a call, but I'm already at the point where there's hardly an LCMS parishioner in Maine I haven't met and preached to. It's a cool feeling.
I think you are way off on this one. The way we are set up currently sends a lot of seminarians to less family attractive areas. Back in the aughts, when not everyone graduating got a call, people would be sent and go to all kinds of desperate places. It is only with the decline in seminarians that this tendency has been lessened. And unless you have connections, you aren't getting on call lists in those first 3-5 years. Just like it is vanishingly rare to see a guy take a call from the bigger church to a smaller one, which you might expect the Spirit to do occasionally, places within driving distance of family have a human advantage. But that is far from the only consideration. In my experience having been a CV and in states outside of the Midwest, there are two huge problems. Every call has its problems, but which problems you want to take on are meaningful. The coastal congregation problems often just seem implacable. From size, to budget, to lack of collegiality, to let's just call it feminism issues, to the number that are just on funky liturgies and hymnbooks and wouldn't think of changing. And if you suggest to these congregations that they consider aligning their practice with an incoming pastor and you see rage. The other problem is simply that in a lot of these places there are 4 congregations barely hanging on within 10 miles. Now, if they got together as one parish, they'd have no problem. Even away from family, the positives of people, budget and living proof of willing to change to address problems would have people falling over themselves to take the call. But again, they won't do that. Taking a call is all about what problems you want to work. And fighting many coastal congregation issues at the same time as loss of family just looks like too much for many.
Another thing that might be unpleasant to talk about is that some congregations take pride in being difficult.
We used to go with my grandparents to their church for Saturday night service when we were visiting. It was amazing how often someone would comment on how they chewed up that 'young fella' with all his book learning and no sense.
The congregation is unwilling and/or unable to pay for an experienced pastor who might be able to manage the situation... yet no inexperienced pastor wants to get within 100 miles of that mess.
Amen and amen, I say! I served many years in the USN, and it was all about “needs of the service.” Wife’s preference? What’s that? “If the Navy wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one” was the refrain. Outside of my will, I went to Camp Pendleton, Okinawa, and northern South Korea, then back to Camp Pendleton. And emerged a better man, and better professional (doctor) because of it.
The Mission is here and now, not overseas. The time for spending money on international airfare is over. I'd rather see money go to supporting parish revival, renewal or replanting vs. overseas missions or RSOs. The hour is late for the LCMS and half measures are not going to save it.
Reverend Strawn, My family is very fortunate to have you as their Pastor. Although I live and attend my LCMS Church, Shepherd of the Coast in Palm Coast, Florida, whenever my wife and I visit my son Brian's family, we are always excited to attend Redeemer Lutheran to hear your sermons.
They are very dear friends, earnest Christians, and take the task of raising up their children in faith seriously. I am beyond blessed to know them (not to mention they let my family and I live with them for a year!)
My father was an LCMS pastor for over 50 years. Before I was born, he was at a church for 11 years and then received two calls, one to a large, rich, urban church and another to a smaller church in a relatively blue-collar town with no parsonage. He never visited either to see how attractive the community was or how nice the people were. Despite my siblings' protests and the much smaller salary, he prayerfully chose the blue-collar town because it had the greater need. (Of course, it helped that my mother was a saint!) After a few years, by the grace of God, the church had to have three services because it had outgrown seating capacity, and the congregation built a beautiful new church. He was there for over thirty years.
If my understanding is correct, there are many reasons, some of them outside the individual's control, that can cause someone to be 'candidatus reverendi ministerii.'
However, in our area, CRM means 'proceed with caution if at all.'
Which is church politics, and wrong. Not every man on CRM status is a troublemaker. Call Committees don't even bother to ask for the men's side of the story. They just incorrectly assume.
"He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10:37-39, NKJV). This hearkens back to how we are training our pastors at seminary, and how our pastors and laymen are raising their sons to view the ministry. Apparently we do so with the idea that it will be easy. Not so, and this is guaranteed by Christ himself.
"Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:51-52, NKJV). Going into the ministry with the idea that you'll be close to home, comforted by mother and father, and resting easy in preaching the Word is the stuff of children.
We need to put off the things of children, and become men, following the cross of Christ. It starts with seriously reckoning with what a call actually is, and a seriousness with how we regard the Office of Holy Ministry. I strongly recommend reading On the Priesthood, where Chrysostom lays out a serious depiction of the office.
If I may contribute another thought, though: It's worth noting that, while Christ declares those who are unwilling to leave behind their kin are unworthy of Him, He also promises a much greater family within His Church. It ought to be net gain in kinship for the pastors who leave their families behind. Congregations who call pastors away from family should take seriously their vocation as the fulfillment of this promise; it's extremely difficult to raise children apart from multigenerational, communal support, and the New Testament teaches that this shouldn't be the case within the family of God. Unfortunately, I overwhelmingly hear from Lutherans that the equivalent kinship is missing in many of our congregations. This is unlike the church families of many in the American evangelical/nondenominational sphere, and truly to our shame.
Sadly true, and this extends to congregational care of young people and young families. If churches don’t notice that their pastor and his wife and young children need support, they won’t notice when other families like them need it, too.
I think the fact that many congregations no longer have parsonages, and pastors purchase homes when they take a call, complicates their decision to listen to the voice of God in a future call. We had a pastor who couldn't sell his house two hours away from us when he took our call, and his wife stayed behind to take care of it. I saw her only once or twice and never actually met her. When the house sold about a year and a half later, he took another call and the two of them moved to Florida. Our congregation felt scammed. While that type of situation is rare, contemplating having to sell one's house and find a new one--depending on the market--has to make the decision to take a call more difficult.
A related problem with the call process occurs when a pastor will take a call to another congregation very close by (sometimes even the next town over). This unavoidably results in the bereft congregation feeling confused and even perhaps betrayed. It also leads to some upheaval and instability as some congregants will likely follow their former pastor to his new parish, and those left behind may feel that those who have left were poached in a way, even if unintentionally. Perhaps the new call may indeed be a better fit for the pastor and his new congregation, but was the intra-congregational drama worth it? And are certain undesirable incentives for taking a call as mentioned in this article reinforced by the ability to take a call conveniently close by? The synod should consider setting locational limits to the next call (perhaps a certain mile radius, at least outside of a Sunday morning driving distance between the two congregations) to confront these issues.
I'm currently in Active Duty in the Army and every Soldier knows - or soon learns - that while we can do our best to get what we want, there is ultimately one force that shapes our career and it's called "Needs of the Army." I raised my hand knowing I'd be sent wherever, whenever to accomplish the Army's mission. I find it odd that pastors wouldn't think along the same lines.
I am the sole active LCMS pastor in Maine at the moment, and a 2024 grad from Ft. Wayne. We need some help out here! There's 3 LCMS congregations and a single ordained non-retired pastor in the state (me). Much of the "how to do church life" stuff I learned in sem had to be thrown out the window, since this is essentially the frontier.
Serving on the Central coast of CA my family is still working through a similar experience. Especially going from “my kids can go through a full Lutheran school system” to now there is no such thing in this area.
Thanks, Pastor. Another important data point about the sacrifices some families have to make.
Thank you, Pastor. Yes, you are now a frontiersman with a heavy burden. May God grant you the faith and means to prosper in His service. I hope the Synod sees the need to begin winding down foreign missions to support the urgent needs at home. The days of empire are over.
My guess is that you didn't request Maine as a call day destination, right? If you did, then what I'll say doesn't apply, but this is how the current system populates some less desirable places. We send seminarians. Now if you want to send more mature folks, there would have to be a much larger renegotiation of how it works which boils down to a dramatic weakening of congregationalism. The district, usually from richer congregations, would have to supplement money typically. Congregations in less family friendly areas would need to be open to changing practices and merging. That would go a long way to getting people to consider calls.
