| William A. Shafer, Interim Senior Pastor |
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Status of transition process : Selecting the call committee members:
William A. Shafer, Interim Senior PastorIn our judicatory, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the intent is to appoint a trained interim pastor in every congregation when a “settled” pastor leaves for any reason. Pastor Carlson left Christ’s Lutheran in July 2007 after 21 years of service to accept a call to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Southampton, PA. I began serving as the interim pastor here in September 2007. The typical duration of the interim period between the departure of one settled pastor and the arrival of the new pastor is about 18 months – somewhere between one and two years. I expect our experience at Christ’s to be typical. A Transition Team of five people joined me in planning the specific events of the process, in evaluating congregational responses in meetings and questionnaires, and in drafting the congregational profile and pastor’s position description used by the office of the Bishop in identifying prospective pastoral candidates for the congregation. This team included John Frantz, Deborah Kerr, Jennifer Keller, John Seasholtz, and Lori Stevens. They now have completed their duties -- with our thanks! The final version of the call process documents was adopted by the Council on May 13, 2008. The Call Committee has begun to meet. Click the links on this page for their names (“Call Committee Members”) and the status of the call process (“Status of the Transition Process”). A bit about me: I was ordained in 1980 and served my first call until 1989 as Pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, Wyndmoor. I then served until 1999 as one of the senior administrators at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Having taken the training of the Interim Ministry Network, a national and ecumenical group, I began serving in a series of full-time interim assignments in Philadelphia and its suburbs. Oreland is my sixth assignment. I commute from my home in Oreland (this one is close!) to the congregations where I serve. I provide virtually all the pastoral services of a regular pastor under call along with the specific work of the interim process (the congregational “self-study”). This is my calling in service to the Church. I enjoy it!
To email Pastor Shafer, click here. |
