Feb. 2006
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From the Interim Pastor, Bruce Arnevik New Year’s
greetings! The season of Advent
began a new church year and was a fitting month to begin my interim pastoral
work here at Mindekirken. All the
special Advent and Christmas celebrations provided great opportunities for
beginning to get acquainted with many of the members and friends of Mindekirken.
Thank you for your warm welcome. I
look forward to walking with you in the months ahead. As
stated in the last newsletter, a Planning Team (previously called ‘Transition
Team’) has now been formed and will have already met once or twice by the time
you read this. Members of this Team:
from the congregation at large: Finn Henrikssen, Sigrun Hovland, Rich Germundsen,
and Marian Casey; from the Deacons:
Kathy Sandom; from the
Trustees: Jennifer Thue;
from the Call Committee: Kari
Torkelson and Robert Hanson; from Executive:
Lynn Tesch and myself as pastor. While
a Planning Team normally completes their work as preparation for the Call
Committee to begin, in light of the unique and prolonged call process here at
Mindekirken we will be doing it somewhat differently.
The Call Committee will be actively working on ‘Phase One’ of the
call process at the same time the Planning Team is doing their work.
The Planning Team should have their work essentially completed by the
time new candidates are ready for interviewing so that information from the
Planning Team’s work can be shared with prospective candidates and used to
help determine which candidate might best serve Mindekirken in the coming years.
What will
the Planning Team do? The Planning
Team will come up with some questions to bring before the congregation and
figure out how best to get responses from the congregation on these questions.
These questions will probably include ‘big picture’ things such as
the congregation’s future and what might be needed from the next pastor to
help lead the church into that future. The
questions may also have to do with things like leadership structure, money, and
how the church is organized and run on a daily basis.
Most of these questions cannot be answered within the short span of the
few months the Planning Team will be in operation.
The congregation may well raise additional questions and issues the
Planning Team might not think of. The
point is to get Mindekirken thinking, talking and intentionally preparing for
its future, including looking at the kind of leadership needed from the next
pastor. There can be great value in
getting some of these questions ‘on the table’, even if it takes a long time
to sort them out and come up with ‘answers’.
Indeed, the
next pastor will probably shape Mindekirken’s response to many of these
questions. But
don’t wait to do the asking! Own
your questions and call your next pastor, among other things, to help you
continue to work through them. Pray
that the Holy Spirit will guide and direct the questions and the conversations
they produce. Pray that the Spirit
will guide the Planning Team and the Call Committee. Speaking
of questions, let me close with a couple. We
all know that Norwegian language and cultural heritage is central to
Mindekirken’s identity and that Mindekirken’s future relies on this
identity. Q: In
official affiliation, is Mindekirken an American church or part of the Church of
Norway? A:
Since the congregation’s founding in 1922, Mindekirken has always been
an American church and never part of the Church of Norway.
I recently was having a conversation with someone who knows about
Mindekirken and has attended events here who was shocked to hear this.
This person
had been told by someone else familiar with the congregation that Mindekirken
was part of the Church of Norway and received funds from the Norwegian
government! Q:
As interim pastor, am I a secret agent of the ELCA (which Mindekirken is
a part of) working to carry out a hidden agenda regarding Mindekirken’s
future? A:
I won’t give you the answer. You’ll
have to figure it out. Hint:
Either I am a secret agent or I’m working on your behalf – no middle
ground! Next Planning Team Meetings: Feb. 12,
12:45 p.m.; Feb. 26, 1:00 p.m. Pastor Bruce Arnevik, Interim Pastor |
The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church · 924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 · (612)874-0716 |