Actually they did an interview with me, which is strange for a sole pastor role I was told, but I whole heartedly desired to go, knowing it was by no means sure. It was appealing to me because I've never been to New England, and heard there were few LCMS churches out here. I hope I never leave. I love the folks up here and it's an edifying challenge to be a confessional Lutheran in a state which always lies at the bottom of the graph for "regular church attendees per capita." What more can you aspire to in your career than to be faithful in an unfaithful land? I've only been here for a year, and there used to be two of us, but the other pastor took a call, but I'm already at the point where there's hardly an LCMS parishioner in Maine I haven't met and preached to. It's a cool feeling.
Praise God for your work out there.
I think you are way off on this one. The way we are set up currently sends a lot of seminarians to less family attractive areas. Back in the aughts, when not everyone graduating got a call, people would be sent and go to all kinds of desperate places. It is only with the decline in seminarians that this tendency has been lessened. And unless you have connections, you aren't getting on call lists in those first 3-5 years. Just like it is vanishingly rare to see a guy take a call from the bigger church to a smaller one, which you might expect the Spirit to do occasionally, places within driving distance of family have a human advantage. But that is far from the only consideration. In my experience having been a CV and in states outside of the Midwest, there are two huge problems. Every call has its problems, but which problems you want to take on are meaningful. The coastal congregation problems often just seem implacable. From size, to budget, to lack of collegiality, to let's just call it feminism issues, to the number that are just on funky liturgies and hymnbooks and wouldn't think of changing. And if you suggest to these congregations that they consider aligning their practice with an incoming pastor and you see rage. The other problem is simply that in a lot of these places there are 4 congregations barely hanging on within 10 miles. Now, if they got together as one parish, they'd have no problem. Even away from family, the positives of people, budget and living proof of willing to change to address problems would have people falling over themselves to take the call. But again, they won't do that. Taking a call is all about what problems you want to work. And fighting many coastal congregation issues at the same time as loss of family just looks like too much for many.
Another thing that might be unpleasant to talk about is that some congregations take pride in being difficult.
We used to go with my grandparents to their church for Saturday night service when we were visiting. It was amazing how often someone would comment on how they chewed up that 'young fella' with all his book learning and no sense.
The congregation is unwilling and/or unable to pay for an experienced pastor who might be able to manage the situation... yet no inexperienced pastor wants to get within 100 miles of that mess.
Amen and amen, I say! I served many years in the USN, and it was all about “needs of the service.” Wife’s preference? What’s that? “If the Navy wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one” was the refrain. Outside of my will, I went to Camp Pendleton, Okinawa, and northern South Korea, then back to Camp Pendleton. And emerged a better man, and better professional (doctor) because of it.
The Mission is here and now, not overseas. The time for spending money on international airfare is over. I'd rather see money go to supporting parish revival, renewal or replanting vs. overseas missions or RSOs. The hour is late for the LCMS and half measures are not going to save it.
Reverend Strawn, My family is very fortunate to have you as their Pastor. Although I live and attend my LCMS Church, Shepherd of the Coast in Palm Coast, Florida, whenever my wife and I visit my son Brian's family, we are always excited to attend Redeemer Lutheran to hear your sermons.
They are very dear friends, earnest Christians, and take the task of raising up their children in faith seriously. I am beyond blessed to know them (not to mention they let my family and I live with them for a year!)
My father was an LCMS pastor for over 50 years. Before I was born, he was at a church for 11 years and then received two calls, one to a large, rich, urban church and another to a smaller church in a relatively blue-collar town with no parsonage. He never visited either to see how attractive the community was or how nice the people were. Despite my siblings' protests and the much smaller salary, he prayerfully chose the blue-collar town because it had the greater need. (Of course, it helped that my mother was a saint!) After a few years, by the grace of God, the church had to have three services because it had outgrown seating capacity, and the congregation built a beautiful new church. He was there for over thirty years.
