Hello from your Church Council! It’s been 10 years since Pastor John joined us and under his leadership we have grown and continue to be a vibrant and healthy congregation. We’re now entering the time of calling a new pastor to continue our work of Connecting, Growing, and Serving into the future.

To get the process started, the council has been working with our synod leadership. There is a transition and call process we will follow as we prepare for this transition. This is a critical opportunity for reflection and renewal. Here are the steps we will be following to ensure we call a pastor that will help us continue our ministry.

1. The council will work with a synod representative to hire an interim pastor who is called by them (Northwest Synod of Wisconsin). The intentional interim pastor helps us continue our everyday ministry, weekly worship, educational opportunities, community outreach and care of our members. Above all, the intentional interim helps us with strong communications to show clear progress towards calling a pastor for the long term. The intentional interim is with us for six months to a year to help all of us with the transition process.

2. A transition team will be appointed and established by the church council. It will be a diverse team of members from the congregation and a council representative. They will help in defining the scope of the next pastor’s role based on our congregational input.

3. The next step is to appoint a Call Committee. The Call Committee will take the input from the Transition Team and use in it in selecting and interviewing candidates.

4. Once the Call Committee recommends a candidate to the council, the congregation (you) vote to extend a call to the new pastor.

So that is the short version of the process the council and all of us will follow.
It looks simplistic as I wrote it, but there are a lot of steps and communications to take place for all of us. If you ever have any questions on where we are in the process or have input for us, please let any of us on the council or staff know.

We do have some good news to share on the first step, concurring with the synod on an interim pastor. Pastor Randy Olson, from the synod, has met with the council, taken our input and identified an Intentional Interim Pastor for us to consider. We met with the synod’s recommended interim and the council unanimously concurred with the synod to have Pastor Randy Fett lead us through this transition period. We are excited to have Pastor Fett come to Bethel and lead us in the next chapter of our work. We have confidence in his ministry and process based on his continued pastoral education, being an intentional interim, and his past experience leading and working with many congregations. We can’t wait for you to meet him and show him the Hudson Bethel Lutheran congregation’s, “Warm Welcome.” I know he is ready to join us and looks forward to the day of liturgy and receiving him as our interim pastor. Soon to come there will be additional communications introducing him and he is excited for face to face time so he gets to know us!

Thanks to everyone, especially Pastor Randy Olson and the council members for getting this step completed. I hope I’ve left a smile on your face with this good news and look forward to everyone’s support as we continue our work together in service - Connecting, Growing, and Serving.

Blessings,
Jeff Maki, Council President