✓My Vote Counts – Need To Be There
What can I say about the Meet and Greet? I just get warm fuzzys thinking about the Meet and Greet last Sunday. Thank you to all of you who helped to contribute cookies, flowers and time to make it such a fabulous social hour. It was absolutely wonderful to have hospitality with all of our brothers and sisters in Christ again. That in itself was very special since it has been well over a year. It was such a joy and blessing to have our special guests. All of you had a few brief minutes to catch a glimpse into the lives of our pastoral candidate, his wife and his two darling daughters.
Our Call Committee has done their due diligence to select a pastor for Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Now it is up to us! If you would like to learn more about the pastoral candidate’s ministry, I invite you to explore his current church’s website. If you don’t have this information, contact Pastor John at 480-980-0397 or Linda at 480-832-0462. On the website, there is a section called “Sermon Archives.” Since I have been a teacher, I would encourage each one of you to do your homework and due diligence as well. This is an excellent time to listen to some of his sermons and explore some of his other ministries.
There are two important resolutions for our members to vote on this Sunday, June 27. Following the 9 a.m. service, the Call Committee and the Congregation Council will recommend the name of the pastoral candidate to be our next called pastor. Background information and the rationale for why he was chosen will be provided. There will also be a discussion of our Ministry Site Profile which describes Bethlehem’s vision, values and our priorities.
It is very important for all of our members to be at the June 27th meeting. All of you are urged to attend. The first resolution will be to call the candidate. If that passes, the second resolution will be to approve the compensation package. If both resolutions pass, our President of the congregation (Rich Johnson) or the Call Committee Chairman (Jim Thompson) will call him and report the results of the vote.
The candidate has 30 days to reply with his decision whether to accept or reject the call. A formal announcement will be made to the congregation upon receiving his decision and the candidate’s name, current church served and background information will be shared if he accepts the call. The Call and Welcoming Committees will then move on to prepare for the next step of the established procedure.
I would like to end with this prayer.
Gracious giving God, give us your help again, just as you have always done. Renew us daily in the peace, hope and eternal life we have been promised and which we have been called to proclaim. As we work to call a pastor to our congregation, may we count on the prayers of all members of this community of faith to uphold us, just as we trust your Spirit to guide us. We remember, God, you are the One who called us first. Amen.
We are a home to share God’s love and grace.