I've been on CRM status for 2 years and have yet to receive a Call. Many men are in my position. This “pastor shortage” is an illusion.
Sounds like an article for Ad Crucem.
If my understanding is correct, there are many reasons, some of them outside the individual's control, that can cause someone to be 'candidatus reverendi ministerii.'
However, in our area, CRM means 'proceed with caution if at all.'
Which is church politics, and wrong. Not every man on CRM status is a troublemaker. Call Committees don't even bother to ask for the men's side of the story. They just incorrectly assume.
"He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10:37-39, NKJV). This hearkens back to how we are training our pastors at seminary, and how our pastors and laymen are raising their sons to view the ministry. Apparently we do so with the idea that it will be easy. Not so, and this is guaranteed by Christ himself.
"Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:51-52, NKJV). Going into the ministry with the idea that you'll be close to home, comforted by mother and father, and resting easy in preaching the Word is the stuff of children.
We need to put off the things of children, and become men, following the cross of Christ. It starts with seriously reckoning with what a call actually is, and a seriousness with how we regard the Office of Holy Ministry. I strongly recommend reading On the Priesthood, where Chrysostom lays out a serious depiction of the office.
There's a lot that's good in here.
If I may contribute another thought, though: It's worth noting that, while Christ declares those who are unwilling to leave behind their kin are unworthy of Him, He also promises a much greater family within His Church. It ought to be net gain in kinship for the pastors who leave their families behind. Congregations who call pastors away from family should take seriously their vocation as the fulfillment of this promise; it's extremely difficult to raise children apart from multigenerational, communal support, and the New Testament teaches that this shouldn't be the case within the family of God. Unfortunately, I overwhelmingly hear from Lutherans that the equivalent kinship is missing in many of our congregations. This is unlike the church families of many in the American evangelical/nondenominational sphere, and truly to our shame.
Sadly true, and this extends to congregational care of young people and young families. If churches don’t notice that their pastor and his wife and young children need support, they won’t notice when other families like them need it, too.
I think the fact that many congregations no longer have parsonages, and pastors purchase homes when they take a call, complicates their decision to listen to the voice of God in a future call. We had a pastor who couldn't sell his house two hours away from us when he took our call, and his wife stayed behind to take care of it. I saw her only once or twice and never actually met her. When the house sold about a year and a half later, he took another call and the two of them moved to Florida. Our congregation felt scammed. While that type of situation is rare, contemplating having to sell one's house and find a new one--depending on the market--has to make the decision to take a call more difficult.
We have so many vacancies here in FL panhandle....how can you get your name active down here?
A related problem with the call process occurs when a pastor will take a call to another congregation very close by (sometimes even the next town over). This unavoidably results in the bereft congregation feeling confused and even perhaps betrayed. It also leads to some upheaval and instability as some congregants will likely follow their former pastor to his new parish, and those left behind may feel that those who have left were poached in a way, even if unintentionally. Perhaps the new call may indeed be a better fit for the pastor and his new congregation, but was the intra-congregational drama worth it? And are certain undesirable incentives for taking a call as mentioned in this article reinforced by the ability to take a call conveniently close by? The synod should consider setting locational limits to the next call (perhaps a certain mile radius, at least outside of a Sunday morning driving distance between the two congregations) to confront these issues.
Sheep stealing is frowned upon, and pastor stealing/hopping should be equally disincentivized.
I'm currently in Active Duty in the Army and every Soldier knows - or soon learns - that while we can do our best to get what we want, there is ultimately one force that shapes our career and it's called "Needs of the Army." I raised my hand knowing I'd be sent wherever, whenever to accomplish the Army's mission. I find it odd that pastors wouldn't think along the same lines.
our prayers are with you and church to keep truth of God's word and under protection from any devil's deeds.