As I’ve mentioned in the past, one of the few official duties I have as Congregation President is to be an automatic member of all committees. It can mean a lot of evenings at church, but it also has the effect of allowing me to keep my finger on much of what’s going on and allow me to have input into all these issues.

One committee that has been meeting regularly in the last few months is our newly constituted Call Committee. As you have doubtless all heard, our present Pastor, Ole Amund Gillebo, will be returning to Norway next February. To replace him we are looking first in Norway but will also advertise for American candidates. We ran advertisements in Vårt Land and Dagen the first Friday in April, and will repeat them on the last Friday in April, the 27^th. The ads are much briefer this time than the last, primarily directing people to the new "Pastoral Call" area on our church web site, www.mindekirken.org. Let me share with you here the list of qualifications that we have set forth there:

With that list in mind, I’d like to ask two questions of those of you reading this message:

1. Do you think we’re looking for the right attributes? Are there qualities on the list that shouldn’t be, or ones that are more important than the listed ones that should be there and aren’t?
2. Do you know of anyone, either Norwegian or American, who you think would be a great choice to be our next Pastor? We would like to cast as wide a net as possible on this search, and the more viable candidates we can find, the better. Plus, someone who becomes involved because of a personal connection will often take the idea a bit more seriously than a pastor who don’t know our church, or any of its members and friends, and is just seeing an advertisement in a newspaper.

One of the outcomes our committee would like to see happen this time around is more openness to our congregation as the Call Committee deliberates. There is, of course, quite a bit of confidentiality that has to be involved in the process. But we’d like to keep all of you who care about Mindekirken as informed as possible while we are working, and in particular solicit your ideas and make use of your connections and acquaintances. I would encourage any of you who have Internet access to take a look at the Pastoral Call section of our Mindekirken web site (and the rest of it as well!). Feel free to email Magne Hatlevik, our webmaster, on any issues regarding the web site. Email Bob Worrall, our Call Committee Chair, or myself with suggestions for candidates, or you can call me at home at 763-537-3810. We hope that, with your help, this search will lead us to a wonderful next pastor for Mindekirken!