People of Hope:
Tonight members of Esperanza will have the opportunity to meet our Pastor Candidate at 6:00 P.M.
I give thanks to God for you, the Esperanza community! In the time I have served as your interim pastor, I have valued your trust and sharing, appreciated your generosity, and simply enjoyed all that we have shared together: weekly worship, the Easter parade and Fourth of July festivities, Garden of Eatin’ events and Oktoberfest, preschool chapel and Trivia Night, Thursday Matters and Sunday morning Bible study, home visits and hospital visits, and even all the meetings. 😊 Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve alongside you, to lead you, and to love you. Doing so has been a true privilege. Now, the Holy Spirit has made a way for my future ministry. I have accepted a call to serve St. John’s Lutheran Church of Cedarbrook outside of Aitkin, Minnesota, beginning Feb. 6. This means I will complete my ministry at Esperanza on Sunday, Jan. 28.
However, the Holy Spirit is at work in many ways among us, and Esperanza now has the opportunity to call the next pastor. After prayerful deliberation and the unanimous endorsement of the entire call committee and the council, these leaders of Esperanza are presenting a pastoral candidate to the congregation for a vote to extend a call. Although the name of the candidate cannot yet be released, everyone will have the opportunity to meet the candidate at a Meet & Greet on Thursday, January 11th from 6:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. and on Sunday, January 14th, immediately following worship. After this brief Meet & Greet, approximately 45 minutes, we will gather back in the sanctuary to vote on the candidate. All voting members of the congregation are encouraged to attend both the Meet & Greet session and the voting meeting, but of course non-members are welcome as well. Per our constitution, no votes may be cast in absentia.
When the call committee presented the candidate to the council, they described their painstaking process: over a dozen meetings, three-hour interviews, hour-long reference calls. They also described the space they held for the Spirit to work: beginning and ending meetings in prayer, sharing their fears and hopes, and reaching consensus. In the end, the call committee told us they not only believe this candidate possesses the right combination of skills and interests for Esperanza’s ministry; this candidate feels like the person God is calling to Esperanza. Praise God!
I am genuinely impressed by the committee’s thorough, spirit-filled work and trust that they have listened to God’s voice in this process. The committee has also committed themselves to supporting the next pastor of Esperanza in order to ensure a smooth transition and a successful ministry. What they and other leaders of Esperanza have learned is that ministry is a team sport, one where we lift up one another, encourage one another, and speak honestly and kindly to one another in our inevitable foibles and mistakes. The committee was clear: They are not presenting Jesus as the next pastor of Esperanza. 😉 Instead, they are presenting a fellow follower of Jesus to lead, serve alongside, and love this community.
Even though change can be sad, it can also bring joy and excitement. God will do new things here, things that will inspire even greater hope in us. I will miss you, people of esperanza. Still, as ever:
We are people of hope, alive in the mystery, growing in faith, learning to love.
We are people of hope, throughout all of history, held by the One who will never let go.[1]
Letter from Pastor Sarah & Jim Gisselquist – Click Here (note: in this letter, the January 11th Meet & Greet is not recognized as it wasn’t scheduled at the time of the published letter)
With joy and sadness,
Pastor Sarah
[1] “People of Hope” © 1998 Dakota Road Music